Mathias Villadsen showed strong pace in GT3 outing at Vallelunga

The Danish BMW driver came close to the front-running pack in the third round of the Italian GT Championship, which once again delivered fierce and unforgiving competition.

Mathias Villadsen returned to Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo over the Whitsun weekend as the third round of the Italian GT Championship took place at Vallelunga, north of Rome. The Danish driver once again competed for Team Spirit Racing in the team’s distinctive yellow BMW M4 GT3.

Heading into the weekend, Villadsen and the rest of the team knew it would require both speed and a little extra bravery to challenge at the front of the highly competitive 30-plus car GT3 field on the technical and demanding Italian circuit. As a result, the team opted for a more aggressive setup on the car – and it quickly paid off.

Villadsen delivered an impressive top-10 lap time in the opening qualifying session before finding even more pace in qualifying two, where the Dane shaved a further three tenths off his lap time. That secured eighth place and a fourth-row starting position for the weekend’s second sprint race.

“The qualifying sessions went far beyond expectations, so I went into the races with a really good amount of confidence, even though I knew it was going to be tough. Unfortunately, I had a poor start in the first race, and with the five-second penalty we carried over from the strong result at Misano, it became very difficult to really move forward in a race without interruptions. We finished P13, which of course wasn’t quite what we were aiming for,” said Mathias Villadsen.

“For race two, we brought a lot of learnings from the first race. I also had a much better start, but already on the opening laps I was hit by a Ferrari which more or less used me as a brake marker. That cost us several positions, and the car also picked up bodywork damage, which meant it was no longer performing optimally. That made it difficult to fight further up the order, and we ended up with another P13 finish. Overall, though, we had strong pace, and all in all it has been another positive weekend with plenty of learning. A big thank you to the team for a really strong effort,” he added.

Even though the final results did not fully reflect the pace shown throughout the weekend, there are still plenty of positives for the Danish BMW driver to take away as he once again demonstrated that he can match the pace in his debut season as a GT3 driver.

Next up for Mathias Villadsen is round four of Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo at the iconic Monza circuit on June 20–21. There, Villadsen will once again team up with his coach and teammate Jan Magnussen as the duo competes in the second Endurance round of the season.