Maranello, 11 April

The Ferrari of Jean Alesi, Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander made it to the third step of the podium in the GT2 class at the end of the curtain raiser for this season’s Le Mans Series, held at the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit at Le Castellet. With six laps remaining in the eight hour marathon, the AF Corse F430 suffered a puncture after coming together with a prototype car and had to make its way down pit lane for a wheel change, thus dropping from second to third spot. The race ended with a Porsche 997 one-two for Marc Lieb-Richard Lietz and Martin Ragginger-Christian Ried-Patrick Long, but after the flag, Fisichella felt it had gone well. “It’s a shame about Jean’s accident just ten minutes from the end as we were running second and had a good pace,” said the Ferrari man, who now heads off to Shanghai to fulfil the role of reserve driver for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro in the Chinese Grand Prix. “We were the highest qualified Ferrari in our category and as a debut race, I am more than pleased, especially as I think I have learned a lot and can therefore improve.” In fourth place was the CRS Racing Ferrari, crewed by Pierre Ehret-Phil Quaife-Pierre Kaffer, with AF Corse’s second F430 finishing fifth in the hands of Luis Perez Comanc-Matias Russo.
The next round of this series takes place on 9 May, at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.