Good start but bad early end for Andrea Piccini and his team mates Michael Broniszewski, Michael Lyons and Alessandro Bonacini: their adventure in the 24 Hours of Spa on the Ferrari 458 GT3 of the Kessel Racing team ended after about a quarter of the race. Started with the third fastest time in Superpole and first of Pro-Am, the driver of Sansepolcro was absolutely brilliant during the first hour under heavy rain. After his stint, Piccini has left the car to Broniszewski, remained at the wheel within two hours characterized by many “safety car”, then Lyons and Bonacini took the wheel later in the afternoon (one hour each) keeping the car in the top five. 50 minutes after the end of the six hours, Piccini moved up to try to get the first goal (the points were assigned after 6, 12 and 24 hours) for Pro-Am. In critical condition, in the dark and with only one dry line, Piccini tried to overtake Rigon but he lost the control at “La Source” crashing into Nico Verdonck’s Mercedes. “We were pushing it in an attempt to overtake Rigon – comments Andrea Piccini – and it was important for the championship standings of my teammates. I knew off course was wet, but do not think it was so slippery. In the dark you could not see well where they were the most critical points and I made a mistake. I was much faster than Rigon, but he kept pushing me off the track in a straight line twice and I had to brake hard. I came out much better from the last corner and I was inside towards La Source, and he brought me very close to the wall, and I had no chance to avoid the impact with the Mercedes of Nico Verdonck. It’s a shame because, from qualify, the car was very fast and we had a very good race pace. There were all the conditions to fight for the win in the Pro-Am. I’m sorry for the whole team and for my teammates who were doing an excellent job.“
