Youth ruled today in the GT Cup Europe at the Algarve, as Pietro Armanni and Ludovico Longoni, the pair of Italian rookies fielded by ZRS Motorsport, imposed their Porsche after a faultless performance in a Race 2 marked by a multiple crash at the start which forced the safety car out. “It was a perfect job by everybody”, and you will see more of us during the season”, said the elated Italian kids, who now are the first leaders of the provisional standings.
They beat Fran Viel Bugliotti (GDL Racing) who took the win in Am, and was the other hero of the day. The Argentine is back to international racing after a long hiatus, during which he privileged his other passion, music, pursuing a successful DJ career as ‘FranBux’.
Third overall were Leandro Martins and Dieter Svepes (LMR Motorsport), finishing second in Am ahead of Mello (GDL Racing).
In Pro-Am, the maiden success of the popular pair Davide Scannicchio-Fabio Babini (Tsunami) was welcomed by everybody, with another South American touch thanks to Peter Ferter-Diego Nunes (LMR Motorsport), second ahead of the Belgian duo Nico Saelens-Stienes Longin (Q1 Trackracing).
THE RACE – Dieter Svepes and Ian Rodriguez were sitting in first row and took an excellent start but drama struck in the middle of the group, in the straight, where a series of contacts led the Q1 Porsche of Lars Zaenen to collide with the Burgers Motorsport car of Laura van den Hengel, who found herself squeezed against the pit wall. Safety car was immediately deployed to remove the damaged cars, with also the RO1 Racing car of Tincescu forced to retire.
The race restarted after 4 laps under safety car, with Svepes leading in the opening phases, followed by Rodriguez, Babini, Armanni, Bugliotti, Leonov, Larini, Berberich and Mello. Positions and gaps remained stable up to the driver changes, which started in lap 13.
After all changes, Scannicchio was in the lead but passed soon by Longoni, Martins, Franca and Bugliotti. The two latter will further go up, with the Argentine taking P2 ahead of the Italian. Followed Martins, Scannicchio, Leonov, Berberich and Luvisi.