Career
Vilander started racing karts at the age of five, winning the Junior A class of the Finnish Karting Championship in 1995, and both the German and Oceanic championships in 1999. He then upgraded to open-wheel cars in 2001. By 2004, he was competing in Italian Formula 3 with the Coloni team, and upgraded to Italian Formula 3000 in 2005, as well as competing in the Italian GT series.
However, trouble was brewing in the Coloni GP2 team, as lead driver Gianmaria Bruni had a row and left mid-season. Vilander got the call-up from Coloni to be Bruni's temporary substitute and competed in the Italian and Belgian rounds of the championship. He proved a competent midfield runner, finishing 15th, 8th, 14th and 13th in the four races in which he took part. For the season-closing double-header in Bahrain, Coloni chose to replace Vilander with Ferdinando Monfardini, and Toni went back to his normal drives. Vilander finished 25th overall in the series' inaugural year with no points, but was more successful in Italian Formula 3000, where he finished fourth with 23 points, and more successful still in Italian GT2, where he was crowned champion with his co-driver Alessandro Pier Guidi, scoring a total of 182 points.
In January 2006, Vilander, Pier Guidi and Giambattista Giannoccaro won the GT2 class of the Mil Milhas Brasil race and were placed fourth overall, driving a Ferrari 360. Using that same car, he went on to win that year's GT2 class of the Italian GT Championship. He also won the GT1 class of the 2006 Italian GT Championship with Giannoccaro, driving a Maserati MC12. For one race, he made a guest appearance in the FIA GT Championship.
Continuing his sportscar success, Vilander won the GT2 class of the 2007 FIA GT Championship with team-mate Dirk Müller. In 2008 he teamed up with Gianmaria Bruni and retained his title. He also competed in the American Le Mans Series alongside Jaime Melo in a Ferrari 458 Italia GTC for Risi Competizione.
Vilander has competed in four Le Mans 24 Hours races from 2008 onwards, driving Ferraris for the AF Corse team. In 2008, he shared a Ferrari 430 with Thomas Biagi and Christian Montanari in the GT2 class but failed to finish. Two years later, he returned to La Sarthe to drive a Ferrari 458 Italia with Jean Alesi and Giancarlo Fisichella, finishing 16th overall and fourth in the GT2 class. In 2011 he again drove a 458 with Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni in the new GTE-Pro category, improving to 13th overall and second in class having held the class lead for much of the 24 hours. For the 2012 race, the trio returned and won the class convincingly (finishing 17th overall) despite the car having to be completely rebuilt for the race following Fisichella's crash in practice, missing qualifying and starting from the back of the grid as a result.
Vilander made his début in the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2012, again driving a Ferrari 458 Italia for AF Corse alongside Filip Salaquarda.
Read more about this topic: Toni Vilander
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