Best weekend of the 2024 season for Nova Race’s Honda NSX GT3 Evo drivers at Mugello

For Felice Jelmini and Filippo Berto first win in ProAM, for Massimo Ciglia and Rodolfo Massaro even a double in AM

The best weekend of the season so far. This is how the results on the Tuscan track can be summarised for the Varese-based team, with the first victories in the GT3 Sprint ProAm tricolour obtained by Felice Jelmini and Filippo Berto in Race 1 (to which is added the second place on Sunday) and the two victories of Massimo Ciglia and Rodolfo Massaro in the Am category where up to now the Hondas had not gone beyond second place. The team manager Christian Pescatori is therefore finally satisfied as we have not seen for a long time: ‘Great weekend, finally we have really enjoyed these results from the team, because in ProAm Jelmini and Berto did a great race on Saturday winning race 1 and today making a great comeback in race 2 we also risked to win again… They really gave us great satisfaction, as well as Ciglia and Massaro who did really well, taking two excellent category victories. Massaro then went really strong and we’re happy that he’s pushing hard to be able to compete with Ciglia in the category classification right to the end. We have also seen improvements from the two young drivers Vincenzo Scarpetta and Mattia Simonini, where we have definitely seen progress from them. But it must be kept in mind that in this very competitive championship it is really difficult to get good results if you don’t really go to the limit with the car.

The race for the double success on Saturday was shortened from 50′ to 45′ after a first start immediately stopped by a red flag for a multiple collision. Jelmini, who started on the front row at the final start, started as ProAM class leader and third overall, holding the position until the threshold of the driver changeover window, when he handed the car over to Berto in second place in class behind the day’s predestined rival, the Aston Martin. For the Japanese Nova Race’s hopes of sealing the first category victory were strengthened with the second safety car phase: Berto was very responsive at the restart and overtook the English car, then repelling the rivals’ comeback attempt until the chequered flag and even finishing at the top of the overall podium, thus going on the top step of the Pro-Am podium with his Lombardy colleague.

The first of Saturday’s two safety car phases had instead been triggered by the mistake of the AMG Mercedes of American rivals Ciglia and Massaro, which the first of the two men from the Lombardy team had put under pressure by holding the first AM category place with authority. Once the drivers of the German car were away, Ciglia first and Massaro then were able to take care of maintaining the advantage over the more direct rivals of the Ebimotors Porsche, which, however, never jeopardised the first victory of the Honda duo, who also finished in a good 13th position overall. Less fortunate instead was the Saturday of Scarpetta and Simonini, who started from the ninth row and had to be content with gaining experience in a challenging category, retaining the eighth place from which they started at the green light.

Today’s race began with Berto starting in the No. 55 very well and rising when the safety car immediately intervened from the eighth row on the grid and third in ProAM to 15th overall and above all third in the category. Massaro for his part confirmed very well from the eighth row his class lead over the rivals who started behind him, and indeed as a pace he was among the ProAm cars. The Venetian held out in the ProAm podium zone until the sixth passage but managed to hand the Honda over to Jelmini in fourth position and just outside the overall Top10.

The Gallarate driver climbed up, battling left and right, and when the second safety car of the day intervened he was quick to grab first the ProAm podium and then second in his class, although the official BMW winner of the day was slightly out of reach for the Honda driver. Massaro surrendered the No. 77 to Ciglia with a comfortable lead, but the Lombardy driver saw it cancelled due to the safety car, but with tenacity he gritted his teeth and got back into the zone out of the way and could celebrate his second consecutive class win with Massaro. No cups but still a lot of experience for the young Honda No. 28 Simonini and Scarpetta, with the Trentino starting on the ninth row and in seventh place in his class and running a stint without any hitches. Scarpetta for his part did not fail to continue his growth as a driver in the difficult GT3 class by improving his times and finishing 13th overall and sixth in the hard-fought ProAm class.

THE DRIVERS’ COMMENTS

FILIPPO BERTO (Driver Honda NSX GT3 Evo No. 55): ‘We come from a great result yesterday certainly with the first victory of the year, sought and finally obtained. I’m a bit sad for my qualifying session on Saturday, which ruined the weekend, but I got a very good start in Race 2. So I made up for it in part, then Felice took care of the rest. So, come on, I’m happy we’re both working well together, so now let’s go to Monza and see if we can make the big score’.

FELICE JELMINI (Driver Honda NSX GT3 Evo No. 55): ‘Yes, come on, between our first win on Saturday and second place on Sunday I’m quite satisfied. Today I thought we had a very good pace compared to yesterday and we had a chance to fight; I lost too much time behind a Lamborghini Pro and I couldn’t pass it, probably my mistake of inexperience in this kind of brawl, but it can be okay: in the end it was a good result. We recovered a lot with a perfect start at the beginning of the race and I finished by doing mine, so it was a good result.’.

MASSIMO CIGLIA (Driver Honda NSX GT3 Evo No. 77): ‘Two races, which ended well with two wins out of two, so we are super happy. The car has been going really well all weekend. We were sweating today, from the middle of the race onwards it was really difficult. I don’t know about the heat or the pressure something, but it was really tough. Massaro, though, had created a big gap and I just had to bring the car home without going crazy looking for anything. Well, we’re happy and thanks to the whole team who, as usual, raced for us again this weekend.

RODOLFO MASSARO (Driver Honda NSX GT3 Evo No. 77): ‘This time the races turned out as they should. I’m pleased, especially for Massimo who needed these victories to keep the classification up and play for the championship, but it’s also good for me for what I did. I’ve been trying to keep everything under control but also trying to improve a little bit because of my commitment to endurance and I think we’re on the right track. We have made improvements, so I’m happy.’.

Scarperia and S. Piero (FI), Sunday 25 August 2024

Photo credit: © AG. Claudio Signori [1, 2, 3] (N.B.: rights-free images for press use only)

TEAM CONTACT: Christian Pescatori | +39 329 4334594