The Larbre Ferrari 550 Maranello of Pedro Lamy and Gabriele Gardel finished in a strong second place yesterday in Zhuhai, China, only seven seconds shy of eventual race winners Kumpen, Longin and Hezemans in the Corvette C5R after a storming drive in the final hour by Portuguese driver Pedro Lamy.

After starting the race, the ninth round of the 2005 FIA GT Championship, in hot pursuit of the Russian Age Aston Martin, Lamy very soon - like Bouchut and Collard - fell victim to an oil spill from a broken Porsche engine, and ended up in the gravel trap. Larbre Competition Team Principal, Jack Leconte, speaking after the race, said:  "The marshalling here was very bad. There were no oil flags being shown and Pedro was helpless in the conditions, and ended up in the gravel. We were fortunate to be the first of the three cars to be towed out as it meant we got back on the track before the safety car."  

Lamy then showed his class by fighting back from an effective last place to 4th before handing the car to Swiss Gabriele Gardel. Unfortunately the results of the excursion into the gravel meant that the Ferrari 550 was not as perfect as it could have been and Gardel endured an uncomfortable stint, finding the car to be nervous at the rear, and slow to brake. The Care Racing supported team elected to stop just twice, which put them into a strong position to fight with the leading car, the Dutch-run Corvette C5R. 
 

Lamy then proceeded to turn a 50 second deficit into just 7 seconds, setting fastest lap of the race on his way to the podium. As Leconte ruefully reflected, "Pedro drove quite magnificently and incredibly quickly, but it was not quite enough. We needed a few more laps." The result moves Gardel into 3rd place in the Drivers' Championship title race, with just 5 points separating the top 5 drivers. The next round at Dubai on 18th November will be critical! 

Race Result: 1 6 GT1 Kumpen/Longin/Hezemans Corvette C5R 3:00:21.567 110 laps; 2 11 GT1 Lamy/Gardel Ferrari 550M 3:00:28.727 110 laps; 3 9 GT1 Bartels/Scheider Maserati MC12 3:01:41.156 110 laps; 4 10 GT1 Babini/Biagi Maserati MC12 3:01:44.923 110 laps; 5 2 GT1 Piccini/Deletraz Ferrari 575M 3:00:21.671 109 laps; 6 15 GT1 Bertolini/Wendlinger Maserati MC12 3:00:44.045 109 laps; 7 66 GT2 Lieb/Rockenfeller Porsche 996 3:01:57.240 107 laps; 8 88 GT2 Sugden/Collard Porsche 996 3:00:41.260 106 laps

by Fiona Miller