Another crazy edition of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup now ‘safely’ in the books after yesterday’ s three hour near demolition derby left many cars in literal tatters but (more importantly) nobody injured around the Autodromo Nazionale Monza,
It was always going to be another fast and furious second round the season having started the year out at an equally fast Paul Ricard circuit in France just a few weeks back, but the ultra-fast and more traditional circuit layout of the Italian circuit would also have the probability of certainly a turn one, lap one incident for the fifty-seven-car entry.
The #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of last time out race winners Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi were always one crew to keep an eye out for last weekend but their performance around the circuit in previous sessions and into Qualifying left them a down on the fourth row ahead of yesterday afternoons start.
Their participation within the race however was strictly limited to the distance between the start line and the entry into the first chicane as multi-car contact saw the #007 sent onto the grass before collecting an already spun out and damaged car, destroying the front end before the race has truly started.
That first corner incident alone accounted for the loss of half a dozen cars including the first three cars on the grid but that sadly did not tone down the driving characteristics within some driver crews as a similar incident at the same location towards the end of the race took out some other cars competing for race or class wins at the time.
The #11 Comtoyou Racing bronze classed entry for Kyle Marcelli, AJ Muss and Marcelo Tomasoni were also seen to be in the wars after rear end contact into the Variante Ascari that saw them run through the gravel to impact rearward into the tyre wall sustaining them significant damage in the process too. Albeit able to limp back to the pits under the Full Course Yellow, the damage had already been done to their race in more ways than one.
There was hope seeing the two Walkenhorst AMR Vantage GT3 crews as their names peaked towards the head of the timing screens with little over an hour of the race to go but sadly, their pit stop strategy still owed them a minimum timed stop apiece that obviously dropped them back down the order again. The #34 Pro entry of Christian Krognes, Jamie Day and Henrique Chaves could do no better than P8 in class despite the best efforts of the Portuguese racer during his stint within the chaotic final hour whilst the #35 silver entry of Mateo Villagomez, Ethan Ischer and Gaspard Simon also finished P8 in class.
The reward of racing success at least went to the #56 Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR bronze classed entry of Giacomo Petrobelli, Jonny Adam and Lorcan Hanafin who managed to stay out of trouble on track – thanks in part to their low qualifying position second last on the grid at the start to finally come through eventually P9 overall and second in class. That was however thanks in part to one class rival being taken out of the race at the second big incident at turn one.
Many teams now face a fierce battle to repair or replace their GT3 rolling stock in time for the Spa 24 – the next round of the Endurance Cup stakes at the Belgian circuit at the end of the month.
Photo credits _ Teams / Series / social media