Back in early September if you recall, Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific race made a scheduled stop at our very own Sepang Circuit which saw Steve Wyatt rocket himself to clench the podium’s top spot. They have since made their way back to the Prancing Horse’s sovereign soil in Tuscany for the final stop of the series this year at the Mugello Circuit.
The armada was greeted by 50,000 cheering fans on the final day. Among the crowds were Ferrari’s official drivers Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Gutierrez, including an exhibition of their Scuderia Ferrari cars.
Joining these highly-esteemed Formula One drivers were Managing Director Amedeo Felisa, Vice-President Piero Ferrari and President Sergio Marchionne. The trio were taken for a blast-session around Mugello with the F1-trio at the helm of three newly-launched limited edition F12tdf cars powered by a slightly uprated V12 motor that churns out an incredible 780 hp.
Following this, the 458 Italia GTE and GT3 competing in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and in the main national and international GT championships took their places on the track. Thereafter, Ferrari brought out the 2016 machines which is the newly-launched twin-turbo 488 with a couple of flavours, namely GTE and GT3 specs.
Steve Wyatt has been on quite a roll this season, a point that was brought home when Wyatt clenched the trophy atop the podium upon winning the 2015 championship title for the Trofeo Pirelli race, beating Indonesia’s Renaldi Hutasoit. Ziad Ghandour of Scuderia Lebanon triumphed in the Trofeo Pirelli Am after a fierce battle with overall leader, China’s Wei Xu and Korea’s Jung Hoon Youn.
The Finali Mondiali at Mugello will host the final two rounds of the Three Series that includes Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific series. Sunday saw all the drivers on track for the two world championship finals, the Trofeo Pirelli (divided into Pirelli and Pirelli Am) and the Coppa Shell. Keeping up to this tough act to follow was the F1 Clienti and the cars of the XX Programmes.
The F1 Clienti will offer a glimpse of the V8 and V10-powered Ferraris which competed in Formula 1 from 1998 to 2011, while the 1050 hp Ferrari FXX-K will do the lion’s share of the work for the XX Programmes. However, that isn’t forgetting the FXX of 2005, built on the basis of the Enzo and the 599XX that was introduced shortly thereafter. Not a bad way to cap off an epic weekend of Prancing proportions.
IMAGE GALLERY
