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Caldarelli/Mapelli beat Marciello/Abril in Blancpain Misano race

Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli overcame two safety car interventions and a surge from Rafaele Marciello at Misano to hand FFF Racing a maiden Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe victory

The Italian duo brought their #563 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 home just eight-tenths of a second ahead of the #88 Akka ASP Mercedes AMG, as Maro Engel completed the podium for Black Falcon.

Caldarelli started third but pulled off a bold move round the outside of Ricky Collard's Aston Martin Vantage at Turn 1 to take second behind the pole-sitting Audi R8 of Charles Weerts.

Eighteen-year-old Weerts led the early stages but was caught and passed by Caldarelli on the run down to the Curva della Quercia in the early stages.

He then spun out of the race at the high-speed Curvone Misano after running wide. His beached Audi first caused a full course yellow and then brought out the safety car.

This cancelled Caldarelli's 11s lead over Vincent Abril's Mercedes, who had earlier squeezed his way past Collard.

The restart coincided with the opening of the pit window, and Caldarelli, Collard and the #26 Sainteloc Audi of Steven Palette all elected to come in.

Quick pit work allowed the #26 Audi, now with Markus Winkelhock at the wheel, to leapfrog the Aston Martin.

Mapelli maintained the #563 car's lead after the stops and headed Marciello, who took over from Abril, and Engel. Marciello arguably had more pace than Mapelli but the Lamborghini did just enough to stay in front, with the gap never more than one-second.

Further back, Winkelhock had been challenging Thomas Neubauer, who was the last of the leading runners to make a pit-stop, before he lost his left-rear wheel at the penultimate corner.

The safety car was then deployed and remained on track for 10 minutes before racing resumed.

Caldarelli then had to withstand waves of attack from Marciello, but the latter could not get close enough to make a serious overtaking attempt and had to settle for second at the flag.

Engel came home a distant third, with Marvin Kirchofer finishing just off the podium in fourth.

Fabian Schiller took fifth place overall in the other Akka ASP Mercedes, while Pro-Am honours went the way of Andrea Bertolini and Louis Machiels in the AF Corse Ferrari.

Mirko Bortolotti brought the damaged Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini home in sixth, after his team-mate Christian Engelhart was hit by Simon Gachet (Sainteloc Racing) early on.

Gachet received a drivethrough penalty for his part in the incident but did not take it as he retired with damage to his Audi R8.

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