NEWS
VICTORY AND TWO PODIUMS FOR THE VSR LAMBOS AT MUGELLO SPRINT
Jul 26, 2026
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2026 Italian GT Sprint Championship, Round 3 – Mugello
Dimitrov and Riccitelli take second win of the season
** Second place overall for Levet and Paverud **
** Saturday podium for Cook and Denning **
A successful weekend for the VSR cars saw Georgi Dimitrov and Simone Riccitelli keep themselves in the title hunt with a fine win in Saturday’s race. Hugo Cook and Alex Denning completed the race one podium and on Sunday Paul Levet and Marcus Paverud finished second.
After a two month break the Italian GT Sprint Championship resumed this weekend with thirty-two GT3 cars taking part in the penultimate round of 2026. VSR entered a fourth Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo II in the event for Hugo Cook and Alex Denning who took to the track in the number six Pro car. The line-ups were unchanged for the other three VSR Lambos with Paul Levet and Marcus Paverud in the 19 car, Georgi Dimitrov and Simone Riccitelli in the 63 and Mattia Michelotto and Ignazio Zanon in the 66.
After two short sessions of free practice on Friday, qualifying got underway early on Saturday morning. Three red flags marred the sessions and with the grid for race one being set by the slowest times of each car Dimitrov lined up on pole position. Behind him row two was an all VSR affair with Denning alongside Paverud. Zanon started on row ten.
Dimitrov held off Albag at the start to retain the lead as Denning slotted in behind the Mercedes. At the end of the first lap Paverud was running in fifth and Zanon was up to seventeenth. On lap two Machiels put his Ferrari ahead of Paverud as Denning fought to keep MacDonald behind him. Out front Dimitrov set the fastest lap of the race as he tried to put a gap on the rest of the field before the pit window opened. On lap six Ferati drove into the side of Paverud, spinning the Lamborghini around and dropping it back to twenty-sixth. On lap twelve the pit window opened. Zanon was the first to box, handing the 66 over to Michelotto. Next in was Dimitrov, pitting from the race lead and discounting a nine second success handicap from the previous race before Riccitelli could rejoin. A lap later Denning boxed the 6 for Cook and Paverud handed the 19 over to Levet. With the pit window closed Riccitelli held a slender two second lead over Cazzaniga’s McLaren and Cook ran in third. Levet was fourteenth in the 19 car and Michelotto was in seventeenth. As the race entered the final ten minutes Cook found his third place threatened by Albag as Cazzaniga reeled in Riccitelli. As backmarkers came into play Albag managed to get ahead of Cook, demoting the VSR Lambo to fourth with four minutes to go. Riccitelli hung on to take a well-deserved win for himself and co-driver Dimitrov. Fourth at the flag for Cook and Denning later became third when Albag was disqualified for a technical infringement. Levet and Michelotto finished just outside the points.
The grid for Sunday’s race was set by the fastest times of each car. Michelotto started from row three with Riccitelli on the fifth row, Levet on row six and Cook on row seven. At the start Michelotto held fifth whilst Levet jumped up to seventh, Riccitelli fell back to tenth and Cook was helped down to fourteenth by Ebrahim pushing him wide. The pit window opened on lap thirteen and first to box was Riccitelli. Dimitrov rejoined after the car discounted a fifteen second success penalty for Saturday’s win. Next to stop was the 6 car and Cook and Denning discounted their nine second success penalty. Michelotto, fastest man on track during the pit window once he was freed from Cazzaniga’s dirty air, boxed on lap sixteen and was followed in by Levet. Zanon took over the 66 and Paverud jumped into the 19. With the pit window closed and twenty minutes left of the race Zanon was lying in second, Paverud fifth, Denning thirteenth and Dimitrov fourteenth. On lap twenty-two Paverud passed McIntosh for fourth and set about attacking Segù for third place as ahead Zanon worked hard to maintain a few seconds gap to the battling pair. A lap later Dimitrov and Denning swapped places and then there was disaster for Zanon who spun after contact with a recalcitrant backmarker. As Segù and Paverud approached the site of the incident Paverud took advantage to pass the DL Racing car for second place. A late race pit-stop for MacDonald’s McLaren put Dimitrov and Denning into the points and Paverud held off Segù to clinch a fine second place by the narrowest of margins.
With one round left to go Dimitrov and Riccitelli still hold a mathematical possibility of retaining the Sprint Championship for VSR and Lamborghini but sit twenty points behind Klingmann.
2026 Italian GT Sprint Championship
Imola: 24-26 April
Vallelunga: 22-24 May
Mugello: 24-26 July
Monza: 9-11 October
END
