The circuit of Silverstone will this weekend host the second round of the international FIA GT championship. Six Maserati MC12s will take part in the series. Two of the MC12s have an all-Italian team behind the wheel.

The Scuderia Playteam goes into the weekend on the back of its fruitful session at Estoril in order to test the Pirelli tyres. The squad has also seen the thirty second penalty (received at Zhuhai for not respecting a yellow flag) that was to be added to Bertolini/Piccini's final race time converted to a drive-through to be made within the first five laps. The pairing will face an uphill battle all the way.

Vitaphone Racing Team, having scored its first points in China, will be without Michael Bartels as the reigning champion is recovering from a small operation. The German will be substituted by Finnish driver Mika Salo for the event. Salo has experience in the MC12 as he partnered Andrea Bertolini in the car's maiden race in 2004.



JMB Racing will field a second MC12 alongside that driven by Macari/Aucott in the new Citation Cup (reserved to gentleman drivers). Pairing up in it will be the Dutch duo of Waaijenberg/Kutemann.

The new GT4 European Cup series will also get underway. Lining up will be four Maserati Trofeos GranSport fielded by team Guidici and JMB. The regulations state that the cars' front splitter and rear spoiler should be removed, unlike in the single-make series during 2005 and 2006 seasons.

In GT1 class the two free practice sessions and the qualifying session will take place tomorrow (from 18.05 local time). The two hour race will start on Sunday at 12.00 (13.00 in Italy).

Andrea Bertolini: "It will be a difficult race for us due to the penalty but we will do all we can to claim precious championship points. The weather will be an important factor, as we saw last year, as the forecast is for unsettled conditions over the weekend".