Mario Cordoni made it five Blancpain GT Sports Club victories in his last six starts this morning after fighting through from fourth on the grid to beat Saturday’s Qualifying Race winner Nicolas Misslin at Misano. Iron Cup victor Pierguiseppe Perazzini again underlined his pace by completing the overall podium.
The 40-minute race was punctuated by two brief Safety Car periods, the first of which occurred on lap one when Alexis de Bernardi’s Kessel Racing Ferrari span into the Turn 2 gravel. Cordoni was already up to second at that stage having passed Anthony Pons and then Perazzini later on the opening tour.
It was clear once the race went green again that pole-man Misslin would not have things all his own way as he and Cordoni broke clear of the field together. By lap eight the Italian was ideally placed to pass and slid his AF Corse Ferrari down the inside to complete what would prove the decisive move of the race.
A second Safety Car period was required one lap later to retrieve Pons’ AKKA ASP Ferrari, which had spun and beached itself in the gravel. Racing resumed two laps later and although Misslin initially looked to challenge for the lead Cordoni was steadily able to build an advantage. 3.8s covered them at the chequered flag.
Perazzini, meanwhile, enjoyed a relatively low-key run to third overall and second Iron Cup victory of the weekend. The Italian’s GTE-spec Ferrari 458 Italia was overtaken by Maurice Ricci’s charging Mercedes-AMG GT3 on lap four but inherited the position when the AKKA ASP driver was called in to serve his drive-through penalty for jumping the start.
Martin Lanting emerged from a hard-fought scrap to take fourth position overall and second in the Iron Cup standings. His AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GTE had run in the lower reaches of the top-10 initially but carved its way through by first passing Pierre Hirschi’s CMR-run BMW Z4 GT3 and then Nicolas Vandierendonck’s Corvette C6 ZR1 GTE over the second half of the race.
Vandierendonck will nevertheless be happy with his drive after making up five places from where he started, while Hirschi equalled his Qualifying Race result from Saturday.
Jean-Michel Baert’s Audi was also in the thick of the action en route to seventh ahead of Stephen Earle, who scored his second Iron Cup podium of the weekend. Ricci recovered from his penalty to finish right behind the Kessel Racing Ferrari and ahead of Jan Burnstedt’s R8 LMS ultra, which completed the top-10.
Elsewhere, Patrick Van Glabeke made up eight places aboard his AF Corse Ferrari to finish 11th overall, while Christian Hook also bounced back from a drive-through penalty while running seventh to finish 15th.
Mario Cordoni (#49 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT3), 1st Overall: “We struggled a bit in the wet yesterday but today the car was perfect; absolutely fantastic! So I immediately felt very comfortable, especially as the track conditions were also good. Nicolas is a very good driver so I had to wait for my moment without making a mistake. I was quite sure I had the pace to pass but not fast enough to make it easy. There was a little risk involved but it was ok! The second Safety Car came out soon after so we were together for a little while but I was eventually able to pull a small gap.