Balzan makes it five Ferrari Challenge wins on the trot at Spa Francorchamps
Alessandro Balzan kept his remarkable Ferrari Challenge winning record alive with a controlled race one victory at Spa Francorchamps
The Ferrari Moscow driver was the class of the field in terrible weather conditions, charging away from pole position and building a five-second gap in the first two laps of the race.
From there, Balzan was able to control proceedings. While his team-mate Bjorn Grossman did close the gap back to within two seconds in the closing laps, the German never got close enough to make a play for the win. Balzan has now won the last five races in a row.
While Grossman kept his shrinking title hopes alive with second place, he did somewhat inherit the spot from Andrii Kruglyk. The Ferrari Ukrainia driver blasted away from Grossman at the start, and began to mount a challenge for the lead on the third lap of the race. However, just corners after setting the fastest lap of the race to that point, the Ukrainian driver spun wildly, dropping back to fourth, where he ultimately finished.
That was good news for both Grossman and Robert Pergl (Scuderia Praha), who took over third place when Kruglyk spun, a position he too held until the finish.
Behind the top four, it was a long way back to the rest of the field. Stefano Gai (Ferrari Moscow) finished fifth, but was a whopping 46s behind the winner by the end of the race. He led home a pack that included Patrick Gobbo (Rossocorsa Pellin), Alexandr Skryabin (Ferrari Moscow) and Gianluca Giraudi (Motor Malucelli).
Max Blancardi was on for a good result, charging from eighth on the grid to fifth in the opening laps of the race. But with just over a lap left in the race the Motor Malucelli driver threw it all away, spinning into the wall and retiring several hundred metres later.
In the Coppa Shell class, Daniele di Amato (CDP) took an easy win ahead of Alexey Basov (Ferrari Moscow).
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