Challenging first round for Bartholomew at Misano

The first round of the Italian GT Sprint Championship took place at Misano over the weekend with Jack Bartholomew pairing up with American driver Philippe Denes. With only one day of testing prior to this event Jack managed to qualify in P6 in the 23-car field for race one on Saturday with teammate Philippe qualifying on pole for race two on Sunday.

Taking the start on Saturday afternoon Jack was nudged back two places during the first lap whilst battling with the #12 Audi & #8 BMW, during the next few laps Jack was attacking again and past the BMW to move into P7. On lap14 the pit window opened for Jack to pit and hander over to his teammate. Once the rest of the field had made their stops the #85 was now up to P6 and closing in on P5. One lap from the end the #7 BMW crashed elevating the Imperiale Lamborghini up to P5 at the flag.

For race two Philippe would take the start from pole position, as the lights turned green he dived into turn one in the lead and started to make a gap but on lap 9 he was issued a 10 second penalty for an incorrect start procedure.

The penalty was for an issue on the grid prior to the race. After serving the penalty he re-joined in P22 and set about making up as many positions as possible. The pit window opened on lap 14 and he dived into the pits to hand over to Jack. Jack pushed as hard as possible on the used tyres making up 7 places by the flag and finishing in P7 in the Pro class.

The next round is at Imola on June 1st & 2nd .