BOSS GP driver Armando Mangini retires, but remains with the series.
BOSS GP veteran Armando Mangini has announced his retirement from active racing at his home race in Imola. Mangini has been part of the BOSS GP family for nine consecutive years. The Italian contested a total of 72 races in Europe’s fastest racing series. A hand injury after a practice accident prevented races number 73 and 74 in Imola. Armando took it calmly: “I wanted to stop anyway.”
Monza 2018: Mangini on his way to the biggest sporting success of his long BOSS GP career
The Italian had his biggest sporting success last year in Monza. He won the Sunday race of the FORMULA class in his Dallara GP2 car. In a chaotic race he kept a cool head and drove to victory with constant lap times. These characteristics distinguished him for many years. Without making stupid mistakes, he drove the high-performance machines at a pace that challenged his often younger teammates.
Mangini (m.) with his friend and rival Walter Steding (l.) and his mechanic Mario (r.) at the farewell party
Mangini announced his plans at a farewell party at the Cuvée Sensorium victory ceremony in the BOSS GP hospitality. “Now it’s time to give the younger ones a chance.” As a farewell gift Armando gave his long-time competitors on the track and friends beside the racetrack bathrobes with personal imprints.
For next year, however, Mangini will remain in the BOSS GP as team manager. MM International is planning to have more than three cars at the start next season, according to Mangini. We wish him all the best – behind the pit wall and in his private life.
FORMULA title decision: Bracalente wins the race, Marco Ghiotto the championship.
How can it be better? The final decision for the championship title in the FORMULA class was made in the twelfth and last BOSS GP season race of 2019. Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) went into the race weekend with better chances. After Alessandro Bracalente’s (ITA, Speed Center) victory in Saturday’s race his lead reduced from 15 to 12 points. This means: Ghiotto had to be at least sixth today if Bracalente scores another victory in Sunday’s race.
Ghiotto already had a shock moment at the start of the warm-up lap when his red GP2 Dallara did not come off the spot. Lucky for Ghiotto: Because a second car also stopped, Ghiotto could line up again in the second row of the grid for the rolling start. The Scuderia Palladio was able to breathe a short sigh of relief.
The best start behind OPEN champion Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed) had Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International), who almost caught Bracalente at the top. Ghiotto not only lost the place to Martucci, but also to Salvatore de Plano (ITA, Top Speed). However, Ghiotto overtook both again in the early stages and even managed to catch up with Bracalente with a couple of fast lap times. With second place he was fully on target for the title.
And it remained like that. Bracalente won the last race of the season and ended the year with an incredible result for a rookie: 5 victories, 10 podium places and only two retirements. In the end, one too many to defeat his fellow countryman Ghiotto, who also has a great score: 9 podium finishes and 2 victories, but only one DNF. After six exciting race weekends in Hockenheim, Spielberg, Monza, Assen, Brno and Imola, the new FORMULA champion Ghiotto and his opponent Bracalente finally separated by only nine points.
For the first time Marco Ghiotto is the champion of BOSS GP FORMULA class
Third place
in the race went to Martucci, who fought again with de Plano until the middle
of the race. De Plano finished fourth ahead of Andreas Fiedler, who secured
third place in the championship with a damaged gearbox.
The best
duel was delivered by Philippe Haezebrouck (FRA, Speed Center) and Gianluca
Ripoli (ITA, MM International), with a better end for the Frenchman. Until the
last lap both were within striking distance of each other on the 4.9-kilometer
course. Towards the end of the 25-minute race, Peter Göllner (SUI, Speed
Center) also caught up with the two, but could no longer attack. He finished
the season with a respectable eighth place. Nicolas Matile (MCO, Zig-Zag)
finished ninth in the class. By the way good news for the championship: His
Team Zig-Zag Motorsport Service announced that they would be competing in more
than two races next year.
Overall winner of the race was Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed), who once again put the pedal to the medal today in his Toro Rosso STR1. Although his mechanics gave everything, Phil Stratford had to load his Benetton B197 into the van early due to a defect. Second in the OPEN class and new runner-up instead is “Piter” (FRA, Ray-Ban), whose team managed to repair a big oil leak just before race began.
Next up: The
BOSS GP annual award ceremony will take place on 7 December in Salzburg.
Alessandro Bracalente reduces the gap to championship leader Ghiotto by winning his 4th race of the year.
Alessandro
Bracalente (ITA, Speed Center) drove unchallenged to his fourth victory of the
season in the FORMULA class. The BOSS GP rookie thus reduced the gap to Marco
Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) in the points standings from 15 to only 12
points. Now it is clear that the championship will be decided in the last race
on Sunday. Ghiotto followed Bracalente throughout the race like a shadow. Only
at the end of the race he lost the connection to Bracalente and the gap grow to
an high of four seconds at the finish line.
Luca
Martucci (ITA, MM International) showed an incredible pace at the finish. At
the beginning of the race he dropped back to 9th place, but on the last lap he
made it onto the podium. For Martucci it is his fifth visit on the podium in
2019. In a courageous last lap manoeuvre, he overtook Salvatore de Plano (ITA,
Top Speed), who seems to have bad luck on his racing boots. For de Plano it was
nevertheless the second-best result of the season and the highest finish since
the Hockenheim season opener.
Andreas
Fiedler (DEU, Fiedler Racing) was also involved in the fight for the podium at
the opening stage of the race. In the end he finished fifth. He scored five
championship points more than Philippe Haezebrouck (FRA, Speed Center), who
finished seventh. Tomorrow Haezebrouck and Fiedler will fight for third place
in the FORMULA ranking.
Marc
Faggionato (MCO, Zig-Zag) could not set any time in qualifying because his car
had not been repaired in time. That didn’t stop him from moving up to 6th place
from last position on the grid. For several laps he battled with Haezebrouck
for position.
Walter
Steding (DEU, Inter Europol) was surprisingly in the top 6 at the beginning of
the race, ahead of Martucci and Haezebrouck. With rank 8, he finished in good
midfield this time.
Nicolas
Matile (MCO, Zig-Zag) finished 9th with the only Auto GP Lola in the field.
Peter Göllner won the internal team duel between him and Christian Eicke (both
SUI, Speed Center).
Gianluca
Ripoli (ITA, MM International) and Ulf Ehninger (DEU, ESBA Racing) had to
retire early in the race. Because Ripoli stopped at the warm-up lap, he had to
start at the back of the grid at the Indy start. He tried to improve his
position in the first lap and collided with Ehninger’s Benetton in the Tosa
hairpin.
The overall
victory was again secured by Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed). Not surprisingly,
the already crowned OPEN champion in his Toro Rosso dominated the eleventh race
of the season.
The 12th
and last race of the BOSS GP anniversary season will take place tomorrow Sunday
at 2:10 p.m., before that at 10:30 a.m. is BOSS GP’s warm-up session.
The last qualifying session of 2019 promises high tension in the fight for the BOSS GP FORMULA title.
Ingo Gerstl
(AUT, Top Speed) in the Toro Rosso STR1 takes his fifth pole position in the
sixth race of the year. Behind him title contender Alessandro Bracalente (ITA,
Speed Center) set the fastest time of the FORMULA drivers and put himself in a
good position for the first race on Saturday afternoon (starting time: 15:50).
With 1:30.641 he was a solid six-tenths faster than championship leader Marco
Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio), who will start the race in third place from
the second row of the grid. On the very last lap Ghiotto managed to drive into
the top-3. Should Ghiotto win the first race, Bracalente must finish at least
sixth to postpone the title decision until the last race on Sunday.
Luca
Martucci (ITA, MM International) starts from row 2 next to Ghiotto. This means
that three Italian will chase pole setter Ingo Gerstl through Tamburello, Acque
Minerali, Rivazza and Co. Benetton driver Phil Stratford (USA, Penn Elcom) had
to retire from qualifying early. There had already been a leak in the gearbox
yesterday. With just one fast lap he qualified in fifth place on the grid.
The fastest
driver in Q2 was Salvatore de Plano (ITA, Top Speed), who qualified sixth
overall. After a messed-up season, he wants to perform strongly in the finale.
Andreas
Fiedler (DEU, Fiedler Racing) increased his pace from lap to lap as usual. When
hardly anyone could further improve his lap times, Fiedler drove the seventh
fastest time. So, Fiedler starts a row
ahead of his fiercest competitor for third place in the championship: Philippe
Haezebrouck (FRA, Speed Center).
Walter
Steding (DEU, Inter Europol) proved the strong impression from the free
practice sessions on Friday with rank 10. With 10th place he was able to repeat
his best qualifying result of this year in Assen.
The first
of two races this weekend will have a distance of 20 minutes and begin at 3:50
p.m. – according to the forecast at dry weather and 22 degrees.
With speeds over 190 miles per hour, Formula 1 and Formula 2 are back in Imola.
The BOSS GP
Grande Final is under way: After a year’s interruption, Europe’s fastest racing
series is back on track at the legendary Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in
Imola. For most BOSS GP drivers, the former Formula 1 circuit is no unknown,
although the limited practice time was used extensively by the drivers on
Friday.
Fastest of the two combined practice sessions was Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed) with a time of 1:27.703. Gerstl also set the speed record on day 1 in his Toro Rosso powered by a V10 Cosworth engine with a speed of 310 km/h before braking for the first corner. Also in good shape is Phil Stratford (USA, Penn Elcom) in his Benetton Formula 1. After a two-race break, he set the fastest time in the first free practice on his favourite track. Because Ulf Ehninger (DEU, ESBA Racing) returns this time too, we even see two light blue Benetton from 1997.
Luca
Martucci (ITA, MM International) seems to be motivated by numerous fans this
weekend. Today he was the fastest FORMULA pilot and thus also faster than the
two title candidates Alessandro Bracalente (ITA, Speed Center) and Marco
Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio). However, both qualified safely for Qualifying
1.
Otherwise
this Friday didn’t bring any big surprises. Nicolas Matile (MCO, Zig-Zag) in
the only Auto GP car lost his car on oil in the first practice session, Armando
Mangini spun into the rail during FP2 and “Piter” (FRA, Ray-Ban) had
to get out of his smoking car. All three can participate tomorrow. The
qualifying starts Saturday at 10:50 a.m., the 11th race of the season starts
shortly before 4 p.m.
The grand finale of the BOSS GP anniversary season will take place from 11 to 13 October – back in Imola after a two-year break.
The hilly and challenging course in the Italian town of Imola is the ideal venue for this season’s finale of Europe’s fastest racing series. Built in the 1950s, the Imola circuit has seen many triumphs and tragedies. The track, named after Enzo Ferrari and his early deceased son Dino, is still a highlight for every racing driver today. Although the track has not been on the Formula 1 racing calendar for several years, the 4.9-kilometre-long asphalt track has all the ingredients of a world-class track. Imola is also the only track in the BOSS GP calendar to be driven counterclockwise. This affects the set-up of the racing cars (more left turns) as well as the pilots themselves, where the neck muscles, for example, are subjected to different stresses. At the last appearance in Imola in 2017 the race winners were Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed) and Rinus van Kalmthout (NLD, Mansell Motorsport).
Why the BOSS GP Grande Finale is worth visiting?
The sixth round of the season with races 11 and 12 will decide the championship title in the FORMULA class. While Toro Rosso driver Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed) has defended his title in the OPEN classification prematurely, two Italians in their Formula 2 cars fight for the first place in the FORMULA ranking: Marco Ghiotto (Scuderia Palladio) goes after three second places en suite into the final round with a lead of 15 points over Alessandro Bracalente (Speed Center). A technical retirement at the last race in Brno meant that Bracalente is now the chaser. 50 points can still be scored in Imola, so Andreas Fiedler (DEU, Fiedler Racing) has still theoretical chances for the title. Practically he is fighting for third place against Philippe Haezebrouck (FRA, Speed Center). Who may put on the “crown”, will be determined at the very latest next Sunday.
In addition to BOSS GP, modern and historic sports car and touring car series are part of an exciting race weekend. The Renault Clio Cup, Lotus Cup and Alfa Revival Cup will, as usual, ensure exciting motorsport too.
BOSS GP schedule Imola
Friday, 11 October 2019: 10:45–11:15 Free Practice 1 (30 Minutes) 15:40–16:10 Free Practice 2 (30 Minutes)
Saturday, 12 October 2019: 10:50–11:20 Qualifying (Q1: 8 Minutes/Break: 2 Minutes/Q2: 20 Minutes) 15:50–16:25 Race 1 (20 Minutes)
The latest pictures from race weekend in our gallery bossgp.com
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