A simply breathtaking race got the 2005 IA GT Championship's season off to the best possible start in Monza today.

In one of the closest FIA GT races ever, three cars crossed the finish line separated by just 1.456 seconds, after 87 laps of out and out battle around the 5.793 km circuit. Ferrari, Maserati and Corvette all looked like potential winners, and the scene is set for a fantastic season.

Victory went to Larbre Competition, on its return to the Championship after an absence of a year and a half. The French team, which won three FIA GT titles between 2000 and 2002, added another win to its impressive tally when Pedro Lamy of Portugal and Gabriele Gardel of Switzerland were victorious today.

"We really did not expect to win the race. The team did a great job," Lamy said afterward. "My team-mate was really good, as he ran on used tyres and did very well. I just pushed and I was able to win. I am very pleased with that !" Their Ferrari 550 Maranello completed the 500 km in two hours and 40 minutes, holding off the charging Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati MC 12 cars until the chequered flag. 

Bartels, who had been closing in over the last three laps, crossed the line less than a second behind, while his team-mate Fabio Babini brought the German team's second car home in third place. "I think we can be very pleased with the result," Bartels said. "Monza is the first time that we all got together. We used a new structure and a new car compared to last year, with the Maserati MC12. I think the new car has good potential, but today Labre competition did a very good job. We had some minor problems during our race, which made it impossible for us to win in the end. But I must say we are very pleased and I think we have a good base for the upcoming races."

Fourth and fifth places also went to Maserati cars, with JMB Racing's duo led by the nr 16 car of Peter, Buncombe and Rusinov, which had started from pole.
 

Peter led for much of the race, pulling away a narrow lead at the start and staying at the wheel after a first fuel stop, in order to hand over the car to his team-mates with a good lead. Bertolini and Wendlinger brought the nr 15 car home in fifth, having lost a door in a collision with the nr 3 GPC Ferrari 575 GTC Evoluzione.

The second Larbre car, driven by Bryner, Calderari and Zacchia, finished sixth after starting from the pit lane, giving Larbre second place in the Teams classification, just one place behind Vitaphone.

Seventh went to the Lister Storm, pleased with the consistent performance of the new car and drivers Justin Keen and Liz Halliday. The final point went to Ruberti and Camathias, in the nr 7 Graham Nash Saleen.

With plenty of overtaking, racing incidents and excitement, the spectators, estimated at over 40,000, were treated to a real show of GT racing at its best, with early race leader Philipp Peter, in the nr 16 JMB, chased by a train of four cars, including the nr 17 Russian Age Racing Ferrari (which stopped later due to fuel problems), the two Vitaphone Maseratis and the nr 15 JMB car.

After 22 laps, the top six were still separated by less than 7 seconds. In the closing stages, the nr 6 GLPK Carsport C5R, in its first FIA GT race, proved its potential by challenging for the lead, following the then leader Bartels by just 0.3 of a second, and looking like a certain podium finisher if an oil line had not broken.