ORANGE1 FFF RACING TEAM successfully completed its maiden official 2019 appearance. The squad, running three Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo cars, started the week-end with a positive free practice day on Friday, with both ORANGE1 cars achieving a Top-10 result, in wet and also dry conditions. Saturday was even better, as after the good pace shown in the morning’s free practice, at the end of afternoon’s Pre-Qualifying, car #563 of Caldarelli-Lind-Mapelli set the second fastest time, followed by the #519 trio, Keen-Perera-Venturini, in fourth place. In the Silver Cup, car #555 of Beretta-Menchaca-Proto, 15th in the overall rankings, was also able to be at the top (third) and the fastest Lamborghini-branded car in its category.
Sunday surprisingly started with no rain, but the track was still wet and qualifying became basically a one-push-lap effort, given the many red flags. Car #563 proved the best position on the grid (6th in the average lap times combination) for the team, while #519 took the 15th slot. For the Silver Cup drivers, it wasn’t an easy debut, with a final P28 in the overall time sheet.
The Italian round obviously had a strong meaning for the entire FFF squad, given the link with Lamborghini and the fact of having its operating base in Sant’Agata Bolognese. On top, each car line-up features at least one Italian driver. In the race, Lind-Caldarelli-Mapelli, alternating at the wheel in this order, managed a great recover after the Danish was pushed out of track in the initial phases, with the two Italians setting an amazing pace, up to a final second place, being also for more than half race, the best Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO of the field.
A great recover was made also by the Silver Cup boys, with Beretta-Proto-Menchaca finishing 10th overall, but more importantly, third in their category. It was a tougher race for the #519 car, with Venturini-Keen-Perera losing a possible top-5 finish after race direction inflicted the car a 30-seconds penalty in the last stint due to a contact with a lapped car, with the 17th final place sounding a bit disappointing.
Fu Songyang, ORANGE1 FFF RACING TEAM Owner:
“It was nice for me to attend on track the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup season-opening round in Monza. We already had some SRO experiences, but racing in top-level series is always great. The crowd was amazing, especially considering the weather conditions they endured during the weekend. The results have been awesome, but what I’ve been mostly impressed by has been the atmosphere inside the team, all the guys working very well together, not just the drivers, but every member of the crew. They really showed passion for this project, and I’m very happy of this. Having in our boxes such important presences from ORANGE1 and Lamborghini Squadra Corse meant a lot to me, and I’m sure we brought some new way of doing things in the paddock”.
