The fabled speed palace at Monza, is the setting. A new season, (the seventh season of the Blancpain Endurance Series), with the traditional season opening event, the three hour race through the parkland of the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy. Once again, a wide variety of manufacturers will participate as they are homologated for the championship. Makes such as Bentley, Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Lamborghini are competing. One team that will not take part today, are the defending champions of the series' biggest race. Rowe Racing and their BMW M6 GT3's, who won the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, last year, will not start this race.
There will be a few other machines, as was discussed in the pre-race update, that have been scratched from the field. 57 cars were originally entered. Audi is confident now fully focusing on GT racing. Stephane Richelmi and Benoit Treluyer are two of the top drivers. Oliver Jarvis moves back to GT racing and is a Bentley boy now, running with Steven Kane and Guy Smith in the #7 car, while the #8 Continental GT sees the team of Vincent Abril from Monaco, Spaniard Andy Soucek, and Maxime Soulet of Belgium, driving together again this year.
Jaguar has two cars entered. Car #14 in the hands of Swiss team owner Lorenz Frey, along with pro driver and sports car veterans Stephane Ortelli of Monaco and Spaniard Albert Costa, in the lead car. The sister car #114 has ex Formula 1 ace Christian Klien of Austria, Switzerland's Jonathan Hirschi, and German Porsche ace, Marco Seefried drving. RJN Nissan is still competitive. Lucas Ordonez is one of the top Nissan drivers, with their two car team. He is racing with Brit Alex Buncombe and Katsumasa Chiyo of Japan. Chiyo has become one of the foremost worldwide GT3 drivers, especially running as a factory Nissan pilot at several big races throughout the year.
Ferrari has entered a phalanx of cars, from AF Corse, and Kaspersky Racing. Giancarlo Fisichella has raced lots of times here in open wheel and sports car competition including Formula 3 and Formula 1. Watch out too, for 2016 Endurance champions, McLaren. Jazeman Jafar of Malaysia has moved to McLaren, the championship team, from Mercedes. Strakka Racing is now running the McLaren team. The team has several top drivers in their squad. Jafar shares the #59 McLaren 650S with Brits Andrew Watson and Dean Stoneman. Their sister car (#58) features Brits Rob Bell and Ben Barnicoat, along with Come Ledogar of France.
Two other Strakka McLaren's are in the field (#42, for the all British squad of team boss Nick Leventis, sharing with Craig Fleming and Lewis Williamson, and #44 for Italy's David Fumanelli sharing with experienced open wheel and endurance racer from Ireland, Jonny Kane, and GT racing newcomer, Sam Tordoff, who previously raced in the British Touring Car Championship.
There are ten Lamborghini Huracan GT3s on the grid, too. Luca Filippi, a former open wheel driver, is the top driver for the team. HTP Motorsport has a couple Mercedes. Dominic Baumann and Maximilian Buhk are in separate cars on the team this year. A number of drivers are switching teams and drivers. Edoardo Mortara moves to Blancpain GT from DTM. He has GT experience, too. One Aston Martin for Oman Racing is entered. Johnny Adam and Ahmed Al Harthy will share the car. In Blancpain GT, we have Pro, Pro Am, and Am classes. One Ferrari will be run by British driver Abby Eaton. She moves from british GT into an international championship.
We are ready for a great endurance series opener. Such amazing corners here at Monza. Parabolica, the Lesmos, Variante Ascari, and others. Blancpain watch company which has sponsored this series since it's inception, are amazed at the growth of the series. Blancpain is the oldest watch brand in the world. They are truly committed to the series. OK. We're ready for the start. Deep breath time. Cross everything. We're ready to race at Monza, now! Green light, on! Guy Smith has a great start and there's carnage and crashing everywhere right at the start! Safety car on the road! Go for a gap that isn't there. Guy Smith crashed into Ezequiel Perez-Companc. Mirko Bortolotti and Fabrizio Cristani are passing in two of the Lamborghini's.
Cristiani is at the wheel of the #27 Orange Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. The Italian shares that car with Germany's Nicolas Pohler, and a name familiar to U.S. sports car racing fans, the Colombian, Gustavo Yacaman, also known as "The Yac Attack". The Jaguar is all torn up. Locked front wheels, too. Hit the brakes. There's a chain reaction. Nowhere for anyone to go. This will be a safety car. Four cars are crashed on the road, and double that. Eight, nine cars.
Forget about the safety car. This is a red flagged race! Boys, what in the world? No passing under the safety car. In replay, the Bentley goes to the center, and narrowing into turn one, the carnage starts. Guy Smith wants to squeeze the Lamborghini which slides, and then... the track is blocked. It's a chain reaction. Crunch! Slam on the brakes and hope you don't hit anything. We have a red flag. Not surprised about that at all. So, we have a mess on our hands right off the start here in Monza.
We fast forward after the early fracas. We're back in business and green. Guy Smith is going for it into the first chicane (Variante del Rettifilo). Mirko Bortolotti is next. Through the Curva Grande, we are clean and green. McLaren leads over Bentley and Lamborghini. Mirko Bortolotti at the wheel of the Lambo has recorded fastest sector time of all. He'll want to make hay while the sun shines. A 15 second stop go penalty for Guy Smith for causing a crash. That's not the way you want to start a motor race.
Oooh! Porsche all over the second Bentley #8. Vincent Abril is eaten up by Robert Renauer. Renauer, won the 24 Hours of Dubai back in January, and in this race, he is driving for the same team, Herberth Motorsport, with his brother Alfred Renauer, and Jurgen Haring. So, an all German squad, racing for Porsche in GT3 competition this season. More scrapping between Stephane Ortelli and Stefano Gattuso. This is Jaguar vs. Lamborghini. Bernard Delhez of Belgium is off the road in another Lambo in Parabolica. Delhez is at the wheel of the Austrian entered Team HB Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. He shares car #777 with veteran French Blancpain campaigner Gilles Vannelet, and Dominic Jost of Germany.
Marco Cioci in 14th is being harried by Maximilian Buhk in the Mercedes. Cioci comes back and he's pushing, hard. Buhk slams the door in Cioci's face! The Mercedes is a well balanced and good driving car. Bentley #7 has to pit for it's penalty. The stewards are adamant that Guy Smith comes in. We are 36 minutes into the race. Smith hasn't pitted. He has to come in, now! The marshals are losing patience. He is being black flagged. He'll be deleted from the scoring chart. The race director says, "look, guys, that's enough of this nonsense." He is now coming in. Race as a team. Drive through penalty for Guy Smith. The team has to convey the message to the driver.
Oh dear. Markus Winkelhock has spun the Audi. Did Smith think he could take a drive through penalty instead of a stop/go? The marshals said it was a stop/go. That's odd. He'll be in the doghouse now. The race direction for the sanctioning bodies (in this case, the SRO, Stephane Ratel Organization), are very specific as to how these rules are adhered to, especially with regard to penalties for the drivers.
We move forward in our coverage to 48 minutes in as Jonny Kane is harrying Stephane Ortelli. Jaguar vs. McLaren into the second Lesmo chicane. Jonny Kane runs wide and loses the position. Oretlli says, thanks a ton. Marco Cioci is leading a group of cars, but Robert Renauer is flying and catching the Nissan of Struan Moore out of the Variante Ascari. Holy moly! This is the third place scrum. The Porsche is on rails. Reanuer down the front straight has the power and he might get the pass done. Struan Moore is hanging on.
We come back to Mirko Bortolotti, wanting to dive inside the Ferrari. In the lane, we have the leaders,. Driver change time. Miguel Molina out, and a new driver in. Maximilian Buhk pits. ISR Audi #75 now has Filip Salaquarda at the wheel. Salaquarda from Czech Republic is teamed with Clemens Schmid of Austria, and the veteran Frank Stippler. The German has been running these Audi R8 GT3 cars for quite a while now.
Lamborghini passes Ferrari in the lane. Grasser is doing good work, staying on the charge. It has made a move for the lead in pit lane. GRT had a quicker stop. Lambo, Ferrari, Audi, Ferrari, Mercedes. Michele Rugolo and Jimmy Eriksson are next in line. The Swede is the middle driver in the HTP Motorsport #84 Mercedes AMG GT3 along with veteran Maximilian Buhk and the experienced Frenchman, Franck Perera.
Luca Stoltz at Mercedes is running well. Stoltz is the lead driver in the main Black Falcon entered Mercedes AMG GT3, car #4. Stoltz shares with veterans Yelmer Buurman of the Netherlands and Briton Adam Christodoulou, who has been with Mercedes as a factory GT driver for some time now. Nicky Pola also is right there. Nicky Pola defends from Luca Stoltz and Stoltz, makes the pass after the Lamborghini drops a wheel. Now, these two are under attack from another Mercedes. Wow. This is hot racing as we complete another lap. Nicolas Pola is going for it but stays in his spot. Luca Stoltz whistles off into the distance.
More battles ensue We've now run an hour and 20 minutes of this three hour race. So halfway in another ten minutes. James Calado now battles Daniel Juncadella and Calado makes the pass. Juncadella, the Spaniard at the wheel of the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes AMG GT3 he is sharing with Tristan Vautier, and Puerto Rican driver Felix Serralles. Daniel Juncadella was close and held on. But Calado had the advantage.
Calado, the experienced Ferrari endurance racer is sharing the #55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 with Marco Cioci and Giancarlo Fisichella, two other well known Ferrari GT racing names, and Fisichella, the ex Formula 1 ace. We're at halfway. Nicolas Pola is racing Andy Soucek in the Bentley #8. Whoops! Off the road time for Pola, getting on the curbs. The Bentley and Mercedes both pass. Brake wear might be coming into play for the Lamborghini. Pit stop time for the leader. The Grasser Lamborghini will have Christian Engelhart take the car to the finish.
Engelhart used to be a Porsche man. Tristan Vautier and one of the Nissan's play dodge 'em cars! Egad! That was a close one! The Mercedes is quicker. But the stewards are checking it out. Rino Mastronardi and Pierre Ehret go to the garage. The #488 Am class Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 is having some kind of problem. Matt Parry in the #22 Nissan he shares with Struan Moore and Matt Simmons, is still in the wars, and has been on and off the road. Two Brits and an Australian in that machine.
Johnny Adam and Come Ledogar battle for Pro Am honors. Come Ledogar on the inside of Lesmo 2, and Johnny Adam had the spot. This is close with less than an hour remaining in the race now. Tristan Vautier does concede. Vautier has an issue and comes to the pit lane. He trundles into the lane. What's wrong? Maybe a cut tire? This is a terminal issue. Game over for AKKA ASP and Tristan Vautier. Now we must really press the fast forward button. Another drive through penalty. Davide Rigon in the #72 Ferrari has a penalty coming with just a half an hour to go! Oh deary me! Christian Engelhart is in the lead. So, Lamborghini could win. Andrea Rizzoli has Johnny Adam coming fast in Pro Am. The gap is 6.2 seconds.
Come Ledogar is behind Johnny Adam. No dice for a pass in the Lesmos between Audi and Ferrari. Not sure who is driving either of these cars right now. Into Parabolica, oh, it's Alessandro Pier Guidi pushing the Audi. This is the ISR machine, but it is unclear as to who is driving. Not sure if it is Salaquarda, Schmid, or Stippler, taking it to the flag. Funny that each driver's last name starts with an S. The Aston Martin is closing up, too. It's game on as Johnny Adam is pushing, pushing, pushing. Into the second Lesmo, Adam sets the best first sector time of everyone in the whole race with just seven minutes to go in this three hour race! Holy cow! Into the Ascari curve, we watch the Ferrari and Clement Shcmid in the Audi is damaged and off the road. Is this the end for the #75 ISR Audi? Maybe, because the tire is punctured. It delaminated. Sad end to a great race. ISR Audi, game over.
Fastest race lap, Aston Martin, Johnny Adam at 1:49.375! The gap is half a second into the braking zone nose to tail for Pro Am. Adam is right behind Andrea Rizzoli. The Scotsman vs. the Italian! Whoa! Inside, and side by side for the Pro Am lead in the Lesmos! Adam makes the pass! Wow! He's booking it ahead of Rizzoli. Into the Variante Ascari, but now, we are headed for the finish and Lamborghini will win! Christian Engelhart, Mirko Bortolotti, and Andrea Caldarelli take the Blancpain Endurance opener at Monza!
This race, due to the red flag was nearly three and a half hours. So, your winners in round one of Blancpain Endurance at Monza. Oman Racing with TF Sport and the two driver pair of Johnny Adam and Ahmad Al Harthy win Pro Am. The spoils in the Am class go the way of AF Corse and their #961 Ferrari entry in the hands of lady racer from England, Abby Eaton, Davide Rizzo of Italy, and Alex Demerdjian from Lebanon. No overall for Ferrari at their home track as their rivals from Santagata steal their thunder, but they make up for it with a class win.
Overall/Pro: #63 Bortolotti/Caldarelli/Engelhart Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Pro Am: #97 Adam/Al Harthy Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3
Am: #961 Eaton/Rizzo/Demerdjian Ferrari 488 GT3
The next race, is another three hour race at the great Silverstone circuit in England, coming up in three weeks, in the middle of May. We'll see you for all the action. Blancpain Endurance 2017 starts off with a bang. We're looking forward to more awesome competition. See you, in Jolly Old. Bye bye.
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