Pedro Lamy and Gabriele Gardel braved the 30 degree Italian heat to bring their Care Racing supported Larbre Ferrari 550 Maranello home in second place at the fourth round of the FIA GT Championship at Imola yesterday.

After Saturday's two sessions, held in hot and dry conditions, Pedro Lamy lined up on the front row of the grid in his Care Racing supported Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello after another stunning lap in qualifying for the fourth round of the FIA GT Championship at Imola. The Portuguese set a time of 1:46.126, just two tenths slower than the pole position winning Corvette C5-R of Mike Hezemans.

“It was a good lap, but more importantly we have a good car for the race,” said Lamy afterwards, whose time was set in the slightly cooler, morning session, though the temperature gauge was still nudging 30 degrees centigrade. “This afternoon we did some long runs with lots of fuel and old tyres, and the car was still excellent.”

His co-driver Gabriele Gardel of Switzerland added: “The biggest problem that we have with the car is the temperature inside the cockpit, which is too high. Our cool suits do not work, and we have no spares. Perhaps we can do something with the windows. Even though that will cost us a bit of speed, I would rather lose that time than to risk having an accident. The speed of the car is fantastic – we were consistently able to run in the 1:49.5s, even on full tanks. It is an easy car to drive, but it is also fast so I think we are in good shape for tomorrow.”

The Russian Age Racing Ferrari 550 Maranello lined up fifth on the grid, on the third row, after Frenchman Christophe Bouchut was baulked twice on his two fastest qualifying laps. “Christophe was on for pole position; he had a good first sector and his second was the fastest of all, but he was held up twice,” said team manager Rob Schirle. The Frenchman will again share his Ferrari with Russians Alexey Vasiliev and Nikolay Fomenko.

Come race day yesterday, and Lamy and Gardel decided on an aggressive two-stop strategy which saw them finish 6 seconds clear of the third placed Maserati. The result moves Gardel to 3rd in the Drivers’ Championship on 27 points, and the Larbre Compétition team to 3rd in the Teams’ classification with 33 points. Lamy and Gardel crossed the line 19.264s behind the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, which scored its debut victory in the championship.
 

“It was very hot inside the car,” said Lamy after the race. “After the first stint, I was so hot, but I had time to cool down a little in the second hour and the third hour was actually better for me. We had a good set-up on the car and we drove to save the tyres, keep them consistent through the stint. I like to win, but second is good too! We were close on the fuel strategy. I had the feeling at the end of my second stint that the 575 in front of me would need to make another fuel stop, and so it did, but they decided to risk it and paid the price.”

Gardel added: “The car was really fast, but the last five laps of the stint were so difficult. I could not drive consistently through the second hour in temperatures more than 50 degrees centigrade inside the cockpit. It was hard to keep the concentration.”

The second Care Racing supported Ferrari, run by the Russian Age Racing team, retired in the first hour when Christophe Bouchut spun and was unable to re-start his car. The blue Ferrari 550 had been hit at the first corner, which the team suspected had pushed the rear bumper against the tyre, eventually causing a slow puncture.

“I was approaching the first braking zone when a Saleen hit me,” said Bouchut. “It was an unacceptable accident and we were close to having a very big crash with the other cars around us. The car was not badly damaged, but it felt strange and I radioed the pit to tell them that I thought I had a puncture, but at the second chicane the tyre went completely and I spun. I had a little contact with [Andrea] Piccini while I was spinning. It was then impossible to start the engine. It was a shame because all we had to do was change the tyre, and we would have been able to continue, no problem.”