Tag: STR1

Report: Race 2 Imola

Posted on October 13, 2019 by - General

FORMULA title decision: Bracalente wins the race, Marco Ghiotto the championship.

How can it be better? The final decision for the championship title in the FORMULA class was made in the twelfth and last BOSS GP season race of 2019. Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) went into the race weekend with better chances. After Alessandro Bracalente’s (ITA, Speed Center) victory in Saturday’s race his lead reduced from 15 to 12 points. This means: Ghiotto had to be at least sixth today if Bracalente scores another victory in Sunday’s race.

Ghiotto already had a shock moment at the start of the warm-up lap when his red GP2 Dallara did not come off the spot. Lucky for Ghiotto: Because a second car also stopped, Ghiotto could line up again in the second row of the grid for the rolling start. The Scuderia Palladio was able to breathe a short sigh of relief.

The best start behind OPEN champion Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed) had Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International), who almost caught Bracalente at the top. Ghiotto not only lost the place to Martucci, but also to Salvatore de Plano (ITA, Top Speed). However, Ghiotto overtook both again in the early stages and even managed to catch up with Bracalente with a couple of fast lap times. With second place he was fully on target for the title.

And it remained like that. Bracalente won the last race of the season and ended the year with an incredible result for a rookie: 5 victories, 10 podium places and only two retirements. In the end, one too many to defeat his fellow countryman Ghiotto, who also has a great score: 9 podium finishes and 2 victories, but only one DNF. After six exciting race weekends in Hockenheim, Spielberg, Monza, Assen, Brno and Imola, the new FORMULA champion Ghiotto and his opponent Bracalente finally separated by only nine points.

For the first time Marco Ghiotto is the champion of BOSS GP FORMULA class

Third place in the race went to Martucci, who fought again with de Plano until the middle of the race. De Plano finished fourth ahead of Andreas Fiedler, who secured third place in the championship with a damaged gearbox.

The best duel was delivered by Philippe Haezebrouck (FRA, Speed Center) and Gianluca Ripoli (ITA, MM International), with a better end for the Frenchman. Until the last lap both were within striking distance of each other on the 4.9-kilometer course. Towards the end of the 25-minute race, Peter Göllner (SUI, Speed Center) also caught up with the two, but could no longer attack. He finished the season with a respectable eighth place. Nicolas Matile (MCO, Zig-Zag) finished ninth in the class. By the way good news for the championship: His Team Zig-Zag Motorsport Service announced that they would be competing in more than two races next year.

Overall winner of the race was Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed), who once again put the pedal to the medal today in his Toro Rosso STR1. Although his mechanics gave everything, Phil Stratford had to load his Benetton B197 into the van early due to a defect. Second in the OPEN class and new runner-up instead is “Piter” (FRA, Ray-Ban), whose team managed to repair a big oil leak just before race began.

Next up: The BOSS GP annual award ceremony will take place on 7 December in Salzburg.

Report: Race 1 Imola

Posted on October 12, 2019 by - General

Alessandro Bracalente reduces the gap to championship leader Ghiotto by winning his 4th race of the year.

Alessandro Bracalente (ITA, Speed Center) drove unchallenged to his fourth victory of the season in the FORMULA class. The BOSS GP rookie thus reduced the gap to Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) in the points standings from 15 to only 12 points. Now it is clear that the championship will be decided in the last race on Sunday. Ghiotto followed Bracalente throughout the race like a shadow. Only at the end of the race he lost the connection to Bracalente and the gap grow to an high of four seconds at the finish line.

Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International) showed an incredible pace at the finish. At the beginning of the race he dropped back to 9th place, but on the last lap he made it onto the podium. For Martucci it is his fifth visit on the podium in 2019. In a courageous last lap manoeuvre, he overtook Salvatore de Plano (ITA, Top Speed), who seems to have bad luck on his racing boots. For de Plano it was nevertheless the second-best result of the season and the highest finish since the Hockenheim season opener.

Andreas Fiedler (DEU, Fiedler Racing) was also involved in the fight for the podium at the opening stage of the race. In the end he finished fifth. He scored five championship points more than Philippe Haezebrouck (FRA, Speed Center), who finished seventh. Tomorrow Haezebrouck and Fiedler will fight for third place in the FORMULA ranking.

Marc Faggionato (MCO, Zig-Zag) could not set any time in qualifying because his car had not been repaired in time. That didn’t stop him from moving up to 6th place from last position on the grid. For several laps he battled with Haezebrouck for position.

Walter Steding (DEU, Inter Europol) was surprisingly in the top 6 at the beginning of the race, ahead of Martucci and Haezebrouck. With rank 8, he finished in good midfield this time.

Nicolas Matile (MCO, Zig-Zag) finished 9th with the only Auto GP Lola in the field. Peter Göllner won the internal team duel between him and Christian Eicke (both SUI, Speed Center).

Gianluca Ripoli (ITA, MM International) and Ulf Ehninger (DEU, ESBA Racing) had to retire early in the race. Because Ripoli stopped at the warm-up lap, he had to start at the back of the grid at the Indy start. He tried to improve his position in the first lap and collided with Ehninger’s Benetton in the Tosa hairpin.

The overall victory was again secured by Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed). Not surprisingly, the already crowned OPEN champion in his Toro Rosso dominated the eleventh race of the season.

The 12th and last race of the BOSS GP anniversary season will take place tomorrow Sunday at 2:10 p.m., before that at 10:30 a.m. is BOSS GP’s warm-up session.