The third round of the GT2 European Series, held over the weekend at Misano, saw KTM and Ginetta claim overall victories, followed by the excellent Mercedes. The Maseratis, meanwhile, came through a more challenging Italian event than expected with valuable placings and points.
The Trident cars managed by LP Racing and Dinamic Motorsport secured trophies in the Masters and Pro/Am categories, whilst the I4Race car was forced to retire following an accident in Race 1 that prevented it from starting Race 2.
Race 1: As it happened
Luca Pirri and Celia Martin had won the first round of the Romagna weekend, which took place on Saturday afternoon under a blazing sun and was full of twists and turns, including the final one that saw the #18 Maserati disqualified for being 13kg underweight.
At the start, polesitter Antoine Potty held the lead in the #6 Maserati from I4Race, but during the opening lap he found himself having to cede the lead to the #3 Ginetta driven by the spirited Mikkel Njor, only to respond to his CMR rival as early as the second lap, beginning to gain ground on the chasing pack.
Among them was debutante Martin, who in turn moved up to second place in the Maserati-LP Racing # 18, overtaking the G56, whilst a thrilling battle for the top five unfolded between the other LP Racing drivers: Stefan Rosina in the #88 Audi and the Maseratis of Thomas Yu Lee and Philippe Prette, with Adrian Ferrer hot on their heels; on lap 3, Ferrer managed to overtake Prette, moving the #116 Mercedes-NM Racing car up to sixth place.
On lap 5, Yu Lee spun, causing him to lose ground, but the day’s dramatic turn of events occurred on lap 7, when Potty – due to a brake problem – crashed straight into the barriers at ‘Tramonto’, wrecking his Maserati, but fortunately emerging without serious physical injury.
The safety car was deployed, but it soon became clear that the barriers needed repairing, so a red flag was waved and everyone returned to the pits for almost 45 minutes whilst the marshals completed the work.
The race restarted on lap 12 with just under 30 minutes remaining on the clock: Martin defended his lead against attacks from his rivals, then the pit stops began and the #18 Maserati, now driven by Pirri, emerged in the lead once more. Pirri began to pull away from Lorenzo Marcucci’s Audi, with Kyffin Simpson a threatening third in the Ginetta.
During Ferrer’s pit stop, the #116 Mercedes suffered a problem, meaning the race lost a potential podium contender, but the standings saw further changes due to some rather heavy penalties. Simpson was hit with a drive-through penaltyfor a restart infringement, combined with a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits – a penalty that also affected the #8 Maserati driven by Niccolo Pirri and Yu Lee – and a drive-through penalty was also handed to the Mercedes-SR Motorsports car driven by Thilenius/Hartling for an infringement under the safety car.
The final twist came from Marcucci on the penultimate lap: after closing the gap on Pirri, the driver from LP attacked and overtook his team principal’s Maserati at the ‘Curvone’, only to spin out at the ‘Carro’, thereby allowing the Pirri/Martin duo to cross the finish line first.
In the post-race analysis, the disqualification of the Italian-French duo meant that the #119 KTM-MZR Motorsport car driven by Aigner and Kofler could celebrate victory in both the overall classification and the Pro/Am class.
Rosina/Marcucci finished second in the #88 Audi-LP, topping the Silver class, whilst the overall podium was completed by Kuhnel/Wiskirchen in the #110 Mercedes-SR Motorsport, who took second place in Pro/Am.
LP Racing took some consolation from Prette’s fourth place overall in the #1 Maserati, inheriting victory in the Master class, with their team-mates Lee/N. Pirri finishing in the top five to complete the Pro/Am podium at the wheel of the #8 Maserati.
The Top 10 also includes Tomlison/Simpson (Ginetta-CMR #62), Rokos/Lisa (Mercedes-RTR #294), Van Den Hengel/Bovy (Porsche-Iron Dames SP #85), Grip/Russel (KTM-MRZ #898) and Thilenius/Hartling (Mercedes-SR SchnitzelAlm #111).
Finally, it was a gruelling race for Mauro Calamia/Roberto Pampanini and the #7 Maserati from Dinamic Motorsport, who finished 13th overall and 7th in the Pro/Am class after incurring several penalties for track limits and infringements during the safety car period.
Race 2: As it happened
Race 2 took place on Sunday morning, and Potty’s Maserati was absent from the starting grid, having sustained too much damage in the Race 1 crash to be able to line up.
At the start, the Mercedes driven by Wieskirchen and Hartling immediately pulled away, pursued by the Maseratis of Prette and Calamia. Further back, a spin by Niccolo Pirri forced the LP Racing driver into a pit stop as early as the 5th lap, after which he rejoined the field in his Maserati some way behind.
The first twist came on the following lap, when Wieskirchen slowed down due to a technical problem, leaving Hartling in the lead. Meanwhile, Prette, firmly in command of the Masters class, eased off the pace and dropped from third overall to seventh, whilst Luca Pirri battled to get his Maserati back into the top 10.
Once the pit stops were all complete, Hartling handed the wheel over to Thilenius with a comfortable lead over the chasing pack, but Mikkel Njor, who had taken the wheel of the #3 Ginetta-CMR in place of Ethan Gialdini, began to push hard and fight his way through, overtaking Roberto Pampanini’s Maserati to move up into second place.
The Dane closed the gap on Thilenius with every lap, eventually catching and overtaking him before cruising to a comfortable and well-deserved victory overall and in the Silver Class, followed by the # 88 driven by Rosina/Marcucci, who patiently fought their way back up to second place, snatching it from the Mercedes-SR SchnitzelAlm of Thilenius/Hartling, who had to settle for third place on the overall podium, though they still secured victory in the Pro/Am class.
This was also thanks to the incredible incident that saw the Mercedes-NM #115 driven by Montserrat/De Martin make contact with Thomas Yu Lee’s Maserati on the exit from the ‘Quercia’ corner, crashing into the barriers and resulting in a disappointing retirement, whilst the LP Racing driver from Asia had fallen to the back of the field following a spin on exiting the pits.
In the Masters Class, there was a further blow for Maserati and LP Racing when Marius Aigner’s KTM collided head-on with Prette at the ‘Quercia’ braking point, damaging his car’s rear left side with just two laps to go.
This secured victory for the KTM-RTR Project #89 driven by Mraz/Kajaia, who thus bounced back after missing Race 1 due to problems; the top five also included the Mercedes-NM Racing #116 driven by Ferrer following a remarkable comeback from the back of the field.
In the end, the only two surviving Maseratis to see the chequered flag were the #18 driven by L. Pirri and Martin in sixth place and second in the MASTERS class, followed by the #7 driven by Calamia and Pampanini, which finished second in the Pro/Am class, ahead of the #62 Ginetta-CMR driven by Tomlison and Simpson, the #898 KTM-MZR driven by Grip, and the #85 Porsche-Iron Dames SP driven by Van Den Hengel/Bovy, rounding off the top 10.
