It’s time for Round 2 for Ferrari Challenge Europe, the Prancing Horse one-make series that will be at Silverstone during the weekend with four races full of thrills. On Saturday and Sunday over forty 488 Challenges will take the 5,891-metre home track of British motorsport to battle it out in the championship’s four classes. Drivers representing 19 countries will be competing from the small Principality of Liechtenstein, represented by the young Fabienne Wohlwend, to the US with Jean-Claude Saada.
Trofeo Pirelli. Twenty-one-year-old Nicklas Nielsen dominated Round 1 at Mugello. The fantastic young prospect from Denmark, who is building a career in both single-seater (Formula 4) and closed wheel racing, won his fourth victory out of four races in the Ferrari Challenge, including the final two last season. At the wheel of the Formula Racing team 488 Challenge, assisted by AF Corse, Nielsen finished ahead of Bjorn Grossmann, of team Octane 126, on both days. Third place went to Charles Pozzi’s Henry Hassid on Saturday and Alessandro Vezzoni, of Rossocorsa-Pellin Racing, on Sunday. Winning again will not be easy for Nielsen, also that considering Sam Smeeth will be on track to get the first win of the season. In Trofeo Pirelli Am Chris Froggatt recorded his fourth win in the Challenge at Mugello, while the following day Slovakia’s Jan Danis mounted the top step of the podium after his first Ferrari one-make series triumph. Froggatt was twice winner last year and has to be considered as the favourite in Britain. In this class Christoforou Pantelis will be making his debut on a Ferrari GB 488 Challenge.
Coppa Shell. In Coppa Shell Erich Prinoth is clearly the favourite after the perfect Mugello weekend. The Italian dominated Race-1 holding off the aggressive Jean-Claude Saada of Rossocorsa and his Ineco-MP Racing teammate, Thomas Gostner, repeating the following day after Manuela Gostner took centre stage with the pole position but made a mistake on Sunday’s Race-2 and scored no points. In the Coppa Shell Am the spoils were shared between Sweden’s Ingvar Mattsson and Turkey’s Murat Cuhadaroglu. However, it was the young Pole Agata “Agi” Smolka who made the biggest impression, starting at the front of the grid on Saturday and finishing second on Sunday.
Schedule. The racing weekend will be starting on Friday with the Free Practice, while Races will be both days at 1.20 pm and 3.50 pm local time (2.20 and 4.50 pm CET).
Source. Ferrari/Photo. John Patterson
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