The Maserati MC12 continues to exert its stranglehold on the 2006 Italian GT Championship with the Scuderia Playteam entry sweeping to victory in both races held at Mugello last Sunday. The double victory for Toni Vilander and Giambattista Giannoccaro means the Trident crew extend their lead in the series.

RACE 1

Toni Vilander took command at the start although Miguel Ramos was having some difficulty and was overtaken by Lancieri’s Saleen. Ramos came back to attack Lancieri for second place over the early laps and the battle was a tight one. Toni Vilander made the most of this to build a reassuring lead. Ramos soon shook off Lancieri but Vilander was too far ahead: after ten minutes, the Finn held a lead of over 8”. This advantage grew over the successive laps. Ramos came into the pits to be replaced by Luca Cappellari. On the following lap, Toni Vilander pitted to hand over to Giambattista Giannoccaro. The pit stops did not alter the race order and a quarter of an hour from the end, Giannoccaro enjoyed an 18” lead over Cappellari. Shortly after, the Playteam Sara Free driver spun at San Donato when overtaking a GT3 class car. However, he held onto his top spot with a reduced lead of five seconds. In the closing stages, Giannoccaro held his nerve and his advantage. Third came Lancieri and Montermini’s Saleen S7-R.

Toni Vilander: I got off to a good start and handed over the car to Giannoccaro in reasonable condition although the tyres were a little worn.

Giambattista Giannoccaro: I was worried that I had spoilt everything early on with the lapped driver episode. The car performed well and even after running off the track I managed to keep track with Cappellari though the tyres were worn down.

Miguel Ramos: At the rolling start, Vilander slowed suddenly and then accelerated again and I was taken by surprise.
 

Luca Cappellari: The incident at the start conditioned the entire race. At the end I closed in on Giannoccaro thanks to an error at San Donato but I could not catch him as my car had severe oversteer.

RACE 2

The second Italian GT race of the day saw Giannoccaro and Cappellari slip a place at the start as they were overtaken by Kessel’s Ferrari 575 GTC. At the end of lap one, Cappellari was third and Giannoccaro fourth. Giannoccaro swept past Cappellari on lap three who, then set off to harass Kessel. A few curves later came the overtaking move as Giannoccaro edged past Kessel to move into third. On lap 5, Cappellari attacked Kessel at Bucine at the two were side by side. It was Kessel, though, who got the better of things at San Donato. Cappellari insisted and on lap six he managed to steal third spot. Montermini was still in number one position with a 7” lead over Giannoccaro and 15” over Cappellari.

After 24’ of racing, Ramos took the place of Cappellari. Giannoccaro pulled in a few moments later to give way to Toni Vilander. The two MC12s were very fast and moved into the lead. The Saleen, with Lancieri on board, was suffering from engine problems. Twenty minutes from the end, Vilander led by 15” over Ramos. The situation did not change and Vilander went on to claim his second win of the day and the Playteam Sara Free took the chequered flag from Ramos’ Racing Box MC12.

Giambattista Giannoccaro: I lost precious time at the start to the Saleen and did not begin things calmly as one should when leading. Despite the confusion, the tyres coped quite well; better than they did in race 1. The overall balance was excellent. At Monza, I think we will be as competitive as at Mugello.

Toni Vilander: The car was perfect and I wanted to conserve the tyres and mechanics. We found an ideal set up that resolved the difficulty on the straights that we had in qualifying.

Luca Cappellari: The car was excellent. I had to take a big risk overtaking Loris Kessel.

Giannoccaro and Vilander have consolidated their overall lead of the 2006 Italian GT Championship with 155 points; Luca Cappellari is in sixth place on 100 points. The next round will be held at Monza on 9 July.