| ||||
 | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
 Four
thrilling races, four different winning cars - the 2005 season of the FIA
GT Championship has got off to an amazing start. In the scorching heat,
the three-hour race around the beautiful but difficult circuit of Imola
took a high toll on the FIA GT competitors, with an unusually high attrition
rate and only 14 cars classified at the end. But the survivors - as well as those who did not make it to the chequered flag - put on a fantastic show in the difficult conditions, with the top six cars on the same lap just minutes from the end. In the end, however, the day belonged to GLPK-Carsport, who became the first overall Belgian winner when their Corvette C5-R crossed the finish line in first position. French team Larbre Compétition continued its excellent comeback to the FIA GT Championship with second place in the race, beating all the Masers. The team put in a fine performance, with their Ferrari 550 Maranello always towards the front. Eight points for second has put Gabriele Gardel in joint second place in the Championship classification, on the same points as Wendlinger and Bertolini, just one point behind leaders Biagi and Babini. Larbre Compétition is lying third in the Teams classification, having finished in the points in each and every race. "It was too hot out there today - the last laps were very difficult," Pedro (Lamy) said. "I felt very bad after my first stint, but I was able to recover and get back in the car. We had a good set-up today. The Corvette was just too fast for us today, so second place is good. " The GPC Sport 575GTC of Melo/Belloc finished 6th, but team-mates Deletraz/Piccini retired after a spin at Aqua Minerale. The Cirtek Motorsport (Russian Age Racing) 550M went out early on, with a puncture following contact, and their GT2 360GTC driven by Wilson/MacAri had a bad race, starting from the back of the grid following an engine change and retiring after completing 38 laps. The results remain provisional pending engine checks on the Corvette
and the GT2 class-winning Porkie.
Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
|
