24.06.2019 – A spectacular win in race two and a podium in Pro-Am are the haul of Imperiale Racing’s weekend in Imola during the second round of the Italian GT 2019 Championship.
In a weekend characterized by summer temperatures at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit, the Italian team has put in a great performance on the Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 Evo #63 driven by Vito Postiglione (ITA) and Jeroen Mul (NL) in PRO and on the #19 car driven by Pietro Perolini (ITA) and Ben Gersekowski (AUS) in Pro-Am.
This has not been an easy ride as weather conditions have been quite unstable on Saturday. Q1 was run in the wet and saw Mul placing the #63 car in fifth place in 1’54.428s, that was just a little bit ahead of Gersekowski that posted his best lap of 1’55.180s in the seventh position, which was also the third quickest lap of Pro-Am. The track dried up in the second session and drivers had the chance to fit dry tyres to charge for race-two’s pole position. Postiglione ended third in 1’47.504s, while Perolini qualified the #19 car in P11 in 1’51.626s.
Race one has been quite challenging but Mul managed it well in the heat of the mid-pack and engaged a battle for P5. At the pitstop, the crew had to serve the time handicap following race-2 victory in Vallelunga. Postiglione rejoined lower down the field but used all his experience to cross the finish line in sixth place collecting some heavy points.
The #19 car completed a great comeback race instead, despite starting from the pit lane. Gersekowski and Perolini put in a remarkable performance and the lineup recovered up to P9 getting close to the Pro-Am podium taking a positive P4.
Race-2 saw Postiglione aggressively chasing the victory. Drivers and team devised a perfect pit strategy and Mul got the lead of the race after the change keeping it all the way to the chequered flag. The closing laps have been quite exciting and the Dutch driver defended himself well from the attacks moved by the #52 Ferrari 488 GT3 closing all the gaps and crossing the finish line as the winner.
The #19 produced another great comeback in Pro-Am as Perolini drove the car through the first stint and Gersekoski during the second. Imperiale Racing’s drivers kept a very high race pace that allowed them to recover four places and to take the third place of Pro-Am, which was their first podium of the Sprint campaign.
Luca Del Grosso (Imperiale Racing, Team Manager):
“The victory in race two has been a very exciting moment for the whole team due to the closing laps of Jeroen who managed to fend off the attacks of Fuoco in a thrilling finale. This moment has been also emotional due to the memory of our friend Enzo Guarino, to whom we dedicated this win. The performance of the team has been perfect, we worked a lot on the setup of the cars to make them competitive despite knowing that top speed would have been challenging in Imola. This certainly made the difference. We won as a team with no overtaking on track, implementing a great strategy and defending ourselves well thanks to the excellent performance of all our drivers”.
Imperiale Racing will get back on track in the Italian GT Championship Sprint next July 19-21st for the third round of the season in Mugello.
Imperiale Racing | Campionato Gran Turismo Sprint standings
1 Mul-Postiglione pt. 60; 2. Fuoco-Hudspeth pt. 42; 3. Comandini-Johansson pt. 36; 4. Rovera-Agostini pt. 35; 5. Casè-Veglia pt. 30
Imperiale Racing | Campionato Gran Turismo Sprint Pro-Am standings
1. Fuoco-Hudspeth pt. 75; 2. Di Amato-Vezzoni pt. 59; 3. Larini-Palma pt. 39; 4. Perolini-Gersekowski pt. 26; 5. Mann-Cressoni pt. 22