Two Ferrari drivers were involved in a startling altercation on lap one of the Road to Le Mans Race 2. Chaos ensued quickly during the early stages of the second Michelin Le Mans Cup contest, with several cars losing control and spinning off track. Both the blue No. 23 and red No. 21 Ferraris were involved.
The No. 23 Biogas Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3, piloted by Spaniard Josep Mayola Comadira, and the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 293 of Gino-Generoso Forgione collided just seconds into the race. Comadira rear-ended Forgione coming round a bend with many cars in front of him breaking suddenly, and ended both of the drivers’ races, something the Swiss pilot didn’t take kindly to.
With both Ferraris stationary on the side of the track, Forgione shot out of his vehicle and marched intently over to his rival, whose car had been thrown up in the air when the two came to the end of their collision.
Forgione proceeded to kick the driver-side door of the No. 23 car and began unleashing punches upon the window. He continued to hit the windows and roof of the car before being pulled away by stewards.
“It was not a moment of which he will be particularly proud of,” said TNT Sports commentator Martin Haven of the incident. “As you can understand, racing at Les Mans and getting tagged out in the first corner is not going to leave you feeling very happy.
“The problem is, everyone is checking up there because of the spinning Porsche. He has spun because he is checking up because the cars in front are slowing down dramatically.”
Graham Goodwin, also on commentary, responded: “It is not giving Gino-Generoso Forgione any credit at all for the behaviour at the end there, but he will feel that he checked up and the car behind did not. That I think is a knock-on effect of the argy-bargy at the front of the field. Yeah, not very happy is the international sign language there.”
A Safety Car was drawn before the support race for the 24 Hours of Le Mans restarted, as a sizeable clean-up was required after the many incidents that occurred during a crash-ridden opening lap.
This race was the second Le Mans Cup contest, with the first being held on Friday. In the GT3 category, in which both the No. 21 and No. 23 cars were striving to win on Saturday, the No. 65 Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG GT3 claimed victory.
Lena Buhler and Mattéo Quintarelli in the No. 20 23 Events Racing Ligier JS would go on to win the race overall, and Buhler became the first woman to achieve such a feat in a Road to Le Mans contest.
