Maranello, 18 July 2010

Jaime Melo and Gimmi Bruni took the GT2 class win at the wheel of one of the three AF Corse Ferraris entered in the Algarve 1000 km, the first night race of the Le Mans Series, held at the Portuguese Parco Algarve circuit. The impressive duo made the most of starting from the pole position secured with a great lap the previous morning and crossed the line ahead of the other F430 driven by Giancarlo Fisichella, Jean Alesi and Toni Vilander and the Porsche 997 of Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz. “It was a good race,” commented Fisichella once it was over. “We had some problems at the pit stop and lost valuable seconds because the radio was not working properly, but in the final laps, when we were lying third, Vilander managed to pass the Porsche and get us onto the second step of the podium.” The Roman driver leaves Portimao with 52 points in the Drivers’ classification, as do his team-mates, which puts them second, just ten lengths behind Lieb and Lietz, while Ferrari is now up to 106 points in the Constructors’, only three points behind Porsche. A long one month break now follows, before the fourth round in this prestigious series, which takes place over the weekend of 22 August at the Hungaroring in Hungary.