#BlancpainGT – Toni Forné claims top-ten finishes at Monza on series debut

Forné made his debut in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe joining Car Collection Motorsport and Target Racing srl respectively last weekend. The Girona native brought a tenth place home with Stippler and Parhofer and came seventh in the one-make series teaming up with Boguslavskiy.

Toni Forné contested the first round of his top-tier double programme in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, with mammoth grids of sixty and fifty cars. It was a challenging racing weekend for Forné as he raced against many of the best drivers in GT racing but delivering encouraging performances.

Forné joined Car Collection Motorsport in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup completing a competitive driver line up with Dimitri Parhofer and Audi factory driver Frank Stippler in a R8 LMS. From the very beginning, Forné posted some quick times, which were a mere second slower than Stippler’s pace. In qualifying, Stippler recorded a best lap of 1m48.857s with Forné clocking a time of 1m50.043s. The starting grid, which was based on the average lap times of the three drivers, saw them to line up 11th in Pro-Am class. Parhofer drove the race-opening stint and, despite he lost several places, Forné fought back as soon as his teammate took over for him one hour into the race. Stippler charged throughout his final stint to finish tenth in Pro-Am class. A top-ten finish was a rewarding result to continue improving in the future.

In the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, Forné and Timur Boguslavskiy were forced to retire on Saturday after getting caugh in a pile-up, which damaged his Huracan. But on Sunday the duo of Target Racing srl did put a recovery drive to take a seventh place finish in Pro-Am despite serving a drive-through penalty.

“Despite we always sets our sights on the podium, I’m quite optimistic for the remaining events of the season. Despite both championships are extremely closely-fought and professional, our results are positive. It was a great achievement for me to set a pace just a second slower than Frank. During my stint, I was right behind a factory driver such as Franck Perera. And the race leaders were running behind my Audi and they couldn’t pass me” explained Forné. He continued saying: “Frank and Car Collection Motorsport congratulated me for my driving at the end. Our pace is good enough to fight for podiums in Pro-Am class and I’m sure we will able to achieve it sooner rather than later. I’m quite pleased with my seventh place in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo despite we handed a penalty, which costed us valuable time. I’m quite optimistic because Timur and I will be a strong pairing in the races to come with the Target Lambo.”

Silverstone, the Home of British Motor Racing, will host the second round of both championships on 19-20 May.