LMES Round 1 - Istanbul - Ferrari F430 GT scores international maiden win

Istanbul, Turkey, 2006, April 9th

Ferrari F430 GT scores international maiden win - Icer Brakes Ferrari 430 qualified on pole position
It took just two races for Ferrari’s 430 GT Berlinetta to score its maiden international GT2 victory, when Fabrizio de Simone, Gabrio Rosa and Luca Drudi won the shortened opening round of the Le Mans Series in Istanbul at the weekend. The Team Icer Brakes Ferrari 430 qualified on pole position in the hands of Peter Sundberg, but it was Gian Paulo Coppi’s GPC Sport team which took the victory at the end of the four-hour race.

Teams were left stunned by the news that fuel supplier Shell, official supplier to Le Mans and the Le Mans Series, had not delivered enough fuel for the 36 cars to complete the 1000km race, or six hours, whichever came first. The shortage was discovered on Sunday morning, and was announced to teams mid-race. Strategies were disrupted and both teams and drivers were left furious. “We just know that we did not have enough fuel,” said an embarrassed series organiser Patrick Peter. “We are 8,000 litres short, we discovered this morning, very late. We have to reduce the time of the race to four hours.

The race did not start perfectly for the Ferrari teams as Jesus Villarroel, driving the Team Icer Brakes Ferrari on a damp track, was hit by a faster prototype which forced the car to retire before the end of the first hour with just 23 laps completed. British driver Ian Khan also lost time early in the race due to a problem generating heat in the tyres, and he described the opening ten laps as “the worst of my life. It was impossible to drive when the tyres were cold, but once they had come up to temperature, I got onto the back of the leaders and was able to follow them,” he said. “The car is really easy to drive, even for me, and we were triple stinting the tyres, which was fantastic.”

The Czech team Convers MenX finished second in the GT1 category, Peter Kox, Robert Pergl and Alexey Vasiliev ending their race a lap down on the winning Aston Martin in the Ferrari 550 Maranello. The team has a new 550 chassis, and Vasiliev in particular was delighted with the new car. “The car is much better than last year,” said the Russian, who drove for the Cirtek Motorsport team in 2005. “It is because it is a new car, but the body is much stiffer and I can use 50 per cent more throttle through the corners. I can now understand why the others were just so fast last year!” Team owner Robert Pergl added: “We have some things to improve on the car and so we are looking forward to the next event.”

Overall, the Istanbul race was a great success for Henri Pescarolo’s team as Emmanuel Collard and Jean-Christophe Boullion finished six laps clear of the second placed team, the Barazi Epsilon Courage C65 which also won the LMP2 category. The race gave an indication of what to expect at Le Mans in June, and expectations are that both the, Ferrari 550 and 430 will be contenders for class wins.

1 PESCAROLO SPORT

2 LISTER STORM RACING

3 CHAMBERLAIN SYNERGY MOTORSPORT

* SWISS SPIRIT

* CREATION AUTOSPORTIF

* COURAGE COMPETITION

* RACING FOR HOLLAND*

"LM" P2
POS TEAM NAT N° CAR ISTANBUL SPA NURBURGRING DONINGTON XXXX TOTAL

1 BARAZI - EPSILON

2 PIERRE BRUNEAU

3 G-FORCE

4 PAUL BELMONDO RACING

5 PAUL BELMONDO RACING

6 RML

* ROLLCENTRE RACING

* RANDACCIO RANIERI

"LM" GT1
POS TEAM NAT N° CAR ISTANBUL SPA NURBURGRING DONINGTON XXXX TOTAL

1 ASTON MARTIN RACING LARBRE

2 CONVERS MENX TEAM

3 LUC ALPHAND AVENTURES

4 CIRTEK MOTORSPORT

5 CIRTEK MOTORSPORT

/ B-RACING RS LINE TEAM

* PSI EXPERIENCE

"LM" GT2
POS TEAM NAT N° ISTANBUL SPA NURBURGRING DONINGTON XXXX TOTAL

1 GPC SPORT

2 AUTORLANDO SPORT

3 TEAM LNT

4 IMSA PERFORMANCE MATMUT

5 SPYKER SQUADRON

6 FARNBACHER RACING

7 SPYKER SQUADRON

8 VIRGO MOTORSPORT

ICE POL RACING TEAM

THIERRY PERRIER

SEIKEL MOTORSPORT

AUTORLANDO SPORT

* FARNBACHER RACING

* TEAM LNT

* TEAM ICER BRAKES

"*" : not classified
"/" : Did not race