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| July 17, 2016 | |
| A SECOND PLACE AND A MISSED VICTORY END ALBERTO CERQUI'S WEEKEND AT MUGELLO | |
| 17/06/2016 - Alberto Cerqui has been a protagonist during the Mugello weekend - fifth round of the Italian GT Championship 2016. The BMW Team Italia driver took a deserved second place and went very close to scoring the second win of the season.
The driver from Brescia declared that he would have run an aggressive strategy in Mugello to confirm himself among the front runners, and this is how it went. The second session in free practice made it clear that the potential of the BMW M6 GT3 run by BMW Team Italia would have allowed Cerqui to run a strong weekend. In Q1 Cerqui had the chance to fight for the front row, but he hit traffic in his final attempt and could not get the most of his car, taking anyway the fourth place in 1'47.570s that was less than half a second shy of the pole. Cerqui wisely decided to keep his position at the start, without losing contact with the leading trio, waiting the right occasion to move an attack on Jeroen Mul. A sudden and effective move at lap 9 allowed Cerqui to find his way past the Lamborghini Huracan and to install himself on P3 before handing the car over to Comandini. The competitveness of the car and the great setup work done since Friday have been awarded by the overtaking move that allowed Cerqui's team mate to take the lead of the race at lap 19. The lineup was involved in an unlucky contact with three laps to go, which stripped Cerqui of the second victory of the season. Stefano Comandini started race two from the fourth row of the grid, following the seventh time posted in Q2. A great first stint and the stop to swap driver in the right moment allowed Cerqui to rejoin the race in P3. Thanks to a series of fast laps and very good driving, Cerqui took the BMW M6 GT3 behind the leaders ready to move the attack. A penalty handed to Stefano Gai allowed Cerqui to take the second place at the flag at the end of a very strong race. Alberto Cerqui: "This has definitely been a positive weekend. The car has been very competitive since free practice, I could fight for top positions in all circumstances and this is what counts. Performance and reliability are improving and Stefano has been really very effective. In qualifying I could not get the maximum result due to a slower car in the decisive moment, but I had a really great race pace.I am a bit sorry for not getting the second win of the season, but we will certainly have another occasion to get it. We run a very good race two as we started from the fourth row. My pace was very good and we scored a great second place. The feeling with the car has been incredible and I cannot wait to run the next race". The Italian GT Championship will be back on track next 9-11 September in Vallelunga after the summer break. | |