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 The
Brno round of the FIA GT Championship was something of a renaissance for
Ferrari, with seven cars entered and victory going to the Larbre
Compétition 550M of Pedro Lamy and Gabriele Gardel. GPC
Sport claimed their best-ever result with their 575GTC - third
place for Melo/Belloc, so there were two Ferrari teams on the podium. New Czech team Rock Media Motors were competing in the FIA GT Championship for the first time, entering a Ferrari 575GTC for team owner Antonin Herbeck and former Formula One and CART driver Andrea Montermini. The team has been competing in the Italian GT Championship. Montermini raced for JMB Racing in the 2002 season, with two wins and six podiums. Peter Kutemann and Antoine Gosse, who drove together in the 2003 season of the FIA GT Championship, returned for the Brno round. They shared a GT2 Ferrari 360 entered by JMB Racing. For Brno, GPC Sport had three cars on the grid, with a 360 joining the GT2 class. The car was driven by Belgians Stéphane Lemeret and Loïc Deman, who will both drive for the team in the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa. The team has continued to work on the underachieving 575GTCs. “The cars are definitely better. We are still working on developing them; it is a continual process of evolution. We have been testing in Vallelunga, thanks to Ferrari and Pirelli. Our main problem is finding the right set-up. Once we do, the cars are competitive.” team manager Batti Pregliasco explained. The Larbre Compétition 550M was running well in the early stages of the race, but really came to the fore when it started to rain. Gardel took the lead, pulling out a healthly margin. Handing back over to Lamy for the final stint, the car crossed the finish line with a lead of 58 seconds over the second-placed car, the Maserati MC 12 of Bertolini and Wendlinger, which had started from the back due to an engine change. This second win of the season has placed Gardel in the lead of the Drivers' Championship, the first time the Swiss driver has been in this position. GPC's second 575, that of Jean Denis Deletraz and Andrea Piccini, fared much worse than its sister car. On the first lap the Imola-winning GLPK Racing Corvette spun, sending the Vitafone Maser of (then) Championship leaders Biagi/Babini spinning in avoidance, and collecting a Lambo and the 575 in the process. Only the Corvette rejoined, running a relatively uneventful race to finish fourth. The twisty circuit did not really suit the car and 40kg of "success ballast" won't have helped either. Bouchut, in the Cirtek-run Russian Age Racing 550M, was on a charge in the early stages, picking off the cars in front of him and taking the lead on lap 14. He continued to pull away. The rain started after 22 laps; the cars gradually came in for wet or intermediate tyres. Gardel fought hard for the lead from Bartels, in a Maserati, pulling out a lead. He was followed by Vasiliev in the Russian Age Ferrari, with the GPC car also coming up to make it a Ferrari one-two-three, but the 550 dropped back, finally taking the last point for eighth, after shining in the first two thirds of the race. The Rock Media 575GTC of Montermini/Herbeck came home 10th and the JMB Racing GT2 of Gosse/Kutemann 19th, the last finisher to be classified, despite a spin on lap 45, and "possible contact" with the GPC 360 of Lemeret/Deman. The JMB car continued, the GPC one did not. Next round: Spa 24hrs, 30/31 July, when the Astons will be back!
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