Twin runner-up positions for Ferrari at Spielberg

Two AF Corse - APM Monaco run Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 cars were among the protagonists competing in Race 2 of the International GT Open third round at the Spielberg track. Both crews managed to make it onto the podium: second overall and second in Pro class for Louis Prette and Vincent Abril, while Stéphane Ortelli and Angelo Negro took runner-up spot in Pro-Am, fifth overall.

Pro. Vincent Abril took charge of the opening stint, setting off from fourth place. After an extremely bustling start that saw contact with Christian Klien in the Mercedes AMG GT3, the French driver found himself holding fifth place. Abril held on to the position and proved adept at fending off the attacks from Callum McLeod in another Mercedes. On the eighteenth lap, the wheel was handed over to Louis Prette and, by the end of the succession of driver changes, the #17 Ferrari was back on track in fourth place. The turning point came on lap 32 with nine minutes to run. Prette was giving chase to Miguel Ramos' McLaren 720 S GT3 when two crashes to the rear of the pair occurred. Before the Safety Car had made its entrance, Ramos inexplicably slowed down and Prette took advantage to snatch third place. But the excitement was not to end there. The Safety Car made its exit from the track before the final lap after having effectively reset the gaps. The Ferrari driver, not wanting to let a good opportunity go to waste, launched an attack on Patryk Krupiński’s Mercedes AMG GT3 right before the chequered flag and managed to get the better of his rival to take second place in both the class and the overall classification.

Pro-Am. Angelo Negro got the race underway from 13th place and was forced to stay on the tail of his rivals ahead. On lap 16, team-mate Stéphane Ortelli took up the baton and moved up the order into tenth position. With nine minutes remaining, the AF Corse - APM Monaco driver gained two further positions, helped by the retirement of Ollie Millroy and Sam De Haan, involved in two separate accidents. Taking advantage of the ensuing chaos caused by the twin crashes, Ortelli succeeded in overtaking Alexander Moiseev in the Mercedes AMG GT3, thus reaching seventh place overall. As soon as the Safety Car re-entered the pit-lane, the driver rounded off the comeback; overtaking fellow Pro-Am entrants Nick Moss and Fran Rueda in one fell swoop, both aboard McLaren 720 S GT3 cars, just before the finish-line, to post fifth place overall and second in the class. The next date, the fourth round of the International GT Open season is set for September 26 and 27 at the Monza circuit in Italy.