The Care Racing supported Ferrari 550 Maranellos had a competitive second round of the FIA GT Championship at Magny Cours, but the result at the end of a hot, three hour race fell short of expectations.

Pedro Lamy and Gabriele Gardel finished fifth overall, two laps down on the winning Maserati and one place ahead of Lilian Bryner, Enzo Calderari and Steve Zacchia to score points for the Larbre Competition team. The Russian Age Racing Ferrari of Christophe Bouchut, Alexey Vasiliev and Nikolay Fomenko led the opening hour before a clash with a back marker which effectively put it out of contention.

Pedro Lamy of Portugal, the star of the opening round at Monza with his Swiss team mate, Gabriele Gardel, found himself without a clutch early in his stint. "I lost the clutch after maybe eight or ten laps," he said. "Gabriele says that he had the clutch in the second stint, but I didn't have it again in the third."

Their final pit stop saw Lamy hit a stray wheel in the pit lane, but he did not have any strange after-effects. "I felt something strange, and thought maybe I had run someone over," he said.

Lilian Bryner was disappointed with her finishing position. "The car was OK during the race, but we had a problem getting the tyre pressures up," she said. "It took three laps for us to get the correct pressures. The team told me to take care at the start, but I think I took too much care!
 

"The front tyres worked very well, but the compound was too hard at the rear. In this weather they just worked too hard. The softer compound was the better option." The team tried to save time by changing just one tyre at the final stop, but could not improve its position.

Frenchman Bouchut, who had qualified the RAR Ferrari on pole position for the three-hour race, led from the green flag but only for the first few metres before he was passed by a Maserati. "Pole position was on the outside of the first corner, which was completely wrong," he said. "I led for maybe one metre, and I could not fight for my position through the corner."

He continued to apply pressure, and took the lead back on the 15th lap, but it lasted just over a lap before the accident with a GT2 Porsche. "I flashed him on the straight and went to the left side of him, just like normal," he said. "He then turned in on me and I had nowhere to go. If he had given me another metre of space, we would not have crashed, but that is racing." The car was further forced to complete an extra pit stop over and above its competitors to ensure each of the three drivers could race. "If we had given Alexey just a splash, we could have been sixth or better," said Bouchut.