The RN Vision STS Racing Team crew of Bas Schouten and Gabriele Piana impressed with a strong performance in the second practice session of the 2020 GT4 European Series at Imola this afternoon.
Despite the wet conditions, both Schouten and Piana were on the pace from the moment the lights at the end of the pit went green. Early on Schouten set the fastest time, but when conditions began to improve Allied-Racing's Nicolaj Møller-Madsen moved into first place with a lap time of 2:02.664.
With just over half an hour left in the session, Piana had taken over from Schouten and on his way to an improvement of the Møller-Madsen's time. In the end, the Italian's fastest time was a 2:02.474. The next lap saw two purple sector times, but no improvement.
After that the rain intensified to the degree that further improvements were impossible. When the chequered flag came out the #111 RN Vision STS BMW was still in first, followed by the #21 Allied-Racing Porsche (first in Pro-Am) and the two CMR Toyota's, lead by Stéphane Lemeret. Shortly after setting the third fastest time, Lémeret in the #8 Toyota GR Supra GT4 parked his car with a puncture.
Finishing the session in fifth place overall was the NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG, ahead of the second of the Allied-Racing Porsches. The #110 RN Vision STS BMW, the two Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMWs and the V8 Racing Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R completed the overall top ten, with Ibrahim Okyay in ninth place setting the fastest time in the Am class.
Two of the 17 cars that took part in this session didn't set a time, including the Centri Porsche Ticino Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS MR. The car briefly brought out the red flags, after coming to a halt just moments after the session had started.
Piana and RN Vision STS sweep Friday practice at Imola
