The international FIA GT championship will get underway tomorrow at the Chinese circuit of Zhuhai when the timed sessions take place. In 2004, Bertolini/Salo in the Maserati MC12 swept to victory at Zhuhai in 2004 ahead of the twin car driver by Herbert/DeSimone.

There will be five Maserati MC12 s lining up on the grid for the 2007 FIA GT. They will be fielded by Scuderia Playteam Sarafree, Vitaphone Racing Team and JMB Racing and have a large number of Italian drivers.

Playteam Sarafree, triumphant in the 2006 Italian GT championship, will have outgoing champion and official Maserati test driver Andrea Bertolini leading its charge. He will be paired with runner-up Andrea Piccini. On paper the Italian duo look to be favourites and will be challenging for the title. Giambattista Giannoccaro (the current Italian champion) and Alessandro Pier Guidi, make up the other crew that, potentially, could prove to be a real force. Scuderia Playteam Sarafree will be using Pirelli tyres that have been fitted to the MC12 since its 2004 debut. It has since signed an agreement with Shell.


Vitaphone Racing Team can boast two titles won in 2005 and 2006 and two consecutive wins in the last two 24 Hours of Spa. Also, Bertolini/Bartels last year scooped the Drivers' titles. Without a doubt Vitaphone is an expert and knowledgeable team and will want to stay at the top. This year's top driver is Michael Bartels. He will be flanked by Thomas Biagi , in his third year with the German outfit. The other car will see Miguel Ramos (who appeared in the 2006 Italian GT) and Christian Montanari sharing the drive. Though making his debut in this series, Montanari has experience in single-seaters.

Coming back to the GT1 class, JMB Racing put out two MC12s in 2005. The team from Monaco will have Joe Macari (a driver with Trofeo Maserati experience behind him) and Ben Aucott representing them. The second MC12 will take the stage for the first time at Silverstone with Kutemann/Waaijenberg and will be out to win the Citation Cup reserved to gentleman drivers.

All the MC12s will have 25kg of ballast on board, as imposed by the FIA.

The 2007 regulations have been modified in order to reduce costs. The races will now last two and not three hours. Two pit stops and a driver change must be made during the course of each race; the teams may use a maximum of three engines for the year and only one type of braking unit is allowed, homologated for each model; there will be three sets of brake discs from a single supplier and only one gearbox ratio permitted. Finally, only three sets of dry tyres per car may be used by the teams during each event.

The race will start at 13.30 (78 laps or 335.4 km or a maximum of 120' ). In Italy it will be transmitted live on Sky Sports Extra (channel 204) at 7.25 on 25 March. The Nuvolari channel will transmit a highlights show during the week.

Pirelli, Shell, Audemars Piguet, PTC and Alcantara are partners of Maserati Corse