Bjorn Grossman wins Ferrari Challenge opener at Monza

The German spent the first half of the 30-minute race engaged in a full-on battle with polesitter Niki Cadei. While Cadei led early, Grossman refused to let him get away, the pair trading enough blows to earn simultaneous bad sportsmanship flags in the opening laps.

On the fourth lap Grossman finally got by on the run through the Parabolica, but once in front he could not shake Cadei, the gap between the two not exceeding 0.5 seconds in the first 15 minutes of the race. But that all changed on lap eight when Cadei tried a daring pass on the outside of the Parabolica, the Italian running wide and bouncing through the gravel trap.

With Cadei out of the picture, Grossman was able to easily manage the gap back to Andrea Belluzi to take the first win of the season. Andrii Krugkly finished third, albeit nearly seven seconds behind the leader.

Cadei, meanwhile, was forced to settle for sixth place, behind Stefano Gai and Alexandr Skryabin.

In the Coppa Shell race (for gentleman drivers), Giacomo Stratta won the first race having started on the front row. He led home Raffaele Giannoni and Alexey Basov.