New Lamborghini dominates on BES debut

The GRT Grasser team enjoyed the perfect debut for the new Lamborghini Huracan as the #19 car led for virtually the whole of the Blancpain Endurance race at Monza.

With the Ferrari cars enjoying a favorable Balance of Performance ruling at Monza, the #333 Rinaldi car of Rinat Salikhov and Norbert Siedler finished second, 37 seconds behind the #19 Huracan shared by Fabio Babini, Andrew Palmer and Jeroen Mul.

Salikhov and Siedler also took the Pro-Am class honors in the process.

Reigning Blancpain Endurance champion Laurens Vanthoor brought home the #1 WRT Audi to complete the podium after a late mechanical drama demoted the #11 Kessel Ferrari.

A packed field of 58 cars started the race and they all managed to get through the first chicane unscathed. In the process, Pierre Kaffer in the #66 Black Pearl Racing Ferrari seized the lead at the first corner from polesitter Salikhov.

As the pack charged through the Curva Grande corner just seconds later the #78 BMW of Leo Matchitski and the #12 BMW of Eric Dermont ended up in the barriers and gravel trap respectively after Dermont was punted into a spin and Matchitski tried to avoid the carnage.

The safety car appeared as the two BMWs were recovered but it came in again after just one lap, which caused large gaps to appear among the field.

As Kaffer subsequently escaped up the road, Salikhov surrendered second place to Babini in the #19 Lamborghini as the Russian driver outbraked himself into Turn 1 at the start of lap seven.

Kaffer pitted the #66 Ferrari on lap 19 and Babini inherited a lead that the #19 Lamborghini team would never really lose. The #66 Ferrari fell down the order with Steve Parrow thereafter and came home in 22nd. The #19's lead had stabilized at around 20s over the #333 Ferrari for much of the race, interrupted only by occasional safety cars.

A full-course yellow was shown after 56 laps to allow the marshals to recover some debris that had been deposited on the pit straight. It only lasted a lap but it caught out the #23 Nissan of Katsumasa Chiyo, who subsequently came severe pressure from the #7 Bentley of Andy Meyrick in a scrap for seventh place overall.

With 45 minutes left to run the safety car was called out again after Ronnie Volani in the #54 McLaren suffered a huge accident at the Parabolica when he lost the car under braking while fighting the #84 Bentley of Mike Parisy and slammed into the barrier on the inside of the track.

The safety car remained out for 15 minutes but the #19 Lamborghini was able to run clear to the finish when it came in.

Alessandro Bonacini in the #11 Ferrari looked like he was going to take second place from the #333 Ferrari but he fell away with mechanical gremlins and wound up seventh.

Duncan Cameron in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari came home fourth ahead of the #7 M-Sport Bentley.

The #2 WRT Audi finished in sixth place ahead of Bonacini, with the #23 RJN Nissan in eighth and the #35 Audi in ninth. The #53 AF Corse Ferrari completed the top 10.

Originally on Autosport.com