By Tarek Ramchani
Monza is hosting the first round of the International Superstars Series this weekend. Only two Audi RS5 quattro cars have entered the event, two cars from Audi Sport Italia. Unfortunately the #47 RS5 of Thomas Thomas Schöffler from Audi Sport MTM is not taking part in the race weekend.
Action started today with two free practice sessions and qualifying. It was a very good day for Audi Sport Italia top driver Gianni Morbidelli. The four time Superstars Series champion topped the first wet free practice session and finished eighth in the second one with the #45 Audi. His team mate Ferdinando Geri was twelfth and eighteenth with the sister #46 RS5. In the qualifying session Gianni Morbidelli ended in a very positive fourth place, with a time of 1:56.013. The Italian touring car ace was the best of the rest, behind a dominant trio of Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG cars driven by Vitantonio Liuzzi, Thomas Biagi and Luigi Ferrara. Ferdinando Geri with the other Audi car had a harder session and was only able to take the seventeenth position.
The Audi RS5 quattro was the 2012 series champion, however its strength has never been its top speed. At a very fast track like Monza this somewhat hinders the Audi cars, but we hope that Gianni Morbidelli and his team mate will be able to fight and take maximum points in the two races tomorrow.
Photo credit: Audi Sport Italia
