04.10.2020 – Imperiale Racing had an exciting weekend at the International Circuit of Mugello that staged the second round of the Italian GT Sprint 2020 Championship. The Mirandola-based team claimed a pole position and a second place in the second round that has been made particularly tricky by the rain.
Kikko Galbiati (ITA) and Giovanni Venturini (ITA) have been the absolute protagonists of the series sharing driving duties in the #32 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo completing a solid performance on the track.
Q1 was run without rain and Imperiale Racing’s drivers opted for slick tyres despite some parts of the circuit were still humid. Venturini put in a great performance, but the traffic did not allow him to put together the best lap and therefore he ended ninth in 1’52.249s.
When the battle in the first qualifying session was over, heavy rain changed the track conditions for Q2. After fitting the rain tyres, Galbiati managed the situation very wisely and posted soon his best lap in 2’11.347s that allowed him to take the pole position at the end of the session.
Race one started on Saturday afternoon under the rain. Venturini managed to stay clear of any contacts early on and got a good rhythm that allowed him to climb up to P3. As the track conditions changed, tyres started to wear off and the team decided to take the gamble of fitting slick tyres. Thanks to the spectacular performance of the mechanics that changed the tyres in just over 13s and the fast laps put in by Venturini, Galbiati rejoined after the drivers change in second place, exploiting also the safety car that compacted the group. At the restart, Galbiati was a bit stuck in the battle for the podium and had to concede a few positions ending fifth.
Race two has been as exciting. Galbiati started the race very well and kept the lead until a few laps were left to the opening of the pit window when the heat of lapping rivals shuffled the cards. Venturini rejoined in second place and kept the position In the closing stages. He then showed his talent defending himself from Kroes (NL). This great team performance rewarded Imperiale Racing with the first podium of the Sprint 2020 series and a well-deserved P2.
Luca Del Grosso (Imperiale Racing – Team Manager):
“The weekend has been quite eventful. The rain made it quite tricky, but we reacted well and the choice of stopping for an additional tyres change to fit slick tyres has been successful. Getting on the podium is always a great result, even if I have to honestly admit that our performance has been affected by some episodes in race one. We are quite confident tough: the classification of the championship is quite tight, our potential is high and I believe we will have our chance in the next few races”.
Italian GT Sprint 2020 Championship | Drivers’ classification
1. Agostini pt. 56; 2. Ferrari pt. 47; 3. Mancinelli pt. 32; 4. Nemoto-Tujula pt. 32; 5. Roda-Rovera pt. 32; 6. Galbiati-Venturini pt. 30; 7. Kroes-Pulcini pt. 30; 8. Zug-Comandini pt. 28; 9. Spinelli pt. 27; 10. Drudi and Zampieri pt. 20
