The no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 of Rino Mastronardi and Giacomo Piccini won their second race in a row after Mastronardi started from pole position at Spa-Francorchamps.
In a dramatic 15 minutes at the end of the race, Piccini had to fight off a determined challenge from David Perel in the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari. A clash at the end of the race saw Piccini spin around and Perel take the lead, only for the South Africa to receive a penalty after the chequered flag, dropping him back to second place.
The weather at Spa was perfect with blue skies and a temperature of 35 degrees. The race start was delayed by 20 minutes after an accident on the Kemmel Straight as the cars made their way to the grid. The no77 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Claudio Schiavoni went off into the barriers after contact with another car. The Ferrari was badly damaged but Schiavoni walked away unharmed.
Once the track was cleared the race was able to start and as the LMP3 cars headed off into the distance the GT3 cars battled for position, with Mastronardi holding his place at the front of the class field.However, the Italian had the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Michael Broniszewski challenging for the lead, while the Polish driver had to defend his second place from a determined Michelle Gatting in the no9 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488.
On lap 7 Gatting dived down the inside of Broniszewski’s Ferrari at La Source and started to close on her teammate in the no8 Ferrari. For several laps the two Iron Lynx Ferraris were nose to tail but Mastronardi held his lead. Then Gatting started to fall back and by the time the pitstops were due she was just over four seconds behind. Gatting pitted to hand over to Deborah Mayer but the car didn’t re-emerge onto the track and was eventually retired from the race.
Rino Mastronardi brought the no8 Ferrari in to hand over to Giacomo Piccini and reported a gearbox selector issue that had caused him some problems during his stint. Piccini went out and was 23 seconds ahead of David Perel in the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, with the no67 Kessel Ferrari of Paolo Ruberti in third 90 seconds behind the South African.
Perel started to close the gap to Piccini at a rapid rate and it appeared that the Italian was suffering a few issues as he was warned about exceeding track limits. With 16 minutes left on the clock Perel was right behind Piccini but ran wide on the exit of Bruxelles and lost some ground. However, Perel was soon back on the rear wing of the leading Ferrari and Piccini had to dig deep into his extensive book on race craft to defend his lead.
On the run into La Source, Perel got onto the inside, so Piccini went wide and the slingshot out of the corner gave him the speed to retake the lead going down the hill to Eau Rouge.As the clock counted down to zero Perel, who had also been warned about exceeding track limits, tried one last time with a move on the final corner.However, it was too ambitious, and a collision spun the no8 Ferrari around, with Perel taking the lead as the last lap was declared.
The no74 Ferrari was given a drive through penalty as David Perel headed for the chequered flag and while he passed the finish line first, the drive through penalty was converted to 30 seconds and this demoted the car into second place 23.582 seconds behind the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari. The no67 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Murod Sultanov and Paolo Ruberti was third, one lap behind the two leading cars.
Round 3 of the 2020 Michelin Le Mans Cup will take place on the 29th August at Le Castellet after the race was moved from Barcelona due to the Covid-19 situation in Catalunya.
CLICK HERE for the result from Round 2 at Spa-Francorchamps.
CLICK HERE for the drivers' reactions
