| ||||
 | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
 Prodrive
re-defined the FIA GT1 standards on Sunday in the RAC Tourist Trophy race
at Silverstone. The front-engined 'Prodrive Mk.2' Aston Martin DBR9s dominating
the meeting on their GT debut, qualifying and finishing first and second
and leading throughout, to bring the TT home to Aston Martin after 46 years.
They not only outclassed their older 'Prodrive Mk.1' front-engined sisters, the Ferrari 550Ms, but finished 9 seconds ahead of the nearest mid-engined Maserati MC12. The DBR9s did not qualify for FIA GT points, so the maximum went to the third placed Vitaphone Racing MC12 of Babini/Biagi. Two more Masers were next, followed by the Larbre Compétition Ferrari 550M of Gabriele Gardel, which the Swiss driver shared with reigning Champion Fabrizio Gollin. However, the car was in the thick of the action throughout, and without a drive-through penalty (for speeding in the pit lane) , could have finished on the podium. Seventh place overall was taken by the GPC Sport Ferrari 575 M Maranello of Andrea Piccini and Jean-Denis Deletraz, in its best result of the season and the Russian Age Ferrari 550M finished in the final points-scoring position. They were followed by the GT2 GPC Sport Ferrari 360GTC of Drudi and Rosa, which finished third in class, giving the GPC team points in both categories - the only team to do so this season. The Cirtek Motorsport 360 of Eriksson/MacAri finished 21st overall and seventh in class. This event leaves Larbre Compétition in third place in the GT1 Teams' Championship, still within striking range of second. In GT2, the best Ferrari team are our own Scuderia Ecosse, second from their one-off appearance at Magny Cours. Cirtek Motorsport (Russian Age Racing) have since announced that it will be the first private team to abandon its Ferrari and enter an Aston Martin DBR9 in the FIA GT Championship. making its race debut in the 24 Hours of Spa. With Aston Martin announcing last weekend that they will make a full entry to the FIA GT Championship in 2006 with multi-championship winning (Ferrari) team, BMS Scuderia Italia; the Maseratis and the relative uncompetitiveness of the 360 in GT2, things are looking bad for Ferrari in GT racing. Next Round: Imola 29th May.
Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
|
