By Tarek Ramchani
The Italian GT Championship is at the Mugello Circuit this weekend for round 2. Audi Sport Italia entered their two Audi R8 LMS ultra race cars. The team is doing well at the Ferrari owned track.
The official Audi Italia dealer team qualified in third and fourth overall for today's first race. The #32 Audi R8 LMS ultra shared by Davide Di Benedetto and Alex Frassineti right ahead of the sister #31 car of Andrea Sonvico and Chrisitian Montanari. Dindo Capello being busy with the factory Audi team at Le Mans is missing the second event of the Italian season after he also missed the opening round.
In race one as at Vallelunga in the opening round, it was an all Audi vs. BMW affair. The Z4 GT3 cars locked out the front row for race 1. However the Audis managed to fight hard and challenge the ROAL run Team BMW Italia cars. Later bad luck hit both Audi Sport Italia R8s, first the #32 was hit by a penalty for pit stop infringement and later it was the turn of the #31 car with a critical tire problem that dropped Sonvico and Montanari way back in the field. In the end the #32 R8 LMS of Davide Di Benedetto and Alex Frassineti managed to finish in a very strong second despite the penalty and right behind the winning BMW after a great battle to the finish. The sister #31 car only got seventh overall, some 48 seconds back from the leaders.
Race 1 was quite a good one for Audi Sport Italia. The team managed to score vital points and secure a very strong second after all the drama in the 48 minutes sprint race. Race 2 is set for tomorrow, the Audis will start from positions two and three. We are hoping the two cars have better luck tomorrow, without any doubt the R8s will fight for the race win.
Photo credit: ACI / Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo
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