The Maserati Quattroporte
is rapidly turning into a potent winning force in the
International Superstars Series after Andrea Bertolini swept to a
convincing double victory as the touring car
championship headed to Donington Park last weekend.
After two years of making up the numbers in Superstars
the Swiss Team's effort has been galvanized this season
with new technical staff and Bertolini behind the wheel
who had delivered the Trident machine its first win last
time out in Valencia and with a double victory as the
series headed overseas to the UK last weekend, it means
the Maserati factory test driver and FIA GT1 World
Champion is now just four points off the top of the
points classification, just as the season moves past the
halfway point with five double-header rounds completed.
Due to tough luck suffered during the the two races,
Team BMW Italia racer Thomas Biagi lost his championship
lead after showing up as the early favourite. He's now
third with 82 points, while thanks to fourth- and
second-placed finishes, Luigi Ferrara hit the top of the
overall chart with 93 points, four ahead of Bertolini.
The first race of the
International Superstars Series on British soil also
handed the Swiss Team a bonus as new second driver
Alessandro Pier Guidi was able to cruise to a debut
podium finish as he ended up race 2 in third place.
Both races featured a dominant performance by Bertolini,
who managed to jump in front of pole-sitting Alberto
Cerqui at the start twice. On Race 1, veteran and home
hero Johnny Herbert put pressure on him until the very
latest stages on his Romeo Ferraris-prepared Mercedes
C63 AMG, while Bertolini were struggling to repeat his
early pace due to tyre wear. The British former F1 ace
reduced a 2.5 second gap to just nine-tenths of a second
under the chequered flag, as he was followed by Cerqui.
By ending up in fourth, Ferrara started trimming his
championship gap to Biagi while San Marino-based racer
Christian Montanari also nailed a top-5 finish aboard
the front-running RGA Motorsport BMW M3.
In Race 2 Montanari replicated Rcae 1 with another top-5
finish which came at the end of a sensational recovery
following contact with Biagi. Herbert did a great job to
please the home crowd. After his earlier second-placed
finish, he was sent spinning after contact with Cerqui
at the start of Race 2 and recovered from the back up
finish in sixth place. The whole distance proved
highly-spectacular.
While Bertolini, Ferrara and Pier
Guidi rounded out the top-three, a battle developed
right behind them, with Max Pigoli emerging with fourth
place at the last-gasp. He was followed by Montanari,
Herbert, Cerqui, Fabrizio Armetta (in the Chevrolet
Lumina) and Biagi. Everything happened with two corners
to go when Pigoli tried a tough move on Biagi, and as he
pushed him on the grass, Montanari made his way through.
Then it was Herbert's turn, but as the Brit made contact
with the Italian's right rear end, the Superstars
reigning champion suffered from a suspension issue that
caused him to hit team-mate Cerqui. As a consequence,
Armetta fought back to eighth place, while the only
British racecars of the grid on home soil, namely the
Ferlito Motors Jaguar XFs of Francesco Sini and Luigi
Cecchi, shone in the hands of the first to score eighth
place on Race 1. The next round for the championship
will be on July 9-10 at Misano.
International Superstars Series, Drivers standings
after 8 races: 1. Ferrara (Mercedes C63 AMG Caal
Racing) 93; 2. Bertolini (Maserati Quattroporte Swiss
Team) 89; 3. Biagi (BMW M3 Team BMW Italia) 82; 4.
Pigoli (Mercedes C63 AMG Romeo Ferraris) 68; 5. Cerqui
(BMW M3 Team BMW Italia) 65; 6. Gabellini (BMW M3
Team BMW Italia) 53; 7. Cerruti (Mercedes C63 AMG
Romeo Ferraris) 40; 8. Herbert (Mercedes C63 AMG Romeo
Ferraris) 28; 9. Sini (Jaguar XF Ferlito Motors) 22;
10. Romagnoli (Mercedes C63 AMG Caal Racing) 21.
