Maranello, 21 November 2010

The twentieth running of the Vallelunga 6 Hours, the endurance race that has become a classic end of season event, ended in the pouring rain. No less than fifty four cars took the start and heading them home in the Gold Cup for GT cars was one of the four F430s entered by the AF Corse team, in the hands of Luca Rangoni, Alessandro Garofano and Marco Mapelli. They finished ahead of another Ferrari, this one a Kessel Racing car, crewed by Michael Broniszewski and Philipp Peter and the Porsche 997 GT3, driven by Stefano Borghi, Gianluca De Lorenzi and Rino Mastronardi. Twelfth place overall, eleventh in class, was the result awaiting the two competitors from the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli – Giorgio Sernagiotto and Stefano Gai – at the wheel of another of the AF Corse team run by Amato Ferrari, teamed with expert driver Emanuele Pirro, on his maiden drive in a Prancing Horse car. Having started from eighth on the grid, the trio managed to climb as high as third, before dropping down the order when the radiator split in the fifth hour, when Gai was driving. Not much luck for Giancarlo Fisichella this weekend, on board AF Corse’s Ferrari no. 5, alongside Marco Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perazzini. Despite their qualifying being compromised by a prolonged visit to the pits after an off-track excursion from Perazzini, a fantastic performance from the Roman driver and clever team work saw the car move up from eleventh to take the lead. Then, with only twenty minutes remaining, Fisichella went off at the Cimini corner and suffered a bruised knee, dropping to eighth at the finish.