Bellarosa does the double at Imola

Ivan Bellarosa put local knowledge to good use to claim his maiden SPEED EuroSeries victories at Imola last weekend.

The Italian wildcard proved untouchable in race one, blasting away from pole position to establish a comfortable advantage that was never tested.

Behind, four cars failed to complete the opening lap when the Sarah Reader/Darren Burke Juno, Ben Clucas/Tom Bradshaw WFR and Moshin Rashid/Charlie Hollings Ligier all ended up in the gravel trap.  That was still further than Jamie Constable and Michael Cantillon managed after their TFL Racing Juno suffered an oil fire on the warm-up lap.

The fight for the lesser podium places remained close throughout with Paul Ricard and Donington race winners Warren Hughes and Jody Firth prevailing in their duel with LMP2 regular Scott Tucker, as well as Greg Murphy and Melroy Heemskirk whose RLR Msport Ligier finished fourth.

Sunday’s second race would follow a similar pattern as Bellarosa quickly pulled out an eight second gap back to the squabbling Burke and Dean Stirling before the latter settled the matter for good on lap seven.

While the top three remained unchanged thereafter – Bellarosa taking the chequered flag 25 seconds clear of Stirling’s co-driver Matt Draper – fourth place eventually went the way of Guglielmo who was able to demote Rashid in the final laps. Tucker completed the top six ahead of Leonardo Baccarelli and Antonio Mastroberardino.

Early casualties included Heemskirk whose Ligier was tagged from behind by  Mastroberardino, while the WFR of Firth – paired with Bradshaw for race two – would eventually succumb to brake issues.  

Even with his local knowledge, Bellarosa’s fastest lap ended up a full second quicker than that of Stirling, prompting scrutineers to seal the #45 car’s engine for technical verification. The results therefore remain provisional until further notice.

Catch SPEED EuroSeries coverage on Motors TV throughout 2011.

Tom Hornsby