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Superstars: Liuzzi, Biagi sweep front row in Monza

The 2013 SUPERSTARS INTERNATIONAL SERIES season got underway today at Monza with the running of qualifying and the works-supported Mercedes C63 AMG racecars of Mercedes-AMG Romeo Ferraris started with flying colors. Their two drivers, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Thomas Biagi, swept the front row with the former F.1 driver hitting the pole in 1'54"208 and his team-mate just 0.3 seconds off the lead. Another Mercedes, the C63 AMG Coupé driven by Luigi Ferrara for Roma Racing Team, ended up in third with a convincing performance. Audi, Jaguar and Chevrolet followed shortly: Gianni Morbidelli, on the Audi Sport Italia-prepared RS5 topped the Jaguar XF of Andrea Larini (Team Ferlito) and the debuting Chevrolet Camaro of Francesco Sini and Solaris Motorsport. The top-10 was rounded out by Andrea Bacci, who suffered from an off-track exit on the CAAL Racing Mercedes, and by BMW racers Giovanni Berton and Mauro Trentin. "Diabolik" a mysterious driver carrying the name of a popular Italian comics character, ended up in 9th. A strike of bad luck stopped reigning Champion Johan Kristoffersson, who lost an engine on the Petri Corse Porsche Panamera. Race 1 will be taking-off at 12:00 and will be folllowed by Race 2 at 16:10.

While SUPERSTARS went on-track for practice and qualifying, GTSPRINT had a tougher start with both the 15-minute qualifying sessions and Race 1 scheduled on Saturday. In qualifying for the race, the father-son duo of Alexander Talkanitsa Sr. and Jr. took the pole before scoring a spectacular win after some initial woes. Due to a powersteering issue, Talkanitsa Jr was forced to start from the back but soon powered to a sensational recovery. As he fought back to the top, his father took control of their Ferrari 458 and sailed to the checkered flag. He got briefly concerned by the Corvette Z06 of Del Castello-Necchi but the latter got caught cutting the white line at the pit exit twice and suffered a double drive-through penalty. The RC Motorsport car eventually ended up in 4th behind the Porsche 997 GTS3 of Glauco Solieri (Autorlando) and the Ferrari 458 Italia of Team Ukraine, driven by Kruglyk-Tsyplakov, who rounded out the podium. In the GTS Cup Trophy, the Porsche 997 of Ca rboni-Cassarà (Petri Corse) took the honours followed by same-powered Steven Goldstein and Antonio De La Reina. Race 2 will take-off tomorrow, with the GTS3 Ferrari 458 of Sdanewitsch-Rugolo (AF Corse) on the pole.