Wrapping up an outstanding season: Doriane Pin takes podium in Ferrari World Finals at Imola.
One sprint race to decide the fate of a whole season. 30 minutes of all-in racing to assign the 2022 World title. The Ferrari World Finals are like nothing else in motor racing. Doriane Pin had rounded out an exceptional season with another victory and a podium in the European series, which she had dominated and already wrapped up with her first title at the previous round at Mugello. The Friday and Saturday's races were the perfect opportunity for the young star of Iron Dames to fine tune the #83 pink 488 Challenge Evo for the important moment: the chance to become world champion. Thomas Neubauer (Charles Pozzi - Courage team) lined up on pole position alongside Eliseo Donno - winner of Race 2. John Wartique shared the second row with Doriane Pin. A messy start in the midfield took out several cars on the run towards Tamburello, as the Safety car was soon called into action. Pin held fourth, just behind her main rival in the European season, John Wartique. The race went back to green with 18 minutes to go after 4 laps behind the pace car; Pin hunted down Wartique, but the nature of the Imola layout didn't make for an easy task to get by. Behind her, Adrian Sutil had to defend from Luka Nurmi, while Thomas Neubauer was also under pressure from Eliseo Donno - in a big battle for the win that saw six drivers within a few seconds. Doriane set the fastest lap in 1:43.815, but struggled to get close enough to the Belgian to attempt a pass. On lap 8, second-placed Eliseo Donno pulled off the track due to bodywork damage rubbing against his right front tyre; with the Italian tumbling down the order, Doriane Pin moved into third place, as Neubauer now enjoyed a safer gap to second.
Behind the Iron Dame, Adrian Sutil had his mirrors full of Luka Nurmi - who eventually got past on lap 10 after the former F1 racer was pushed into a mistake at Tamburello after several laps of exciting position changes. In the Pro-Am class, Todd Coleman picked up the pieces from a battle between Weiss and Toledo - but they would then collide at Acque Minerali and the American went around on lap 13. The class was led by the unchallenged Marco Pulcini, with Schoonderwoerd and Brunsborg some ten seconds down the road. Thomas Neubauer managed to open a 2 second gap over John Wartique and claimed victory in the World Final after a flawless race in Imola. Doriane Pin was third across the line, still grabbing a podium position to round out an outstanding campaign in the Italian one-make series. The Frenchwoman - who was also part of the main Iron Dames' line up at the 24 Hours of Spa and in the two final rounds of this year's European Le Mans Series, including the historic win at Portimao - is surely destined to a great future in the world of sports car racing.
“This weekend has been a great way to end the Ferrari Challenge season" - commented Andrea Piccini, Team principal at Iron Lynx. "Of course we came here to fight for the World Finals title, but for Doriane to come away with a win and podiums in all three races, shows how she is at one with the car."
“She did as well as she has done all year, the pressure was off a little bit after taking the title with two races to go", Piccini added.
Over the last four years, the all-female program launched by Deborah Mayer has shown how a long term vision, proper support and quality equipment is making the difference and the successes of Doriane Pin are another proof of concept.
