12.10.2004 The two DAMS run Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT sportscars both succumbed to mid-race transmission failure in the blistering heat of the FIA GT series race in Dubai last Friday

The two DAMS Lamborghini Murcielagos retired from the 10th round of the 2004 FIA GT Championship in Dubai last Friday due to transmission problems on both cars.

During their first stint Andrea Piccini and Bebbe Gabbiani performed well, managing to succesfully pass several cars in front of them.

After he had passed a group of cars, including Ferraris and Saleens, Piccini entered the top top before his first pit stop. During that stop the team were forced to fix a problem on the rear right upright which cost time and pushed the car back to fifteenth position.

Jean-Denis Deletraz then had a consistent stint even though he struggled with the extreme heat in the car. When Piccini came back in the car the transmission problems appeared after just a few laps. He came into the pit box on lap fifty five, but there was no way to rectify this transmission problem.

DAMS Renault V6 racer Neel Jani, who was ready to get in the car for the final stint had to leave Dubai without getting to drive the Lamborghini in a race.

Andrea Piccini, “The car was fast and consistent today. This morning we did the third quickest time in the warm up and we confirmed this afternoon that the car is quick, even on a race track which is not supposed to be adapted to this car.

"We improved the way to use the Michelin tyres and in the race I was faster than the Ferraris 575 and some of the Saleens.  We know that when we get reliability, things will improve very fast. I think my performance was good this weekend, and I also want to congratulate the team.

"All the crew has worked a lot over the whole event, we were a little bit lost at Imola with this new car and we have made big progress even if the qualifying result was not good, we had the speed for a top 8 here, now we just need to get more reliability.”

Felipe Ortiz retired also due to transmission problems. Gabbiani, who had a consistent stint, came into the pits on lap twenty, but unfortunately Ortiz immediately felt that there was a problem with transmission and had to retire after completing only five further laps.

Jean-Paul Driot, CEO of DAMS, “It is a big disappointment that we did not have either car finish the race. We understand the Murcielago and how to use the tyres much better now, but we have lost time in the sessions before qualifying so we did not get to try everything we wanted to go ahead with in the setup.

"We knew that running a new car like this would not bring top results in the first races but we had good speed this weekend and we are confident for Zhuhai.

"Also I would like to congratulate the drivers because the temperature in the car was very high and each driver gave a big performance considering that the heat inside a GT car at a circuit like Dubai is much higher than a sauna, and then the drivers wear fireproof overalls, equipment, helmet as well and it makes things really difficult!”