Gurrieri claims another pair of wins in Coppa Italia at Vallelunga

Raffaele Gurrieri seems to have a special feeling with the Vallelunga circuit. The Scuderia del Girasole driver has won both races for the Coppa Italia Turismo last weekend, just like he had done on the season opener in April.

These two victories meant that Gurrieri has stretched his leadership in the standings, 16 points ahead of Ramazan Kaya and 22 over Adriano Visdomini.

From the pole position Gurrieri led at the start but went wide at the Campagnano bend and dropped to third behind Visdomini and Kaya. At the end of the first lap a collision between the Audi cars of Tiziano Bergamasco and Ömer Şamli resulted with the Turkish driver crashing into the barrier. The safety car was deployed and at the restart Gurrieri retook the lead proceeding to take his third win of the season ahead of Kaya and Visdomini. Giacomo Orioli won the Class B from his Planet Motorsport teammate Bergamasco who was later dopped to fifth by a 15-second penalty for the incident with Şamli.

Gurrieri started again from the pole in Race 2, but Koray Kamiloğlu and Kaya were faster than him. Gurrieri and Visdomini overtook Kaya in lap 2, moving up to second and third and began to put the pressure on Kamiloğlu.

The Turkish driver outbraked himself in lap 6 and went straight at the Trincea bend. This opened the door to Gurrieri who pulled away, while Visdomini lost the second place to Kaya in lap 9 and then pitted one lap later with a flat front tyre, leaving the third place to Kamiloğlu. Orioli and Bergamasco finished first and second in Class B, but they were both penalised for racing incidents which handed the class victory to Daniele Verrocchio.

The next event will be at Mugello, on September 6/7.

Picture: PNK Motorsport/Claudio Signori