Maranello, 17 July 2010

There are thirty two cars entered in the third round of the Le Mans Series, a 1000 km race lasting seven hours, which gets underway today at the Portimao circuit in Portugal.

This morning, the Ferraris dominated qualifying, taking the top three places on the grid. It was confirmation of the result in the third and final free practice session, with two of the three cars entered by the AF Corse team from Piacenza, Italy, heading the GT2 category, crewed by Jaime Melo-Gimmi Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella-Jean Alesi-Toni Vilander. Third went to another F430 entered by British team, CRS Racing, driven by Andrew Kirkaldy-Tim Mullen.

Giancarlo Fisichella, back from a special one-off participation in the fourth round of the American Le Mans Series, last weekend at Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City, seems to have a good feel for the Portuguese track. “The circuit is really nice and I feel particularly comfortable driving here and so far the results bear that out. We are hoping for a good race, the weather is good and everything seems to be in place for us to do well.”