FIA GT Update: Ferraris Begin to Win
3.5.01

After the second and third rounds of the FIA GT Championships, at Brno and Magny Cours respectively, the progress of the Ferrari teams is looking good.

This season the Rafanelli team have entered the big-car class with their two 550 Maranellos and the JMB team are concentrating on the second division N-GT class with a pair of 360 Modenas.

At Brno (on 15/16 April), running in snow and sleet throughout the weekend, the JMB 360 driven byTerrien/Pescatori was quickest in N-GT qualifying. During the race it ran strongly with the Porsches and finished second in class by just 0.2secs after 3 hours of flat-out racing.

The 550's were also competitive, but their mountain will be a little harder to climb. In qualifying the quickest of the two, driven by Naspetti/Schiattarella was just one second behind the pole-winning Vipers and in the race the cars finished in fifth and sixth places - respectively one and two laps behind the winning Viper. They demonstrated excellent reliability but still need that extra turn of speed. Team boss Gabriele Rafanelli commented that "it will be difficult to beat the others as they have years of experience, but we are pleased to be the only team with two cars in the points".

At the next round, at Magny Cours (30April/! May), the lead 550 qualified in fourth spot in the pouring rain, conditions which Naspetti said "do not suit our car and it is not easy to drive. But we are improving at every race". The second 550, driven by Duez/Blieninger, was caught out by a wrong tyre choice and qualified only 29th, whereas the 360 Modena of the JMB team had another excellent run and was 10th on the grid.

In the race itself the 360 team outfoxed the strong Porsche opposition by running long stints and having just one pit stop compared to the other's two, and Terrien/Pescatori beat the German cars for the first time in the history of the Series. Considering the long development time of the Porsches, some 20 years, it was a significant Ferrari victory.

The Rafanelli 550's again ran a good race but were a little off the pace. They finished 4th (Naspetti/Schiattarella) and 7th (Duez/Blieninger) with a Lister-Storm winning the race outright.

The next round takes place at Silverstone on 13 May at which time the Prodrive 550 will also join in. It will be good to watch.

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