The third round of the Trofeo Audemars Piguet Maserati Europa was wrapped up today (Sunday 28 May) at Brno in the Czech Republic. Maurizio Fabris took the win with a margin of 2"961 over Antonio Andolfato and 13"708 over series leader Alberto Cerrai. For Fabris, following the second places earned at Monza and Silverstone, Brno is his first win of the season. Cerrai, despite coming fourth, maintains command in the Trofeo by a point. In second was Fabris with Andrea De Megni (tenth today) in third.

The race was held on a wet surface with the nineteen Maserati GranSport Trofeos sporting Pirelli PZero 'rain' tyres. The safety car was on from the start and stayed on for two laps. When the safety had pulled into the pits, Cerrai held his top spot. The placings were also unchanged in the pack. On lap seven, Alberto Vescovi lost seventh spot when he ended up in the grass while tussling with Andolfato, Mugelli and Martini for fifth, sixth and eighth place. Oddi then slipped from third to fifth after making a mistake. Fabris and Andolfato were quick to benefit. At the halfway point, Alessi had built a two second lead over Cerrai. Fabris was keeping up with the lead pair and holding third from Andolfato. The track conditions became ever more tricky as it dried out with the cars equipped with rain tyres. The early pit stops were made by Demegni, Burgan, Andruet, Pizzicannella and Mugelli. Next came Cerrai and Andolfato.

With forty minutes gone and 14 laps covered, all the drivers had made their compulsory stop. The only driver to be called back was Pizzicannella when he was hit with a drive-through for exceeding the pit lane limit. As the rain began to come down once more on lap seventeen, Andolfato moved into the lead but had Fabris and Cerrai to contend with. Ravasio, Alessi's replacement, had climbed to fourth. Fabris regained the lead on the subsequent lap and sped off towards the chequered flag. Three laps from the finish, Cerrai launched his last attack on Andolfato but a spin four curves from the end saw his chances of the podium disappear.

Thanks to his win on the Czech circuit, Fabris, who races with an English licence has closed to within a point of Cerrai. It was a deserved victory, fruit of a perfect strategy that propelled him into second place, behind Andolfato, after the compulsory pit stop.
 

Overtaking his adversary from Veneto was difficult but not overly risky. The chequered flag marked Fabris’ fourth Trofeo win and his first this season. “About time! It was a hard race and the track conditions were, at times, more suited to slicks than the rains with which we started. I was able to stick to Cerrai early on and, fortunately, Ricci did not cause me the problems that I thought he would. I kept an eye on Alberto and did enough to emerge from the pits ahead of him. I then profited from his duel with Andolfato to stretch out and, at the end, gladly accepted Cerrai’s gift of an extra four, unexpected, points. Now the championship is wide open again and this makes me very happy”.

The series leader, Cerrai, saw Andolfato snatch second place at the end. Andolfato was the driver who, involuntarily, was yesterday taught the best trajectory for this circuit. “Yesterday we said that Andolfato went to Cerrai’s school? Well, after seeing what Antonio was able to do in this race, I have decided to close up shop!” Andolfato’s display surprised Cerrai; above all once he had come back onto the track after his compulsory stop. “I could not understand why the pit lane sign was showing ‘P3’. Then I remembered that Andolfato was leading as he did not have any added time to work off. Once I realised that, I pushed on and managed to overtake him. However, in doing so, we clipped each other slightly and I damaged the front splitter. Despite this I closed in on Fabris but did not want to get past him. To tell the truth, I did not want to spin two curves from the end of the final lap and let Andolfato through. Unfortunately, losing second spot meant that Fabris gained nine points, wiping out the advantage I had from the last race”.

The next Trofeo Audemars Piguet Maserati race is programmed for the weekend of 2 July at the Oschersleben circuit in Germany.