The fifth round of the 2006 FIA GT Championship is quite a special one : not only is the Paul Ricard HTTT opening its circuit to a major international race meeting for the first time for eight years, but it is also the first new circuit to be visited this year, after the first four meetings were held at tracks which have all welcomed the series at least six times.
The meeting will take place over two days, with other on-track action including the Touring Cup, a new French single-make series, and the Group C / GTP Racing series for the impressive sports prototypes.
 With 30 cars on the grid, Sunday's 500 km race should be spectacular. The track chosen for the FIA GT Championship race - out of the 180 possibilities at the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit - is 5.791 km long, and uses the full length of the impressive Mistral straight, 1.8 km, which allows the GT cars to reach speeds approaching 300 km/h So far, the Corvette C6 cars have been the ones to watch, with the PSI Experience and GLPK Carsport cars setting the best times in both free practice sessions.  In GT2, Scuderia Ecosse and AF Corse shared the best times during the two sessions. Qualifying takes place this evening, with the race on Sunday at 13:30. So far, the Corvette