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A hard fought
first victory for the Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 in the American
Le Mans Series arrived at Road America in Wisconsin
yesterday, which played host to the sixth round of the
championship, the winning car entered by Risi Competizione. |
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A hard fought first
victory for the Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 in the American
Le Mans Series arrived at the Road America circuit in
Wisconsin, which played host to the sixth round of the
championship. At the end of a particularly tough four
hours, the red car run by Houston based Risi
Competizione took its first stateside victory in the GT
class thanks to the talents of its pairing of Jaime Melo
and Toni Vilander and impeccable teamwork. The duo won
the race ahead of the BMWs of Bill Auberlen/Dirk Werner
and Dirk Muller/Joey Hand.
Team Principal Giuseppe Risi said: “Today is probably
one of the crowning moments of Risi Competizione. For us
to be able to give the F458 its first victory in the US
is wonderful. We’ve been close but this was really
exceptional. The team did a fantastic job; the drivers
were both outstanding. At the last pit stop, the crew
were unbelievable. All our calculations turned out
perfectly and the tyre change was amazing. It was a
great day for us. It was a great honour to be able to
carry off the win in full view of the engineer Amedeo
Felisa – the CEO of Ferrari – who was here with us to
follow the development of the car and this race
first-hand.”
In a season that began with work to do, for Jaime Melo
this is the prize for all the work that has been put in
since the start of the year: “It’s been a tough year for
us as we have had many problems with the car at the
beginning of the season,” said Melo. “But we finally got
the win which is really important for us and for
Ferrari. It’s also important for this new model and it
won’t be the last one. It just proves we must focus and
never give up.
“We were using Michelin’s new mid-season development
tyres throughout the race and they were very consistent.
It was quite hard to keep the pace with the different
temperatures during the race, and at the beginning it
was pretty hard; we had a big battle between us and
Corvette and BMW. I knew I had to put in everything I
had because they always have something more. Luckily we
were able to keep a good pace, Toni did a good job and
the strategy was just great. Once again Risi showed we
are here to win and we never give up. Now we’re looking
forward to the next one.”
There was even more emotion for Toni Vilander, the
Finnish driver who took his first victory in the
prestigious US series: “First of all I want to thank
Jaime for really great work,” he said. “The speed he had
at the end was incredible and the Risi team’s pit
strategy was awesome. The speed the guys refuelled and
changed tyres was something special. It was good to show
our potential and it will give us a boost for the
remaining races.”
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