After the thrills of Spa-Francorchamps and the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa, the FIA GT Championship is heading south, for the beautiful Paul Ricard HTTT circuit, with a bumper grid waiting to take on the 5.7 km circuit. Over 30 cars should line up for Sunday's 500 km race - an exceptional number for the post-Spa race.

The regulars in the GT1 category, including the battling Spa duo, the victorious Vitaphone Maserati MC 12 and the Phoenix Aston Martin DBR9, will be joined once more by the PSI Experience Corvette C6R which finished 5th at Spa, to be driven by 2001 Champion Jean-Philippe Belloc and rapid Dutch driver Jos Menten. The Balfe Saleen will be back - with a larger restrictor and a new team-mate for Shaun Balfe, Nigel Taylor, with whom he won the 2004 Spanish GT Championship. A Lister should also make its return to the series with Red Racing entering its Storm.

With their third win of the season, Bartels and Bertolini, who were accompanied by Eric van de Poele, claimed a fine win in the 24 Hours of Spa, giving the spectators a fantastic battle in the closing stages. The duo now has an 8-point lead over Piccini and Deletraz, while Vitaphone Racing also strengthened its lead in the Teams Championship. However, as Bartels mentioned in the press conference, this means the nr 1 Maserati MC 12 will be very heavy for the Paul Ricard HTTT. Vitaphone Racing Team Director Rafael Calafell: "After a great victory in Spa we did not have much time to celebrate because the whole Team started working immediately after, to get our cars in a perfect shape for Paul Ricard HTTT.
 

Winning the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa, the nr 1 Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati increased the lead in the Championship but we are conscious that it is going to be difficult to keep this gap, as we must carry a handicap weight of 100kg plus the 25kg imposed by the Bureau. In these conditions, it will be very difficult for Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels to reach the podium, but that will be the target for our nr 2 Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati driven by Thomas Biagi and Jamie Davies, who did a great job in Spa but unfortunately could not finish the race."

"This will be a great opportunity to compare the performance of the different cars with and without handicap weight in the legendary "Mistral" straight, the longest available in all circuits where we usually compete," he continued. "Our Engineers and Technicians worked hard in the test sessions and races to get the maximal efficiency out of our Maserati MC12s in every circumstance. To find the right aero and mechanical balance at Paul Ricard we are counting on the competitive Pirelli tyres. The goal is to score the necessary points for the battle for the Drivers and Teams Championship."