Michele Beretta and his team mates managed in the best way a difficult race, claiming the 2nd place in the Le Castellet 240, third round of 2020 European Le Mans Series. Thanks to this result, Beretta-Picariello-Ried return on top of ELMS’ GTE standing before the second part of the season.
Before attending the last two races of the ELMS, the italian will race in two demanding and enthralling 24 Hour events.
The 4 Hours at Paul Ricard started under the best auspices thanks to the pole position conquered by the Porsche 911 RSR #77 driven by Michele Beretta, Alessio Picariello and Christian Ried.
With the rain fall down just before the race start, almost all teams decided to fit wet tyres while Proton Competition opted for intermediates; Ried made a good first stint taking advanteges thanks to the right tyre choice despite the difficulties. Beretta jumped in the car for the central part of the race, switching to slicks: his stint wasn’t easy due to two contacts with LMP2 cars which caused a puncture and a not planned pit-stop; this not affected Beretta’s race pace, that was very consistent and allowed the #77 Porsche to recover some places. Picariello completed the race, crossing the line as second in GTE class, meaning the return on top in the GTE Drivers standing.
Anyway, Beretta don’t hide his disappointment for the missed win: “For sure we are happy for this result, but looking at our pace we could be easily on the highest step of the podium. We are again leader of the championship and this is good, but we need to be focused and do our best in the final two races.“
September will be crucial for Beretta’s racing programme, because, besides the already announced participation in the 24 Hours ADAC Total of Nordschleife Nürburgring (24-27 September 2020), he will attend the most famous race in the world, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, always with Team proton Competition on Porsche 911 RSR.
