GT3: Iron Lynx Win in Monza After TF Sport Disqualified

For the second part of the race the top four cars were split by tenths of a second which had everyone on the edge of their seats.The no97 TF Sport Aston Martin of Ross Gunn took the chequered flag just ahead of the no2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche of Julien Andlauer, with the two Iron Lynx Ferraris just behind.

However, the no2 Porsche was served with a drive through penalty for refuelling outside of the mandatory pitstops, which, with 3 minutes of the race remaining, was converted to a 30 second time penalty.

The celebrations at TF Sport were also short lived after the rear wing of the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 was measured outside of the permitted tolerance of the FIA Homologation and was disqualified from the results of the race.

1. ·The race started with the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Gabriele Lancieri leading from pole position, closely followed by the no9 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Sarah Bovy.
2. Bovy managed to pass her teammate on the opening lap to move into the GT3 lead.
3. Ben Keating in the no97 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage had a heart stopping moment when the American was forced to take to the gravel to avoid a slow LMP3 car on the opening lap.
4. The first Safety Car period was declared on Lap 3, which saw the no2 Porsche come into the pits for their long stop, with Nicolas Leutwiler handing the car to Julien Andlauer for one lap before the French driver came back into the pits to hand back to Leutwiler in what was thought to be an inspired bit of strategy.Unfortunately, this led to the drive through penalty at the end of the race because refueling is not allowed outside of the mandatory pitstops.
5. At the restart Sarah Bovey was leading in the no9 Ferrari ahead of the no8 Ferrari of Lancieri and Keating in third place in the no97 Aston Martin.
6. On lap 16 the no51 AF Corse Ferrari of Ken Abe was hit by the no61 AF Corse Ferrari of teammate Gino Forgione, spinning both cars around for which the no61 488 was later penalised.
7. At the front of the field Bovey and Lancieri were trading lap times and were just 0.4s apart when the second safety car period was declared.This fierce battle continued when the green flag was waved to resume racing.
8. After the next set of pitstops where the leading cars were handed over to the second drivers, the no97 TF Sport Aston Martin of Ross Gunn emerged ahead of the no9 and no8 Ferraris which had Doriane Pin and Paolo Ruberti in respectively.Julien Andlauer was at the wheel of the no2 Porsche and was right behind the three leading cars as the third and final Safety Car period ended.
9. Andlauer went ahead of both Ferraris as Ruberti passed Pin for third place.Ross Gunn then came under pressure from the Porsche, but the British driver kept Andlauer at bay for lap after lap.
10. The top three cars circulated like they were attached by a piece of string.Doriane Pin dropped back from the lead battle, but she was able to keep the leaders in sight.
11. At the chequered flag the no97 TF Sport Aston Martin crossed the line in 4^thplace overall and just 0.5 seconds ahead of the no2 Porsche.
12. However, a drive through penalty converted to a 30 second penalty dropped the no2 Porsche down the order.
13. In post race scrutineering the no97 Aston Martin Vantage the rear wing position was measured at 1308mm instead of the FIA Homologation of 1285mm to 1295mm, which was outside of the 5mm tolerance permitted.The car was disqualified from the results and the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari was classified as first, the no9 Iron Lynx Ferrari was second and the no2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche was third.

CLICK HERE for the result from Round 3 at Monza