Ferrari 430GT 1-2 at Monza Four Hours

Marco Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perazzini in the F430 GT2

Ferrari dominates the first round of the Endurance Championship Cup 2011

Story and photos by Roberto Motta

On March 26th and 27th, the Monza’s Autodromo Nazionale hosted the first of four rounds of the 2011 Endurance Champions Cup and attracted more than thirty entries. The fastest and most powerful cars were the Ferrari 430 GT2, the Ferrari 430 Cup, the Porsche 997 GT3 and Lamborghini GT Cup.

The Monza 4-hour race, an event first run in 1965, is traditionally the first important event of the sport season. This year’s edition was a walkover for the Ferrari 430. The domination started with qualifying, where the Ferrari 430 Scuderia in the hands of Andrea Invernizzi, Mirko Venturi and Tommaso Maino entered by the Black Bull Swiss Racing achieved the fastest lap of 1’49.109 (191.137 km/h).

At the end of the race, the AF Corse team was able to finish with its two cars in the first and second positions. The overall win went to the crew of Marco Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perazzini in the F430 GT2 entered in the LM GTE category. They finished a lap ahead of the second Ferrari run by the Piacenza team, which was driven by Rui Aguas and Robert Kauffman who set the fastest lap (1.50.763).

Andrea Mamè and Mirco Zanardini in the Lamborghini Gallardo, entered by Mik Corse finished the race in third position.

The Monza 4-hour race was brutal on the entrants; only 14 cars finished race. With this victory, the F430GT2 provides more proof of the success of a car that has become one of the most successful in the history of GT racing. There were no Ferrari 458GTs entered at Monza.

The next round of the Endurance Champions Cup will be the Imola 500 Miglia and is scheduled for the weekend of May 15 at Imola’s Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.