The weekend just spent on the Mugello circuit for the first stage of the Italian Gran Turismo Championship could not have been better.
During qualifying on Saturday, Daniel immediately showed that he had become familiar with the Audi R8 LMS and managed to snatch a fantastic pole position by turning in 1’47″00.
At the start of the race, Agostini – who first took to the track – could not to do much against the starting point of the BMW M6 driven by Stefano Comandini, who kept the reigning Italian GT Sprint champion behind for 21 laps.
During the dubbing of a GT4, however, thanks also to a mistake by Comandini, the Audi driver broke the delay by passing the M6 ??at the Correntaio curve. Once past the BMW, Agostini showed a markedly higher pace, managing to conquer almost 9″ of margin on the other drivers.
At the next pit stop, Mancinelli took over driving the Audi R8 LMS. The driver from the Marche region, who confirmed the trust of his mentor and new Team Principal Audi Ferdindando Geri, managed to keep the head of the race delivering the car to his teammate Drudi with a margin of about 8″ on the Lamborghini and on the BMW.
In the meantime, Sims got on the M6 ??GT3 and with a pounding rhythm he managed to overcome the Huracan at the 70th lap, taking second place and chasing Drudi. Thanks to an excellent performance, however, the Audi driver managed to keep the lead of the race by winning with only 26 thousandths of gap, enough to get on the highest step of the podium together with Agostini and Mancinelli.
“There could be no better debut as an Audi Sport Italia driver with a pole position and a beautiful victory.” – Daniel said – “I immediately got in tune with the whole team and with my teammates Riccardo and Mattia with whom we managed to get the most out of the car and win the victory. Next round of the Italian Gran Turismo Sprint Championship next August 2nd in Misano.”
