Porsche - the dominant brand in worldwide GT2 racing for so many years - suffered one of their biggest racing humiliations ever on Sunday when Ferrari took the first six positions in the FIA GT Championship's GT2 class at Paul Ricard. In the series points standings Ferrari now have 153 points, 99.5 ahead of Porsche, who languish on just 53.5 points, while in the drivers' cup the top seven pilots in the championship table all drive the conquering new Ferrari F430GT.

The Ferrari F430GT is proving to be the sensational new sportscar of 2006. Based on the F430 Coupé it has made large strides on the outgoing 360 Modena, especially in the area of chassis rigidity. Its success has not been confined to the FIA GT Championship as in the American Le Mans Seies (ALMS) the Risi Competizione operation recently won back-to-back races, the first team to do so this year, while it also has GT2 victories to its name in the Le Mans Series (LMS).

With pole position, first and second place and the fastest GT2 race lap, Scuderia Ecosse definitely swept the board at the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit, claiming the honour of leading home the pack of six F430GTs which finished a sensational 1-2-3-4-5-6. However, the battle between the team’s two Ferrari 430 GT2 cars was every bit as close as that between the fighting Corvettes in the larger GT1 class. They crossed the line separated by just 0.963 seconds, and the gap was frequently less than that during the 500 km race. Kinch and Kirkaldy took the win, in the nr 62 car, moving to within 11 points of the current Drivers Championship leaders, Matteo Bobbi and Mika Salo. Mullen and Franchitti led in the middle stint, after Kinch briefly went wide, but had to settle for second, as well as setting the fastest lap in GT2, with a time of 2:00.943.

Third place went to JMB-GruppeM, with Tim Sudgen and Iradj Alexander claiming their best result since their Brno win. The two AF Corse Ferrari F430GT cars, both of which were extremely heavy after their excellent results in Spa, finished in fourth and fifth places. This not only maintained their positions at the top of both the Teams and Drivers classifications – where Bobbi and Melo now lead by one point – but also ensured that they will lose some weight for round six in Dijon.
 

RSV Motorsport, on only their second event in the FIA GT Championship, placed their nr 81 car of Peter Sundberg and Domingo Romero in sixth position, scoring three championship points. Their second F430GT, piloted by Michel Ligonnet and Roland Severin finished out of the points. The best Porsche finisher was the nr 52 Renauer Motorsport Porsche 996 GT2 RSR of Wolfgang Kaufmann and Luca Moro, in seventh. The nr 75 Ebimotors Porsche 996 GT2 RSR of Collard and Riccitelli took the final point for eighth, despite a series of punctures for the Italian team. Konopka and Rosina were ninth for the ARC Bratislava team (Porsche), ahead of the second JMB-GruppeM (Antoine Gosse/Peter Kutemann)and RSV Motorsport (Michel Ligonnet/Roland Severin) F430GTs.

In the GT2 Drivers' classification, the AF Corse drivers Matteo Bobbi and Jaime Melo (41 points) leave Paul Ricard with just a single point lead over their team-mates Salo and Aguas (40 pts), with Kinch and Kirkaldy 11 points behind the leading duo (30 pts). Tim Mullen is in seventh place with 22.5 pts. In the GT2 manufacturers' series Ferrari (153 points) lead Porsche (53.5 pts), Spyder (10 pts) and Panoz (4 pts), while in the teams' classification, AF Corse (81 pts) lead Scuderia Ecosse (52.5 pts), Ebimotors (30 pts) and JMB Racing (22 pts).

These were not the only Ferrari F430 race cars to take part at Paul Ricard though. In the G3 class the F430 GT3 racer - based closely on the F430 Challenge - was in action, and after the Dodge Viper Competition Coupe and Aston Martin DBRS9 cars took part in the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa, it was the turn of the Corvette Z06 and Ferrari 430 GT3 cars from the FIA GT3 European Championship to take part in the full FIA GT Championship. Although JMB’s two Ferrari F430 GT3 cars suffered from engine misfire problems and didn't finish, the two Riverside Corvette Z06 cars completed the race in 21st and 22nd positions – the longest race to date for the relatively new cars.