Via Italia Racing led the GT3 show at Curitiba in the Endurance Brasil curtain raiser, with Chico Longo supporting a stellar performance of Le Mans ace Daniel Serra in a comeback race that brought the first win to the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 in its debut race in Brazilian soil, in a race where the national prototypes were clearly outpaced in mixed conditions.
The start had a MetalMoro AJR 1-2 as the No. 26 JLM car led the No. 88 Kray one, though this didn’t last long as the No. 26 was penalized for jumping the start. Ricardo Maurício in the No. 70 Stuttgart Porsche acted quickly and took not only the second place from the No. 19 Via Italia Lamborghini but also the lead from the No. 88, with the counter attack coming two laps later.
The first minutes were enough to knock out some cars, like the No. 37 KTT Scorpion Dallara, the No. 65 NC Racing MRX, the No. 80 Kia Power Imports MRX and the No. 117 SPMec AJR, which brought the first caution period that had brief duration. The No. 70 Stuttgart Porsche and the No. 88 Kray AJR disappeared in front while having their own battle, and behind them, the No. 155 Sul Racing Ferrari and the No. 26 JLM AJR were in hard charge to catch up and reach them.
The No. 88 suffered a crucial blow in its pursuit plans the rear wing was heavily damaged, though it didn’t stop the car, so it kept the second place, so it was open way for the No. 90. The first hour ended with the No. 26 JLM AJR stopping on track without fuel which brought the second Safety Car intervention.
The first pit window kept the lead for the No. 70 Stuttgart Porsche but behind it there was a shuffle as the No. 9 Scuderia 111 Mercedes took second place, with the No. 19 Via Italia Lamborghini jumping to third and the No. 155 Sul Racing Ferrari down to fourth. Le Mans ace Daniel Serra was in a push and jumped to second with the No. 19 as he clocked a series of fast laps, some good seconds faster than the competition. After some minutes the No. 19 passed the No. 70 with ease and opened the gap with ease.
On halfway home, the GT3 cars dominated the top of the table, with the No. 19 leading the No. 70 and the No. 9, while the No. 5 MC Tubarão appeared in fourth as the best P1, three laps down the leader. The P2 and P3 leaders were the No. 75 SATTI MRX and the No. 56 Motorcar MRX, taking advantage of their reliability to prevail over the opponents.
Going past 2 hours and a half, the rain presented itself to the circuit, which made some cars spin and messed up the strategies used in the moment. The wet proved to be a challenge to most of the cars and this brought various yellow flag periods, which extended to the final hour, a fact that left most of the position pretty much settled. The No. 18 Mottin MCR could be fighting for the P1 class lead with the No. 5 MC Tubarão, but without power steering the No. 18 just lost gap to the class leader.
With constant light rain and a persistent wet track, there wasn’t anything more to do in order to change positions, so the No. 19 Via Italia Lamborghini just cruised to the finish line, with the No. 70 Stuttgart Porsche coming in second and the No. 9 Scuderia 111 Mercedes completing the GT3 and the overall podiums. The No. 5 MC Tubarão came in fourth and won the P1 class.
Endurance Brasil - Curitiba 500 km results
The P3 class winner was the No. 56 Motorcar MRX which crossed the finish line in 8th, while the No. 63 MC Tubarão BMW won in GT4 and was 9th overall. The final drama came in the P2 class where the No. 3 GTA/Fibralex Tornado overtook the No. 75 SATTI MRX in the final moments and snatched the win at the flag.
The next Endurance Brasil round will be only on June 30th at Interlagos, where is expected the first appearance in 2018 of the Sigma P1 that competed in the 12 Hours of Tarumã last year.
PHOTO: Lamborghini São Paulo
Comments
Post a Comment
Do you have an opinion? Feel free to comment.