By Tarek Ramchani
The first Italian GT race was held this morning at Imola, and it turned out to be very difficult for Audi Sport Italia.
Right from the start there was unfortunate contact for one of the two Audis. Dindo Capello suffered contact with a Lamborghini at the start of the race, which dropped them back following the repairs. Ultimately Capello and Sonvico finished lower down in fourteenth place. The #5 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Kristoffersson was able to continue after starting from the pitlane, but suffered shifting related issues during the race. A very sad fact given that the Audi, despite not being the fastest on track, had strong pace during qualifying yesterday.
Moving into the race the leading Audi lost a lot of time. After Kritofersson's stint Alex Frassineti took over the car and managed to progress through the field. Frassineti was running seventh overall when his #5 Audi R8 LMS ultra started to run very slow on track, with only 5 minutes to go in the race. In the end Frassineti and Kristoffersson finished seventh overall.
Up ahead it was an 1-2 victory for the official Team BMW Italia, with their ROAL Motorsport run BMW Z4 GT3 cars. Third was the #41 Ferrari 458 GT3 from MP1 Corse.
Race 2 is coming up next. We hope that the official Audi Italia dealer team will have better luck during the second race.
Photo credit: Audi Sport Italia
