Pedro Lamy and Gabriele Gardel achieved one of the most remarkable victories in the nine year history of the FIA GT Championship at the Dubai Autodrome, storming from the back of the grid (due to an engine change before qualifying) to beat a superb field of Maserati, Ferrari, Chevrolet and Lister GT cars and record their third win of the season.

Their Care Racing supported Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello even ran out of fuel on the track, at the end of the first hour, effectively penalising the Larbre entry half a minute of track time as Lamy weaved slowly to the pit-lane.

Gardel, who drove a masterful middle stint, is now a single point behind FIA GT Championship leaders Andrea Bertolini and Karl Wendlinger and 2nd place overall in the standings. On track, he was able to reduce the gap to the six cars ahead of him - the Russian Age Aston Martin DBR9, the GLPK Chevrolet Corvette and no fewer than four Maserati MC12s - giving the Ferrari back to Lamy 38 seconds behind the Aston Martin, which later stopped at the trackside with no drive, a dozen laps from the finish. Gardel was then just 20 seconds behind his arch-rivals in the driver championship, Timo Scheider and Andrea Bertolini.

Continuing a string of fastest laps, and helped by the Aston Martin's retirement, Lamy leap-frogged past Bertolini's Maserati and Anthony Kumpen's Corvette, closing onto leader Scheider's tail going into the penultimate lap. "It's now or never" thought Lamy as he shaped up for a clean pass, ducking out of the Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati's dust in the short chute between turns 13 and 14. "It's a miracle," reckoned Team Principal Jack Leconte.
 

"Sometimes the team has to make up for a driver's mistake, but today the driver made up for the team's mistake, a bad one," Leconte added. "The car was perfect, the drivers did everything possible to win, and now we have a real chance to win the title for Gabriele next weekend in Bahrain." Letting the boss off the hook for the first pit stop, Lamy said that the car had less fuel in the tank than was shown on the telemetry. "We think there was some fuel in the tank, but it was not picked up. It made it more exciting, didn't it?"

Two more Care Racing Ferrari 550 Maranellos raced to 9th and 10th positions overall. Russians Alexey Vasiliev and Nikolay Fomenko were delighted to finish 9th and earn a championship point, despite lacking the extra pace of Christophe Bouchut, who switched to the Aston Martin. "The Ferrari is beautiful" said Fomenko. "It is so reliable, it runs like a clock, tick-tock, tick-tock!" One position behind was Larbre Competition's second Ferrari 550 Maranello, also completely reliable, driven by Steve Zacchia, Jean-Luc Blanchemain and Vincent Vosse.

Care Racing supported Ferrari 550 Maranellos: Larbre Competition - Car 11: Pedro Lamy (P) / Gabriele Gardel (CH); Car 12: Jean-Luc Blanchemain (F)/Vincent Vosse (B)/Steve Zacchia (CH); Russian Age Racing - Car 18: Nikolay Fomenko (RUS) / Alexey Vasiliev (RUS)
 
FIA GT Championship, Dubai - Race Result: 1 11 Lamy/ Gardel Ferrari 550 Maranello 89 laps; 2 9 Bartels/Scheider Maserati MC12 GT1 -0.775; 3 6 Longin/Kumpen/Hezemans Corvette C5R -8.028; 4 15 Bertolini/Wendlinger Maserati MC12 GT1 -10.219; 5 10 Babini/Biagi Maserati MC12 GT1 -20.854; 6 2 Deletraz/Piccini/Lemeret Ferrari 575 GTC -2:08.708; 7 14 Keen/Halliday Lister Storm GT -3 LAPS; 8 88 (GT2) Collard/Sugden Porsche 996 GT3 RSR -3 LAPS; 9 18 Fomenko/Vasiliev Ferrari 550 Maranello -4 LAPS; 10 12 Zacchia/Blanchemain/Vosse Ferrari 550 Maranello -5 LAPS

by Fiona Miller