NEWS
FINAL ITALIAN SPRINT WIN GOES TO DIMITROV AND RICCITELLI FOR PHOTO-FINISH END TO CHAMPIONSHIP
Oct 11, 2026
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2026 Italian GT Sprint Championship, Round 4 – Monza
Dimitrov and Riccitelli take Monza win and finish on equal points with Champion Klingmann
Heading into the final round of the Italian GT Sprit Championship the Pro 63 crew of Georgi Dimitrov and Simone Riccitelli were second in the standings, sitting twenty-two points behind Klingmann. In a thrilling final race of the Italian GT Sprint season Dimitrov and Riccitelli took a fine win to close the season on equal points with BMW works driver Klingmann. With three wins each the title was decided by the number of second places each crew had earned, allowing Klingmann to steal the crown.
All four VSR Lamborghinis ran in the Pro class at Monza. Behind the wheel of the 6 were Hugo Cook and Alex Denning, Paul Levet and Marcus Paverud raced the 19 and Mattia Michelotto and Ignazio Zanon were in charge of the 66. There were two incident free practice sessions on Friday before qualifying got underway on Saturday for the thirty-one strong field of GT3 cars. Drops of rain during the sessions rendered the circuit slippery and when the times were sorted by the quickest and slowest drivers of each car the VSR boys started race one with Cook on row five, Riccitelli just behind him, Michelotto one row further back and Paverud on the ninth row.
The sun was shining as the cars took to the grid on Saturday evening. After a clean start Michelotto headed the VSR drivers, running in ninth with Cook just behind him and Riccitelli and Paverud following closely. On lap seven Ebrahim passed Riccitelli but was then ordered to give back the position for overtaking off the track. On lap eleven Michelotto took advantage of battling Ferraris to pass Klingmann for eighth. With no further position changes the pit window opened on lap thirteen and Riccitelli and Paverud pitted immediately. The 19 car of Paverud and Levet had a twelve second success penalty to respect from their second-place finish in the last race at Mugello and Levet exited the pits just as the race leader passed. Cook pitted for Denning a lap later and Michelotto stayed out until lap seventeen, entering the pits eighteen seconds before the driver change window closed. Zanon took over the 66 and with fifteen minutes left was hanging on to eighth but had Ferati, Dimitrov and Denning close behind him. On lap twenty-three Zanon let Dimitrov past and Ferati took advantage, passing the 63 off the track. He was forced to give back the position but the pair continued to scrap over eighth place until the chequered flag. Dimitrov stayed ahead and with Klingmann finishing out of the points eighth was just enough to keep the Championship battle mathematically alive for the final round. Zanon came home in tenth to claim the final point with Denning hot on his heels and Levet in fourteenth.
Denning started the final Sprint race of the season from the third row with Championship hopeful Dimitrov behind him, Levet on row six and Zanon on row eight. A huge crash at the first corner bought out the Safety Car immediately. In the incident which took out five cars Levet was eliminated after getting squeezed by Segu and McIntosh and spun around in the middle of the pack. In the melee Denning moved up to third and Dimitrov to fifth whilst Zanon avoided the crash to run thirteenth. Racing resumed twelve minutes before the pit window was due to open. At the restart a spin from Rodriguez in the first chicane allowed Dimitrov to grab fourth just before the Safety Car came out again. The field restarted three minutes before the window and finally there was a clean restart. With the pit window open Zanon pitted for Michelotto. Two laps later Dimitrov boxed for Riccitelli and a lap later Denning gave the 6 to Cook. With the two leaders having success penalties Dimitrov and Cook headed the field as the pit window closed but with Klingmann sitting comfortably in eighth the Championship was still out of reach for the 63 crew. With ten minutes to go Dimitrov and Cook were holding off MacDonald and Machiels as Michelotto charged through the field to run sixth. Lap after lap Cook defended heroically from the clearly faster McLaren of MacDonald as out front Riccitelli eeked out a bigger gap. With two laps to go Klingmann slipped to tenth as MacDonald finally found a way past Cook. No further changes to the order gave the race win to the VSR 63 car and the Championship title to Klingmann.
2026 Italian GT Sprint Championship
Imola: 24-26 April
Vallelunga: 22-24 May
Mugello: 24-26 July
Monza: 9-11 October
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