Fifty competitors from the European and Italian
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo took to the famous track ahead
of this weekend's running of the Le Mans 24 Hours in what turned
out to be a closely contested event. This was the first time that the
French track has hosted a round of the Ferrari one-make series since its
inception in 1993 and seeing the cars tackle this long circuit was a fascinating
spectacle and the 458 Challenge race cars were very much up to the task.
Emerging
victorious in the European Trofeo Pirelli was Baron, while Marti was the best of
the Italian Coppa Shell and Gai the leader of Italian Trofeo Pirelli
competitors. The cars’ maiden outing was watched by a special guest in the shape
of Ferrari CEO, Amedeo Felisa, who was in Le Mans to watch the race.
The racing was close, although at the flag, the
champion of 2010 European series Philipp Baron was the winner of the Trofeo
Pirelli category and indeed, he led comfortably throughout the second part of
race. The Baron Service driver crossed the line ahead of a fighting Max
Blancardi (Motor/Malucelli) and Alexandr Skryabin (Ferrari Moscow) who finished
second and third overall. The battle for the European Coppa Shell honours was
certainly exciting: Philippe Prette (Motor/Malucelli) came out on top ahead of
Jean-Marc Bachelier-Yannick Mallegol (Motor/Piacenza) and Klass Hummel (Scuderia
GT). As for those competitors running the F430 Challenge car, Holger Harmsen (Lueg
Sportivo) was the winner, fending off Howard Blank (Motor/Piacenza) and Vladimir
Kirilyuk (Ferrari Moscow).
As for the Italian Trofeo Pirelli, the battle for the top step of the podium
was once again fought out between Giorgio Sernagiotto (together with Giuseppe
Fascicolo) and Stefano Gai, with the Rossocorsa team driver crossing the line
ahead to consolidate his lead in the Italian series, beating Dario Caso (CDP)
and Lorenzo Bontempelli (Kessel), second and third in the series. Benedetto
Marti (Motor/Piacenza) also delivered a faultless performance to take the lead
in the Coppa Shell classification and the forth overall, followed by his team
mate Emilio Rossi and Mario Molteni (Rossocorsa), while among the F430 Challenge
runners, the order was Andrea Belluzzi (Modena/Motor) followed by Diego Romanini
(Rossocorsa/Pellin) and Sossio del Prete (CDP).
