The fourth round of the FIA GT Championship, held at Monza yesterday, saw Maserati consolidate its lead in the Manufacturers' Cup, the Drivers' championship and the Teams' championship. Thanks to Miguel Ramos and Christian Montanari's second place and the fourth spot taken by Michael Bartels and Thomas Biagi, the Vitaphone Racing Team holds on to the number one position in the Teams' championship while the Emilian driver moves to the head of the Drivers' standings.

The race was a hard fought one and it was only decided 19 minutes from the end when Wendlinger and Sharp made their driver switch without changing tyres. At that point, the gap to Biagi and Bartels' MC12 was less than 10 seconds. Biagi, in trying to close up on the leaders, forced the pace. However, he locked his brakes and slipped two places. His Vitaphone team mate, Montanari took full advantage. Montanari had, a few moments earlier, sped past Hezemans' Corvette C6R at the first chicane. The driver from San Marino also set the fastest lap in the race (1’45”610) on lap 15. The result would have been even better if a problem with the starter motor had not cost a few tenths at the last pit stop where he replaced a tough Miguel Ramos. Ramos had previously gone head to head in a splendid duel with Sharp.

"It was a superb race," said a clearly satisfied Montanari afternoon, "We were quick and could have won if we hadn't had a glitch with the starter motor." His team made Ramos was also pleased with the result, and the progress being made by the #2 Vitaphone Racing-run MC12: "We are improving with each race and closing in on a win," he said, adding, "I would like to thank the entire team for all their hard work this weekend."

The Playteam Sarafree MC12s had a difficult time of it. At the end of the warm up session, the engine on Bertolini/Piccini's car was substituted as a precaution when the telemetry picked up some anomalies in the distribution, something noted by Bertolini during his stint.
 

The engine swap meant a loss of ten grid positions. Pier Guidi's car made a solid start and was in fifth for long stretches before pitting on lap 21 to change a punctured tyre. His team mate, Giannoccaro, ran off the track when he clashed with a Corvette, leaving the pair with a zero points haul.

Andrea Piccini, made a great comeback from the rear of the field but had to make his pit stop early when he lost tyre pressure while holding sixth. After the stop, Andrea Bertolini pulled put all the stops to climb to ninth before handing over to his partner forty minutes from the finish. So, in the end the chequered flag was taken by Wendlinger/Sharp. Behind them was the Ramos/Montanari duo (+ 5”6) in what was their second consecutive podium finish, and Hezemans/Deletraz (+ 8”5). Bartels/Biagi crossed the line in fourth (+ 15”1), with Bertolini/Piccini eighth and Giannoccaro/Pier Guidi in ninth.

In the Citation Cup, second place went to the JMB racing run MC12 of British duo Joe Macari and Ben Aucott while fourth was collected by their Dutch team mates Peter Kutemann and Dirk Waaijenberg.After three rounds of the Citation Cup, Belgian driver Tom Cloet has claimed three consecutive wins, with three different co-drivers alongside, and leads the series. After Pertti Kuismanen at Silverstone and Gilles Vannelet in Bucharest, he was joined in the SRT Corvette by Italian driver Mauro Casadei.

Not all the teams will be abandoning Monza as a three day Pirelli test season begins tomorrow. This aim of the tests is to settle on the right tyre compound for the upcoming races, starting at Oschersleben on 8 July.