Portimão (Algarve), 11th April 2009

The International Algarve Circuit today hosted the first day of qualifying and races in the European series of the Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy, with competitors taking part in the second round of the season, on the same card as those drivers tackling the sixth round of the A1GP powered by Ferrari Championship.

The drivers in both classes were making their debut on this new and spectacular track in a single race with separate classifications. In the Pirelli Trophy, the stewards amended the finishing order, penalising Max Blancardi by 1.6 seconds, for going off track after an overtaking move. The Motor/Malucelli driver saw himself drop from first to third place, in favour of the Czech driver Robert Pergl (Scuderia Praha) and the Austrian Philipp Baron (Baron Service) who were leading the race up until the passing move.




The classification in Race 1 for the gentlemen drivers in the Shell Cup also came under scrutiny: after making contact with Hungary?s Tibor Valint (Warm Up) Denmark?s Morten Nielsen (Formula Automobile) was given a drive through penalty, which dropped him from second to sixth place. Taking the win, having led from the first lap was Jean-Marc Bachelier (Motor/Piacenza) followed by the new finishing order of France?s Stephane Clareton (Stradale Automobile) and Sweden?s Magnus Frodig (Formula Automobile.)

Tomorrow, Sunday 12 April, features not only the second round of races, but also another free session for the cars prepared by the F1 Clienti department of Maranello, which will include four single-seaters raced by Michael Schumacher and an F1 248, which Felipe Massa drove during the 2006 season.

At noon, prior to the start of the final race, there will be a minute?s silence in memory of the Abruzzo earthquake victims.

High resolution photos of the various activities of the Ferrari Corse Clienti department are exclusively available to journalists on the site www.media.ferrari.com. News, background stories and results can be seen on www.ferrari.com.