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Spa Euro Race

Spa-Francorchamps hosted during the weekend of Saturday June 25th and Sunday 26th the yearly and

well known Spa Euro Race, featuring FIA F2, International GT Open, F3 Open, Dutch Supercar Challenge,

Maserati Trofeo and Britcar. On both Friday (free practice and qualifying) as on Saturday drivers and

spectators had to survive the very wet and chilly conditions on and around the track. On Sunday the rain

luckily vanished and temperatures reached 26° C.

FIA F2

Will Bratt scored his maiden victory in the FIA F2 championship. Both Mirko Bortolotti (2nd) and Christopher

Zanella (3rd) shared the podium with the Briton. Bratt started from a fifth place on the grid and claimed

second place after chosing the outer line in the La Source hairpin. Ramon Pineiro, leader of the race at

that, made a mistake in Les Combes. Will Bratt took full advantage and moved into the lead. From that

moment it was only a matter of surviving the wet and slippery track conditions. Mirko Bortolotti tried to

attack Will Bratt but what the Italian tried, the Briton remained cool. Finally Bratt scored a well deserved

maiden victory in the championship, in front of Mirko Bortolotti and Christopher Zanella.

Mirko Bortolotti dominated the second race of the weekend on Sunday afternoon and claimed victory. Both

Christopher Zanella and Will Bratt also scored their second consecutive podium of the weekend finishing 2nd

and 3rd. The race on Sunday saw dry and fairly hot conditions. Bortolotti started from 3rd place on the

grid. The Italian chose the inside line in the La Source hairpin resulting in the lead of the race. From that

moment on, Bortolotti gradually created a bigger gap towards Christopher Zanella. German driver Tobias

Hegewald was a man on a mission claiming second place and closing the gap with Bortolotti. However lap

number 7 proved to be Hegewalds Waterloo. In the Les Combes he lost control but it looked as if he could

rejoin the race. Seconds later it turned out that his car got stuck on a kerb what was the end of his race.

International GT Open

Andrea Montermini and Emanuele Moncini gave the Ferrari F458 GT Italia the second victory of the season

on a very wet track. Ferrari’s brand new GT performed great scoring both a second and a third place. Soheil

Ayari and Nicolas Marroc (JMB Racing) finished second as Raffaele Giammaria and Miguel Ramos (Team Edil

Cris Racing) finished third. Montermini started from pole position and could easily create a gap leaving Philipp

Peter second and Raffaele Giammaria third. Peter came under huge pressure from Giammaria and Ayari and

had to settle for fourth place. After the mandatory pitstop Emanuele Moncini took over from Montermini,

Nicolas Marroc did the same with Soheil Ayari. The Frenchman could close the gap slightly but didn’t

manage to be a real threat. Moncini crossed the finish line first, followed by Maroc and Miguel Ramos. The

GTS category saw the third victory of the season by Lorenzo Bontempelli and Stefano Gattuso.

Marco Frezza and Juan Lopez proved that the ‘old’ Ferrari F430 GT2 can still be a tough opponent in

winning the second race of the weekend. Although the Ferrari F458 GT Italia of Philipp Peter and Michal

Bronizewski was quicker, Frezza and Lopez claimed victory. Andrea Montermini and Emanuele Moncini,

winners of the first race, finished third but were diskwalified due to using unmarked tires. Luca Rangoni and

Alessandro Garafona gained the final place on the winners podium. Dry and fairly hot were some of the

ingredients for race two. Porsche had a lot of difficulties in the rain, but dry conditions suited the 911

remarkably well. Although Moncini started from pole, Alvaro Barba driving the Autorlando Porsche made a

perfect start taking the lead. In lap 5 he suffered from a puncture. After the mandatory pit stops Marco

Frezza took the lead in front of Philipp Peter and Luca Rangoni. Montermini battled his way through the

field, overtook Rangoni but didn’t see the winners podium as a result of diskwalification.

European F3 Open

Despite the fact that William Vermont crossed the finishline first during the first race it was West Tec driver

Fabio Gamberini who was declared winner. Vermonts car was disqualified due to a technical irregularity.

Gamerini drove a spectular race on a wet and very slippery Spa-Francorchamps, starting from the last place

on the grid! Noel Jammal finished second, in front of Victor Correa.

Alex Fontana scored his maiden victory in the series during the 2nd race on Sunday. Fontana made a

perfect move in the last lap of the race in Les Combes passing Davide Fumanelli who finished second. Third

place in this race was scored by William Vermont. With his victory, Fontana extended his lead in the

European F3 Open championship.

Dutch Supercar Challenge

An entry list featuring more than seventy cars and soaking wet conditions, just a few ingredients for the

first race of the Dutch Supercar Challenge on Saturday. Several safety car periods were the result of typical

Ardennes weather conditions and a packed field of cars. Right after the start things went wrong for the

Corvette of Dave Basu hitting the armco in Eau Rouge. Both Ric Wood and Peter Claassen stranded in the

gravel pit after hitting Koen Bogaerds. The safety car had to be deployed but after the restart it all went

wrong for the BMW M3 driven by Martin Webb what resulted in another safety car period. Both Ardi van

der Hoek and Robert de Graaff didn’t bother it at all. After scoring the pole position they started the race,

created a big gap and finally finished the race, scoring a victory in difficult conditions. Martin Short and Mike

Guasch crossed the finishline no less than 35 seconds later in their Mosler Super GT. Berry van Elk finished

third in his Praga 4S. Bert van der Zweerde scored victory in the Supersport I division, in front of Carlo

Kuijer. Koen Bogaerts scored victory in the Supersport II division, as did Aart Bosman in the Sport division.

The second race on Sunday saw bright and warm conditions but this didn’t help the driver much. During

the early stages of this race it went wrong once more resulting in a safety car period that lasted twenty

minutes. After 60 minutes it was the Marcos LM600 of veteran Cor Euser, crossing the finish line first in

front of Diederick Sijthoff and Rick Abresch and Dave Basu who both paired up as a team for this race.

Wolf Nathan and Jaap van Lagen claimed victory in their Porsche in the Supersport I division as did Jan

v.d. Kooij in Supersport II. Finallly Guillaume Schulz scored victory in the Sport division.

Maserati Trofeo & Britcar

Besides the mentioned series the 2011 edition of the Spa Euro Race saw participation of both Maserati

Trofeo and Britcar.

Articles in Dutch can be found here:

GT Open: derde overwinning voor Frezza en Lopez in Spa

GT Open: Montermini en Moncini zegevieren in Spa

F2: 1e overwinning voor Will Bratt op een verregend Spa

F2: Bortolotti domineert in Spa en leidt kampioenschap