Ferrari on top in the FIA GT3 Championship
Maranello 17 July – The Paul Ricard HTTT circuit, at Le Castellet in France, hosted the fourth round of the FIA GT3 series with two races taking place this weekend. ARF Corse entered three Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 cars, looking to bag a large number of points for both the drivers’ and teams’ championships. Making their debut in this series was the crew of Yannick Mallegol and Jean Marc Bachelier, the duo having plenty of experience acquired in the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli, but being new to the 458 Italia GT3. The other two cars entered by the team from Piacenza were in the hands of many times winner Federico Leo, teamed with Francesco Castella and Daniel Brown and Glymm Geddie. Two other Ferraris were on the grid; the Mtech car of Duncan Cameron and Matthew Griffin and the JMB Racing car, with Edouard Gravereaux/Nicolas Marroc at the wheel. The first race immediately showed the Ferraris to be competitive with the Leo-Castellacci car no. 50 taking second place, fighting off the attacks of Paul van Splunteren who finished third in a Porsche. Cameron and Griffin were out of the points in eleventh place in front of the debutants Mallegol and Bachelier, who came home eighteenth, ahead of the more experienced Brown-Geddie and Gravereaux-Marroc, who finished twenty first and twenty second respectively. It was a good experience for the Italian novices who will be racing in AF Corse colours again at the Spa 24 Hours endurance race.
More points for AF Corse in race 2, with a fourth place finish for Leo and Castellacci, who thus themselves promoted to third in the team classification while the strong pairing lead the drivers’ table. Cameron and Griffin did better this time, coming home seventh, while Mallegol-Bachelier climbed up to tenth to take the win in the gentleman driver category of the FIA GT3 series, for drivers rated as “bronze.” Gravereaux-Marroc came home eighteenth with Brown-Geddie twenty sixth.
The next round of the FIA GT3 series takes place on 21 August at the Slovakia Ring circuit.
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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