Daniele Di Amato, Chris Froggatt and Henry Hassid won the first races of the fifth round of the Ferrari Challenge Europe at Silverstone. The races took place during the Ferrari Racing Days, the main event of the European Corse Clienti season featuring appearances from the cars of F1 Clienti and the XX Programmes alongside the 488 Challenges.
Trofeo Pirelli. Racing on Saturday opened with the Trofeo Pirelli. Championship leader Daniele Di Amato, having secured a seventh consecutive pole, set off best beating back early attacks from Philipp Baron (Rossocorsa) and then extending his lead with some fast laps. Behind the first two, Sam Smeeth (Stratstone Ferrari) passed the AM class driver Chris Froggatt, before setting off in pursuit of the leaders. However, the local driver and winner at Silverstone in 2014 soon suffered a technical problem that forced him to retire. Third place thus passed to Alessandro Vezzoni who in turn had to surrender to an attack by Bjorn Grossmann in the 488 Challenge of Octane 126.
Pirelli Am. Chris Froggatt won in the Trofeo Pirelli Am. He had been very strong since qualifying on his home track at the wheel of the 488 Challenge of HR Owen, when he secured a sensational pole position. This season’s stars Jens Liebhauser and Martin Nelson battled it out behind the local driver. The German of Formula Racing eventually prevailed to stretch his lead in the standings to 21 points over his Scuderia Autoropa rival. Christian Overgaard (Baron Service) took fourth, finishing behind his rival despite a total spinout while fighting for fourth place with Josh Cartu (Ferrari Budapest), Tommaso Rocca (Rossocorsa) and Bonamy Grimes (Stratstone Ferrari). Kriton Lendoudis (Formula Racing) was the best of the 458 Challenge EVO drivers.
Coppa Shell. In mid-afternoon, the Coppa Shell offered its usual excitement with many drivers involved in a tooth and nail fight on the British track. Henry Hassid (Charles Pozzi) secured his fourth victory of the season but championship leader Johnny Laursen (Formula Racing) limited the damage by finishing second. An extraordinary James Weiland came third, his best result in the European Championship. Near the finish the Rossocorsa repelled attacks from Switzerland’s Christophe Hurni, driving for Team Zenith Sion-Lausanne. Hassid also won the Gentlemen’s Cup while the Ladies’ Cup went to an on-fire Manuela Gostner who, starting in fifth, triumphed despite suffering a drive-through penalty after contact with Claudio Schiavoni. On Sunday the races start at 2:15 pm and 4 pm local time.
Source. Ferrari/Photo. John Patterson
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