Kessel Racing leads LMGT3 Class in ELMS after win at Mugello Circuit
Kessel Racing stormed to its second victory of the season in the penultimate round of the European Le Mans Series at the home of Ferrari at the Mugello Circuit. After a phenomenal drive coming from P8 on the grid and thanks to a clever strategy by the team, the #57 Ferrari 296 GT3 with Takeshi Kimura, Esteban Masson and Daniel Serra secured a hard-fought victory, which also sees the team now leading the championship heading into the final round of the year at Portimâo in three weeks. Whilst the celebrations where the order of Sunday, the team was struck by bad luck in the Michelin Le Mans Cup on Saturday, however, still took home point finishes.
Kessel Racing now in contention for winning the ELMS title
Takeshi Kimura put the #57 Ferrari 296 GT3 in P8 on the grid in what was a very challenging qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. The Japanese driver had a solid start to a chaotic early phase of the race and handed the car over to Esteban Masson after an almost 90-minute stint. After his first laps, Esteban Masson had a phenomenal avoidance of a crashing and spinning #60 Aston Martin right in front of him. After the huge accident, where the driver escaped unhurt, the race was red-flagged.
Due to the long pause, the end of the race was put back to 15:50 and at the restart, Esteban Masson started his charge through the field from P7. Until his pitstop, the young Frenchman had moved up into the Top-3 of the LMGT3 class.
Daniel Serra was last in the car running in second place with six seconds behind the leader, the #97 Aston Martin Vantage. Lap-by-lap, the Brazilian driver came closer and closer until he was only a small margin behind. In an incredible overtaking move, he took the lead of LMGT3 class to take the second win of the season and the second consecutive when crossing the finishing line. This has put the team in contention of winning the class championship at the season finale at Portimâo.
Challenging race for Kessel Racing at the Michelin Le Mans Cup
Andrew Gilbert started the #74 Ferrari 296 GT3 from fifth place on the grid in the GT3 category with his team-mate in the sister car #12, Frédéric Jousset following him closely from P7.
The challenging start of the race would be the order for the entire 1h40” race at the Mugello Circuit in the early evening on Saturday. After a half spin on lap 3, Andrew Gilbert went on to record the fastest lap of the race in GT3, making up the lost ground and catching the runners ahead. He also demonstrated the Ferraris performance by setting the overall fastest first sector. The English driver had another battle with the Aston Martin, which pushed him off into the gravel, but the #74 pilot was able to join the race again.
After the pitstops, which both Ferraris completed at the same time, both David Fumanelli (#12) and Fran Rueda (#74) were on a charge. However, despite great battles both cars were given Drive-Through-Penalties due to track limits infringements. The Kessel Racing Ferraris finished in sixth and eighth place respectively.
With one remaining race, Kessel Racing is third in the teams standing and also P3 with Andrew Gilbert and Fran Rueda with a chance to become runner-up in the Michelin Le Mans Cup championship.