Giammaria wins, title goes to the wire for last race
Raffaele Giammaria dominated an eventful race ahead of Francesco Sini and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Only nine cars made it to the finish line out of 19, with Johan Kristoffersson finishing in fifth after a tough race.
At the start, Romeo Ferraris driver Giammaria held the lead as team-mate Andrea Larini was forced to stop on the formation lap. CAAL Racing’s Liuzzi managed to pass BMW Team Dinamic driver Thomas Biagi at the start and moved up to fourth. Further on in the lap, Ezio Muccio’s Jaguar dropped oil all over the track, and didn’t stop in the pits making the track slippery all the way up through the first sector before coming to a halt. Max Mugelli was a victim, and spun at the Variante Proserpina, hitting the wall with the back of his BMW M3. Simone Iacone also had a problem and had to stop his Chevrolet.
The oil on track forced the stewards to bring out the safety car, which stayed on the circuit until 13 minutes to go.
At the restart, the positions did not change, but after a few corners Christian Fittipaldi hit the wall in the Swiss Team Maserati and had to retire. On the following lap Thomas Biagi also stopped due to technical problem, which put him out of contention for the title.
On lap eight, Liuzzi let Luigi Ferrara through after trying to defend for a lap. The former Formula One driver evidently not willing to risk the points for fifth position as Kristoffersson struggled back in ninth.
On the following lap Max Pigoli in the Ferlito Motors Jaguar, who was fighting with Sini’s Chevrolet, hit a kerb too hard and retired with engine failure, which promoted the Chevrolet Lumina up to second. Meanwhile Gianni Morbidelli made his way up through the field, going from last to seventh.
On the last lap Roma Racing Team’s race turned into a nightmare, with both Nico Caldarola and Luigi Ferrara suffering technical problems, albeit the latter was instigated after he a kerb hit too hard. That meant that Ferrara went down from third to seventh, reaching the finish line with his engine off.
Giammaria won the race ahead of Francesco Sini and Vitantonio Liuzzi, who was able to make the most out of Ferrara’s problems. Andrea Bacci crossed the line in fourth ahead of Kristoffersson, who was let through by Gianni Morbidelli on the last lap. Ferrara finished seventh ahead of Mauro Cesari and Thomas Schöffler, with Caldarola rounding out the top ten although he didn’t cross the finish line.
Kristoffersson still leads the Superstars International Championship by six points over Liuzzi, with Biagi now out of contention. Kristoffersson has wrapped up the Italian component of the series after race one, with Liuzzi unable to make up the difference, but the International title is still up for grabs.
The final race of the season is scheduled at 16.15 CET and will feature Cesari and Ferrara on the first row.
