Rob Bell endured a frustrating weekend at Monza after the Virgo Motorsport team failed to finish the latest round of the Le Mans Series – bringing to an end a podium run going back to the 2006 campaign.
After taking a superb pole position during qualifying on Saturday, a series of punctures during the race caused the #96
Ferrari 430 GT2 to retire whilst running in a strong fourth place with Bell's team mate Gianmaria Bruni at the wheel.
The weekend got off to a good start with Bell putting the Virgo Motorsport Ferrari on pole during the qualifying session, as he held off the expected challenge from the Porsche runners.
“We were on the podium here last year and its great to be back to try to reward those who have supported us since then,” he said. “The car and the tyres were pretty good in the session and we've come out of it in the best possible position.”
Bell was in the car for the first stint of Sunday's race and after a clean start, he began to pull away from the rest of the GT2 pack, gaining a 20 second lead over Pierre Kaffer in the F430 and Richard Lietz in the Porsche. However after a routine stop the Virgo Ferrari suffered a left rear puncture as Bell headed into Ascari.
He managed to get the car back to the pits, where the team changed the deflated tyre and Bell's team mate Bruni took the wheel. However, as the former
F1 man took to the track the left rear once again suffered a puncture, requiring another unscheduled stop for the Virgo team.
As Bruni rejoined the track he was almost two laps down on the GT2 class leader, but never one to give up the chase he soon started putting in quick lap times, moving the Ferrari up into fourth place in class. The fast recovery of the #96 Ferrari was halted after an uncharacteristic third puncture on the left rear tyre, causing substantial bodywork damage to the car and forcing the team to retire from the race.
