Maranello, 19th March 2007

Another Ferrari, other than Kimi Raikkonen's F2007 at the Australian Formula One GP, came home first at the weekend. It was the F430 GT, prepared by the Corse Clienti department of Maranello, who won the GT2 class of the prestigious "12 Hours" of Sebring (Florida). It was the first race of the American Le Mans Series.
The result was further enhanced by the Finnish driver Mika Salo who, with the Englishman Johnny Mowlem and the Brazilian Jaime Melo, is part of the Risi Competizione Team. It was Melo who drove the car on the last stint, defending it against the Porsche with Bergmeister/Lieb/van Overbeek in a fierce duel with an advantage of just two tenths of a second at the end of the race, which will definitely enter into the history of this "12 Hours" race in its 55th edition and of the championship itself.
First in the LMP1 category were Pirro/Biela/Werner in Audi, while the LMP2 category and in the GT1 category the victories were by Franchitti/Kanaan/Herta (Acura) and Papis/Gavin/Beretta (Corvette) respectively.
On the next weekend the other motor sport activities of the Prancing Horse will start at the Autodromo in Monza with the Italian and the European series of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli - Shell Cup. While on the Chinese race track of Zhuhai the FIA Gran Turismo series will start its first race of the year. In this case another Finn - Toni Vilander, a close friend of Raikkonen - will try for success as one of the Ferrari F430 GTs by the AF Corse Motorola Team.