Defending champion Sebastian Job proved the fastest man of all around the Italian circuit in the 911 GT3 Cup cars, setting a pole position time almost two-tenths ahead of Rogers for the sprint race, while incumbent series leader Mitchell DeJong could only place in 15th – only four-tenths further back.
The sprint race initially followed the format we’ve been getting used to this season, with very little change in the top ten across the opening laps. It looked like a typical Job performance would lead to a lights-to-flag win, but Rogers made a move into Villeneuve on lap eight that saw the VRS driver take the lead.
A rather robust challenge from Job through Piratella re-take the lead and gain just enough of a gap over Rogers to effectively break the slipstream – and put Zac Campbell into his mirrors. Max Benecke also managed to slip past Alejandro Sanchez, who then lost two more places as he made a mistake on the final trip through Variante Alta.
That put Sanchez on pole for the feature race, but as he, Kevin Ellis, and Charlie Collins kept their noses clean at the front there was drama just behind. While attempting to follow Rogers through past Campbell, Job unwisely tried to go two wide through Villeneuve. The British driver took too tight a line, making contact with the American, and span off. Third-place man Collins made a mistake on his own at the same corner the following lap, hitting the inside kerb too hard and taking a small trip to the gravel. However it was enough to drop him to tenth and create a gap between the front two and Yohann Harth, now in third.
Rogers was the man on the move however. Making short work of Harth and Benecke, the 2019 champion set about closing the 1.7-second gap ahead of him to Ellis. It didn’t take long, as Rogers first passed Ellis and then followed that with a move on Sanchez, both at Tamburello on success laps, to lead with half the race remaining.
However getting away from the duo wasn’t quite as easy, with the three cars running practically line-astern right to the flag. Even though Rogers made a mistake braking into Tosa, Sanchez wasn’t able to capitalise, and they reached the finish separated by less than three-quarters of a second.
With the extra points from the feature race, Rogers now leads DeJong by 37 points, with Dayne Warren running third ahead of Benecke, Ellis, Sanchez and Job in seventh, heading into next week’s races from Silverstone.