The Megadrive-Racing Box Maserati MC12, with Gabriele Matteuzzi and Piergiuseppe Perazzini on board, finished in fourth place in Italian GT championship race held at Vallelunga yesterday.

Official qualifying ahead of the Sara Assicurazioni Italian GT Championship was held on Saturday in the searing heat of Vallelunga. In the first session to decide the starting order for race 1, the Maserati MC12, fielded by the Megadrive-Racing Box team, came home fourth fastest.

Gabriele Matteuzzi ran fourteen laps and stopped the clock at 1:11.993, corresponding to an average speed of 161.415 km/h. Everybody was in with a racing chance as the top four are separated by only eight tenths of a second which paid rich testimony to how evenly matched the Italian series GT cars are.

Angelo Lancelotti in the Ferrari 550 Maranello took pole position in 1:11.135. Rui Aguas also did well in the GT3 category with the AF Corse Maserati Coupé Light. He set a best time of 1:16.815, at an average of 151.282 km/h. Aguas beat off the challenge of five more powerful GT2 cars. Just a shade slower was the Maserati Coupé Light with Andrea Ceccato at the wheel (Team Megadrive, 1:16.850) and Andrea Palma (AF Corse, 1:17.608). Fifth place in the class went to Diego Romanini in the Team Guidici Trofeo Light (1:18.213).

In the second qualifying session, valid for the race two starting grid, Piergiuseppe Perazzini finished with the second best time (1:11.468 at an average of 162.601 km/h). He would thus start from the front row alongside the Ferrari 550 Maranello crewed by Malucelli/Ramos (1:10.880). The Maserati MC12 completed 13 laps.
 

In the GT3 class, Michele Rugolo, making his first appearance in the Megadrive Light, set the fastest time (1:17.542, an average speed of 149.864 km/h). The second, third and fourth GT3 times were clocked by the other Coupé Lights driven by, respectively, Danilo Zampaloni (AF Corse, 1:17.694), Gianni Giudici (Team Giudici, 1:18.088) and Luca Frigerio (AF Corse, 1:18.452). The Coupé Light crews involved in the GT3 class are: Giudici / Romanini, Rugolo / Ceccato, Frigerio / Aguas, and Palma / Zampaloni.

Matteuzzi got off to a solid start at the beginning of the race yesterday, and held on to the fourth place he earned in qualifying. In the GT3 class, Andrea Ceccato took the win in the Maserati Light fielded by Megadrive. He was followed home by the AF Corse Light with Andrea Palma and Rui Aguas behind the wheel. The early stages of the race were tight and the struggle for the lead in the GT1 class was a hard fought one.

After fifteen minutes of racing, the lead in the GT3 class was still held by Andrea Ceccato. He led until lap 19 when he was overtaken by Aguas. In third was Andrea Palma. The obligatory stops were made towards the middle of the race. Gabriele Matteuzzi came in for his change and Perazzini got into the driving seat. However, the Maserati’s pit stop lasted longer than expected as the mechanics had to adjust the toe angle. Frigerio had taken over from Agaus and was now leading with Rugolo and Zampolini tracking close behind.

Rugolo managed to get past Frigerio but the duel between the two remained a heated one until three laps from the end when Zampaloni edged past Frigerio. Perazzini upped the tempo in the closing stages in an attempt to catch Bonaldi’s Saleen, this he did and then he overtook him. It was Malucelli / Ramos in the Ferrari 550 Maranello to take the chequered flag. Coming next was the Cappellari / Lancelotti crew in the other 550 Maranello and then came the Lister Storm driven by Zonca/Belicchi. It was a Maserati one-two finish in the Trofeo CSAI GT3 class with Ceccato/Rugolo heading Palma/Zampaloni.