Orange 1 FFF Racing Team enjoyed a sensational Sunday at the Nürburgring, where the fourth season round in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS took place. The Chinese operation broke the ice conquering its deserved first overall victory of the year, with the Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 Evo of Marco Mapelli, Andrea Caldarelli and Mirko Bortolotti. Moreover, the sister car of Hiroshi Hamaguchi, Stefano Costantini and Phil Keen won in the Pro-Am class.
Orange 1 FFF Racing Team confirmed again its speed potential in the morning qualifying session, when the Mapelli/Caldarelli/Bortolotti trio set its third pole position out of four meetings, putting a 1:54.633 average lap time. After some unfavorable circumstances in the previous races, the Nurburgring 3 Hours proceeded smoothly for the #63 crew, which kept the race lead from the start to the finish, leaving it only during the pit stop windows.
A constantly-growing margin vanished at the first safety-car phase 37 minutes to the end, but after the final restart, Bortolotti managed the situation and cruised towards the chequered flag. This win gives him and his teammates Mapelli and Caldarelli the chance to fight for the 2021 Endurance title at the last round in Barcelona, scheduled on 10th October.
The icing on the cake for Orange 1 FFF Racing Team was represented by the parallel victory in the Pro-Am category, with the #19 car driven by Hamaguchi, Keen and Costantini, a new addition since Spa. In a dramatic final fight in the midfield, Keen managed to retake the class lead with less than five minutes remaining, completing an epic day for the squad.
Fu Songyang, Team Owner Orange1 FFF Racing Team
“This has been one of the brightest days in our team’s history, with the overall win coming together with the one in the Pro-Am class. One more time we proved our raw speed potential setting the third pole of the year, which represents a record in the Endurance Cup, but today everything went perfectly also in the race. Marco, Andrea, Mirko and our pitwall always had full control of the situation, even during the tense final phase. We reduced the gap from the top of the standings and we can still fight for the title in Barcellona. At the same time, we won in the Pro-Am class thanks to a great combined performance from Hiroshi, Phil and Stefano, who already showed to be a great addition to the #19 line-up. We couldn’t be happier than this”.
