Frenchman Henry Hassid (Kessel Racing) won the second and final heat of the Coppa Shell Ferrari Challenge 2024 at Imola’s Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit, taking the chequered flag ahead of Ritzi and Lewandowski after dominating from the opening lap, despite two outings for the Safety Car.
Andrzej Lewandowski started well from pole, but at Tamburello he immediately lost two positions to Hassid, who became the new race leader, and Andreas Ritzi (CDP – D&C Racing). A few moments later, a contact took Tibor Valint out of the race, again at Tamburello, and the Race Direction opted to send the Safety Car out onto the track.
With 18 minutes to go, Manuela Gostner began to slow down on turn 16 due to an obvious problem with her Ferrari 296 of the Ineco Reparto Corse team. There were yellow flags in the final stretch of the track, but no entry of the safety car, while Manuela’s car was quickly moved from the gravel trap.
In the meantime, Thomas Gostner put together a good comeback that took him up to fourth position, albeit several seconds behind the fight for the victory and the podium.
Halfway through the race, after 15 minutes, an exciting fight for second place emerged between Ritzi and Lewandowski. With Hassid on the road to victory, the poleman and the CDP – D&C Racing driver began to battle for the runner-up slot.
Race Direction deployed the Safety Car a second time with five minutes to go due to a contact that took Fabrizio Fontana out of the race. The Formula Racing driver, already champion of the 488 class, ended up in the gravel at turn 9, with no chance of getting back on track.
This eliminated Hassid’s advantage, and he found himself once again having to manage Ritzi and Lewandowski behind him. On the final lap, however, Hassid was able to pull away from his rivals, taking home the victory that sealed the Coppa Shell title he had already won in the previous round.
Behind the first three, Thomas Gostner finished fourth ahead of Alexander Nussbaumer, Pierluigi Alessandri, Ernst Kirchmayr, James Weiland, Fons Scheltema and Yasutaka Shirasaki. The Japanese driver from Rosso Scuderia completed the overall Top 10.
As for the 488 title, with Fontana out, Wietlisbach (CDP D&C Racing) took home the victory over Sven Shoemer (Ferrari Katowice) and Pino Frascaro (Rossocorsa).
