Weekend Racing Roundup, 11.03

This week’s Sportscar365 Weekend Racing Roundup is focused on the International GT Open season finale in Spain. The ninth season of the championship came to an end at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

International GT Open
Before the last weekend of the season V8 Racing, Villorba Corse and SMP Racing were all still in the fight for the title and with 15 out of 16 results counting for the championship they were all trying to score as many points.

On Saturday the Corvette of championship leaders Miguel Ramos and Nicky Pastorelli was involved in a first lap accident. The Corvette dropped down the order and was subsequently given a drive-through. SMP Racing’s Daniel Zampieri led until the pit stops, but it was Villorba Corse’s Nicolo Schirò who crossed the line in first place, passing the Corvette of Diederik Sijthoff on lap 26. Roman Mavlanov passed the Corvette as well on lap 33, taking second behind new championship leaders Villorba Corse.

At the end of the first lap of the final race Schirò was first, with Mavlanov in third and Pastorelli in sixth. Schirò battled with José Manuel Perez-Aicart for the lead, but was given a drive-through for cutting a corner. After the pit stops SMP’s Vyacheslav Maleev was in the lead, 13 seconds clear of Ramos and 18 seconds ahead of Zampieri. A second drive through for Villorba Corse ruled them out of contention for the title. Ramos finished in second, ahead of Zampieri, but the third place was enough for the SMP drivers to clinch the title.

Race 1 – 1. Villorba Corse (Schirò/Montermini) Ferrari, 2. SMP Racing (Mavlanov/Zampieri) Ferrari, 3. V8 Racing (Sijthoff/Soulet) Corvette.

Race 2 – 1. SMP Racing (Perez-Aicart/Maleev) Ferrari, 2. V8 Racing (Pastorelli/Ramos) Corvette, 3. SMP Racing (Mavlanov/Zampieri)