SPA: Matteo Bobbi race report

Matteo Bobbi on The Podium at the Prestigious 24 Hours of Spa.

After 24 hours of an intense and exciting race, Matteo Bobbi finished the Spa marathon 3rd in the GT category and thus conquered the well-earned podium.

This result could have been better had it not been for Livio who violently crashed and damaged the back part of the car. The boys from Scuderia Italia repaired the car in less than an hour but at that point, the race had already been jeopardized. These are the details of Bobbi/Gardel/ Livio /De Castro's adventure in Spa.

2nd Hour

Matteo took off in third place and kept a very high pace. In no time, he conquered the lead. His team-mates continued being in the leading positions and finished the second hour in third place.

Although the weather forecast called for rain, the weather was great throughout the whole race.

4th Hour

The Ferrari 550 driven by Matteo Bobbi re-conquers the 1st position. Matteo overtook Salo-Babini-Peter-Vosse's Ferrari 575 and Scuderia Italia's Ferrari 550 driven by Gollin-Cappellari-Bryner-Calderari.

6th hour

The first points were handed out: Matteo's team finished the sixth hour in 2nd place and was given 4 points. Now the after dark competition begins.

10th hour: Night time doesn't bring car #1 much luck. During the 186th lap Livio was behind the wheel but he went off track and damaged the back part of the car. An immediate Pit stop and the Scuderia Italia's mechanics immediately repaired the car in little less than an hour .The car did manage to get back on track during the 204th lap with Gardel behind the wheel in 20th place. This delay wasn't easy to eliminate and from that moment on Matteo and his team- mates started to climb their way up again.

16th hour

Thanks to shifts of very fast driving, Matteo Bobbi managed to consolidate an incredible climb during the 16th hour and finished in 5th place. However, the leader who was 20 laps ahead was by now unreachable. Therefore Matteo Bobbi tried to keep up a constant pace to get the third place in the GT category and to sum up some precious points for the classification.

20th Hour

After conquering the 3rd place in the GT category, Matteo Bobbi maintained the position and kept the car in good condition. During a previous pit stop Scuderia Italia cut a nut with a saw they weren't supposed to use. The regulation says that all sparks are forbidden at the pit boxes and so the marshals gave Matteo Bobbi a drive through penalty.

24th Hour

The last hour of the race is always very crucial for the car: as soon as they had their 3rd place in tact Matteo Bobbi and his team-mates slowed down just a little to avoid any technical problems. Matteo conquered his first podium in the 24 hours of Spa and summed up 12.5 points. He also secured his 2nd place in the classification.

Matteo Bobbi

"To cut the finish line after a spectacular and exciting race like the 24 hours of Spa is just a great feeling. I'm a little sour about the accident that cost us almost an hour of delay. Had it not been for this, we could have fought for the lead. However, the prestigious 3rd place is very satisfying to all of us. I would like to compliment my team-mates Gardel, Livio and De Castro with whom I immediately got on well with. We gave out 100% and the podium was a great prize for all of our hard work. The championship still has 4 more rounds left and without a doubt Cappellari and Gollin have the advantage. But rest assured that both Gardel and I will do our utmost to fight for the title!"

-www.matteobobbi.com