GTO: Ferrari Barcelona summary

Barba and Kaffer newly crowned International GT Open champions

The 2010 International GT Open season closed this past weekend with the title going to Alvaro Barba and Pierre Kaffer (AF Corse F430 GT2.) The final round of the season took place at the Catalunya circuit, in Montmelo, outside Barcelona and featured two closely contested races packed with spectacular overtaking moves.

Race 1 did not go well for the series leaders as Alvaro Barba was involved in a collision with Emmanuel Collard (JMB Stradale Racing, F430 GT2) but they only needed a fifth place in Race 2 to keep their lead over the duo of Enrico Toccacelo and Raffaele Giammaria (Edil Cris Racing Team F430 GT2) who ended up second in the championship.

It was a good weekend for Ferrari, with an amazing sweep of the top three places in Race 1 and a second and third place in Race 2. Victory in the first race went to the F430 GT2 of Nelson Piquet Jr and Alvaro Parente (Aurora Energy Drink) making their debut in this category. After a closely fought battle, the Brazilian and Portuguese duo got the upper hand over the crews of Tim Mullen-Adam Christodolou (CRS Racing F430 GT2) and Philipp Peter-Michael Broniszewski (Kessel Racing F430 GT2.) Race 2 was won by the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Richard Lietz-Gianluca Roda (Autorlando Sport) who had to mount a spirited defense to fight off Emmanuel Collard-Dino Lunardi (JMB Stradale Racing F430 GT2) who produced a great performance to finish second, while the third step on the podium went to the Ferrari of Sintu Vives and Manuel Cerqueda (Automobil Club d'Andorra F430 GT2.)

There was a noteworthy performance for the Enrico Toccacelo and Raffaele Giammaria duo (Edil Cris Racing Team F430 GT2) who took an important fourth place in Race 1, which brought them to within one point of the championship leaders, making the final race even more of a fight. However, seventh place in Race 2 was not enough for the Edil Cris crew to close the gap any further.

-source: ferrari