02.04.2019 – Imperiale Racing run a highly spectacular race at the Hankook 12 Hours of Mugello this past weekend and Postiglione-Galbiati-Jirik closed an exciting comeback in tenth place.
The Italian outfit took part in its maiden endurance race at the opener of the 24H Series European Championship with the #32 Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 in class A6-PRO with Vito Postiglione (ITA), Kikko Galbiati (ITA) and Jaromir Jirik (CZ) behind the wheel. The weekend has been very intense and the race has been eventful, thanks to the 35 cars at the start on one of the most complete racetracks in Italy.
Imperiale Racing’s pace has been very positive since the beginning and the lineup posted the quickest time in the first session on Thursday in 1:47.693s, which displayed a great feeling on the #32 car. The same performance was repeated in the second session when the third fastest time was set. The setup refinement work continued on Friday, while Postiglione posted a best lap of 1:47.918s in qualifying, which placed the Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 run by Imperiale Racing to the sixth place of the grid.
As per regulations of the 24H Series European Championship, the race was run in two stints to avoid the overnight hours between Friday and Saturday and started on Friday at 16:00. The great start of Imperiale Racing’s lineup envisaged for a strong race and Postiglione climbed up from P6 to P2 during the first stint, but Imperiale Racing’s drivers’ lineup hit some trouble afterwards. Kikko Galbiati was involved in fact in an incident that damaged the #32 Lamborghini Huracàn GT3. This forced the driver to stop in the pits to fix the car. The repair cost Imperiale Racing several laps, but the drivers managed to put in great lap times and their fastest lap was close to those of the front-runners. Imperiale Racing’s lineup ended the first three hours in P23, six laps down.
The second part of the race started on Saturday at 9:00 and last nine hours. Postiglione, Galbiati and Jirik repeatedly exchanged driving duties and showed high focus and speed, with several breath-taking overtaking moves and a perfect strategy. Imperiale Racing’s car had already recovered up to P13 three hours into the race and, despite being six laps down, the squad reacted very well aiming to finish into the top ten. The goal was achieved in the closing hour when the #32 Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 reached P10 and kept it all the way to the finish line.
Luca Del Grosso (Imperiale Racing, Team Manager):
“The Hankook 12 Hours of Mugello has been our maiden endurance race and we ended up in one of the most classic situations in this kind of competitions: a problem early on. Despite this, the team and drivers were highly focused and resolute which allowed us to complete a 23 place recovery. On a technical note, we found the optimal setup on Hankook tyres, which we had never tested before. This provided us with speed and constancy in all the stages of the race. We displayed good clarity of mind and I am proud of the great job done by everyone in the team and of the competitiveness of Vito, Kikko and Jaromir, that found themselves at ease with the car since the beginning and lapped on a great pace and closed the race within the top ten”.
Imperiale Racing will get back on track this coming weekend (April 5-7th) for the opener of the Italian GT Championship at the Autodromo Nazionale of Monza.
