The Saturday afternoon action at Imola got underway with all the titles already decided and the sound of Eurofighters overhead drowning out the rolling start in the second Trofeo Pirelli race of the weekend. After setting his first pole of the year, Eliseo Donno (CDP-Best Lap) rocketed away from fellow front row man John Wartigue (FML-D2P).
Amidst all the action, Thomas Neubauer (Charles Pozzi-Courage) finished on the grass in the opening lap, which immediately put an end to any hopes he had of victory. Wartigue immediately had his work cut out after a bad start, first being pushed onto the grass by Doriane Pin (Scuderia Niki-Iron Lynx) and then being taken out by Nigel Schoonderwoerd (Scuderia FMA-Iron Lynx), who picked up a drive-through penalty for his actions. A surprisingly below-par Ange Barde (Cotes d’Azur Cannes) also went through the gravel at the Tamburello.
After the dust had settled Donno had a 1.5 second lead over Pin with Neubauer in third, under attack from Adrian Sutil and Nicola Mariangeli (CDP), while Yudai Uchida (Rosso Scuderia) was able to hold off Luka Nurmi (Formula Racing), also unusually not amongst the front runners this weekend.
The safety car came out for the first time 12 minutes into the race when APAC AM competitor Baby Kei (Cornes Osaka) went off into the gravel, the resulting interruption bunching the cars up and giving Pin a chance to attack Donno. But the young Italian was on top form and got the drive at the re-start to establish a gap once again. Nurmi was trying way too hard to get into sixth place and he picked up a warning for exceeding track limits.
In the final part of the race, Sutil made one final effort to pressure Neubauer but was unable to catch him and then the safety came out again with four minutes remaining when Claus Zibrandsten (Formula Racing) went off into the gravel, and the race ended behind the safety car with no overtaking allowed, Donno taking the chequered flag ahead of Pin and Neubauer.
Marco Pulcini (Al Tayer Motors), Christian Brunsborg (Formula Racing) and Hanno Laskowski (Riller & Schnauk) took the podium in the AM grouping in P8, P9 and P12, while Uchida continued with his great performance to finish in sixth overall. Kazuyaki Yamaguchi (Cornes Osaka) won the Coppa Shell Asia Pacific with a P19 finish, three places ahead of Eric Cheung (Blackbirds Concessionaires), while Shigeru Kamiue (European Version) was the only AM finisher in P26 after Kei finished in the gravel.
FERRARI CHALLENGE - Imola: Race 2 Trofeo Pirelli EU-APAC
