At the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, which over the weekend hosted the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in front of a record crowd of 73,600 spectators, the two Ferrari 296 LMGT3s brought to the track by the Vista AF Corse team they finished fourth and twelfth in the LMGT3 class.
Starting from eighth place on the grid, the #55 of François Heriau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera reached the top positions thanks to the Frenchman's positive start.
Throughout the race, which was also complicated by the arrival of rain, the Ferrari 296 LMGT3 remained steadily in the top ten places, succeeding, with an excellent last stint by the official driver of the Maranello company, Rovera from Varese, who was also responsible for the best time in the race in 1'42″257, taking fourth place in the final.
“It's a good result, even if a little bittersweet because we were in the top positions after the start, but I think we were quite unlucky with some episodes and with the weather, with the Safety Cars and with the pit stop times” , says Heriau.
“So it was quite difficult to recover and the decision on rain tires was also quite complicated: in the end fourth position is not a bad result at all, even if it could have been better. We try to continue to improve and get on the podium in the next race”.
Mann adds: “The team did an amazing job, as always. All the guys worked hard. Personally, I didn't have my best race, I made some mistakes that I have to learn from, but I want to thank the team because, as always, they did a fantastic job.”
A bit of regret for Rovera too: “When I entered the track I knew exactly what position I was in but at that point the various gaps were not well understood and therefore it wasn't easy to recover at all. Little by little we climbed back up, I recovered as much as possible but we weren't able to get beyond fourth place.”
“Maybe we could have risked a little more with the strategy, keeping the slicks, in any case the potential was high and this is the positive aspect of the Imola weekend together with the fact that Heriau kept a good pace in the race.”
“The race pace was very good and the car was working well. We found an excellent set-up in the tests we had done here. There is disappointment for this reason, because we could have achieved a better result. I would say that in any case we have a good feeling about Spa, then it's a track that I really like. We have taken a step forward, we can give ourselves a little confidence for the next match but there are still some details that we need to work on to improve.”
#55 View AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3: Francois Heriau, Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera
Photo by: Paolo Belletti
After being delayed in the first hours, the #54 managed to recover positions even in the final stages characterized by rain and the positive second stint of Thomas Flohr and those of Francesco Castellacci and Davide Rigon.
The official Prancing Horse driver brought the car to the finish line in twelfth position in class after completing 184 laps.
“It wasn't the race we expected. The start was very difficult, with many accidents and I was too far behind. And then unfortunately at the first corner I lost the rear, trailing by two and a half laps”, explains Flohr.
“My second stint was fantastic. Without the mistake that took me off the track, we would definitely be in the top five. But we will try at Spa, the car was fantastic. And congratulations to the #55 for fourth place, we are very proud.”
Castellacci comments: “Thomas avoided the accident at the start, then tried to recover but there was a small mistake and we lost a few laps. The car is still competitive, I'm happy with my stint and we are motivated to do well in Spa.”
Rigon concludes: “It was honestly one of the best races of my life, in terms of driving. I had a lot of fun. We made good choices with the engineer to stay on the track in difficult conditions with the slick tyres. I never wore rain tires and I gained a lot of time.”
“We reduced the gap we made at the start of the race, but we couldn't have done more. The car was still excellent and we did our best. We are happy with the balance, with how we worked with my teammates and as a team. We are positive for the next race and we are aiming for a podium.”
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