Audi Sport Italia's R8 LMS ultra wins GT3 Class at Vallelunga 6 Hours

Audi Sport Italia Press Release

Audi Sport Italia's R8 LMS ultra ends up Vallelunga 6 Hours on top of GT3 class

Alex Frassineti, Andrea Sonvico and Filippo Francioni seal brilliant 4th outright and nip BMW Italia's Z4 after nice fight with WRT R8

Emilio Radaelli has a hefty roll of honour at Vallelunga 6 Hours, but funny enough in the past had only posted wins at Touring Cars' Silver Cup. Today Audi Sport Italia celebrated its debut Gold Cup posting a clear success courtesy of regular drivers Alex Frassineti, Andrea Sonvico who were joined at Rome by Filippo Francioni. Frassineti on Saturday posted a nice 4th quickest lap, fastest among GT3 behind a host of Ferraris in the hands of the like of Gimmi Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella. In the early part of the enduro Frassineti earlier and then Sonvico duelled with WRT Audi driver Eduard Sundstrom, managing to swap first place with the Swede a couple of times. The two Audi fighting each other even snapped Ferrari's domination in the outright Top3, a lap or so behind Esta Motorsport Ferrari 458 which wound up as finale winner.

But then AF Corse 458s rallied and the all-Audi duel focused on GT3 bragging rights. Jinx struck the Belgian entry around mid-race when Weerts' car was beached in the sand trap at Semaforo corner dropping out of contention for the lead as Francioni was putting in a smart stint, before leaving the seat back to home-boy Frassineti. The latter did a brilliant job of increasing the edge on the closest foe, Matteo Bobbi's Ferrari 458, and when the time approached to leave Sonvico put in the final shift at the office, N°29 Audi  had nearly a lap over Bobbi. The 6 Hours was none the less set to be a nail-biter till the end, as a safety-car spell, on the eve of the beginning of the final hour, rushed in Frassineti for an early pit-stop. Sonvico resumed the race but as he was warming up the tyres radioed in his engineer that his Audi had a puncture on a rear tyre. Therefore an apparently quiet and sleepy final hour turned out to be a complicated issue, as Mulacchiè, who had taken over Bobbi's Ferrari, was sitting on an over 30-second cushion. Mulacchiè, lacking hte experience and poise of Sonvico, did not rise to the occasion, and after relinquishing the GT3 lead to Sonvico also let go by Edoardo Liberati's BMW. Sonvico picked up a nice 4th overall spot, and edging BMW Italia's Z4 at the checker had a sweet taste for Sonvico and Frassineti, who unlike Francioni had been fighting the whole Italian season ceding the crown to the BMW rivals at the very last round.

XXII^ 6 ORE DI ROMA
Vallelunga (I), 25 novembre  2012

1. A. Skryabin/A. Balzan/A. Pierguidi (Ferrari) 213 giri in 6:00'06"639 media oraria 144.972 Km/h

2. J Gerber/M.Cioci/G. Fisichella (Ferrari) + 1 giro

3. K. Aluko/T. Kemenater/M. Mediani (Ferrari) + 2 giri

4. F.FRANCIONI/A.FRASSINETI/A.SONVICO (AUDI R8 LMS ULTRA) + 4 giri
5. S. Colombo/M. Cerruti/E. Liberati (BMW) + 5 giri

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9. J.L. BLANCHEMAIN/V. VOSSE/R. BERVILLE (AUDI R8 LMS ULTRA) + 6 giri

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21. E. SANDSTROM/Y WEERTS/F. VERBIST (AUDI R8 LMS ULTRA) + 49 giri