A well-attended and successful two-day FIA GT organised test took place at the Paul Ricard High-Tech Test Track on March 7th and 8th. On track were the new breed of Italian sportscars, the Maserati GranSport GT3 and the Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, both built to conform to the 'European GT3' racing regulations.

Although the main objective for the two days was to continue the procedure of balancing the performance of the cars which will take place in this year's all-new FIA GT3 European Championship, a number of other FIA GT Championship bound cars were present, including Race Alliance, with its two new Aston Martin DBR9s a Porsche 996 GT3 RSR, B-Racing with its Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT, PSI with two Corvettes, a C5 and a C6, and Zakspeed, with the Saleen S-7R which it will enter in the FIA GT Championship. The best time over the two days was set by Sascha Bert in the Saleen S7, with a time of 2:01.653 on the Wednesday. The Race Alliance Aston Martin was second, with a time of 2:03.224, with the PSI Corvettes in third and fourth place. 

The German B-Racing Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT was sixth fastest on the Wednesday. A number of drivers tested the Italian sportscar, including Norbert Walchhofer and Marino Franchitti. B-Racing were actually conducting their second test within a week as their Murciélago R-GT was given its first run last week at Imola. With good weather conditions prevailing at the Italian circuit the team managed to continued their winter test programme with no reported problems. As well as Walchhofer, Benjamin Leuenberger, Reinhard Kofler and triple FIA GT Champion Christophe Bouchut were all invited to take part during the day of development tests.
 

At Paul Ricard on Tuesday and yesterday Christophe Bouchut and Jean-Marc Gounon continued with their work of testing the new GT3 cars on behalf of the FIA, while the teams and manufacturers continued testing the cars as they gear up for the new season. Pedro Lamy was driving for Aston Martin, in the DBRS9, while Mike Hezemans and Bert Longin drove the Corvette Z06.

Peter Kox was out testing for Reiter Engineering over the two days in France, the German team on-hand with an array of Lamborghini sportscars which including the new 'European GT3' category compliant 5.0-litre V10 engined Gallardo as well as the V12 GT1 class Murciélago R-GT. Bernhard Müller and Michael Trunk were also driving; the pair were regulars in the FIA GT Championship in previous years, first in their Porsche 911 GT2, and then in a Lamborghini R-GT.

Two of the new Maserati GranSport GT3 racers in the hands of the AF Corse team also took part at Paul Ricard this week, the new Trident racer having been seen in action for the first time since its track debut at the tail end of last month at the Mugello circuit in Italy. The testing this week also saw the very first kilometres put on the clock of the Venturi Heritage, driven by the 1998 and 1999 FIA GT Champion, Olivier Beretta. Confirmed GT3 teams Tech9 and Damax were present, with their Porsche and Ascari cars respectively, and tested a number of drivers.