Brazilian pilot Marcelo Hahn (Team Blausiegel), after failing to score in the first three rounds of the 2007 Brazilian Trofeo Maserati, saw his flagging season come right last Sunday with a hard fought victory at Brasilia. The race took place of the international circuit of Brasília (the capital of Brazil) which is named the Nelson Piquet Circuit in honour of his three F1 World Championships.

In an exciting race the pole position and the current leader of the championship points standings, Renato Cattalini, lost the opportunity to win the race when he was overtaken by Hahn in the first corner. Cattalini arrived at the second corner followed by the pilot Chico Longo. César Urnhani's (Team Blausiegel) had a spectacular accident when he collided heavily with the guard rails due to a braking problem. The accident happened right at the moment his team mate Hahn was overtaking his position, but the pilot suffered no injuries. “In spite of my team mate's accident I was faster than him and the other pilots, in this race everything was ok,” said Marcelo Hahn, just before climbing the podium.

After four of the nine rounds that make comprise the 2007 Maserati Trofeo Brazil, Renato Cattalini retains his leadership of the championship classification with 153 points, 38 points clear of César Urnhani who has 115. Rafael Derani with 109 points has assumed third position while in fourth place, with 96 points, is Abramo Mazzochi. Despite not participating in the weekend's latest race, Walter Derani, on 87 points, retains fifth position.
 

The next race in the series, round number five, will be held in the city of Londrina on the 5th August. The final four races will take place at Santa Cruz (16th September), São Paolo (21st October), Rio de Janeiro (11th November) and then a third visit of the year will be made to the São Paolo circuit (16th December).

The Maserati Trofeo Brazil championship makes use of the identical-specification Maserati Coupé race cars that were the mainstay of the Maserati Trofeo Europa series until they were superseded by the GranSport version for the 2005 edition. With the GranSport winding up production, the European series was wrapped up at the end of 2006, leaving Brazil as the only country to host this category of affordable racing which provides close contact and plenty of exciting action. The cars all boast 413 bhp (at 7,600 rpm) and 460 Nm of torque from their 4244cc V8 engines, and they can reach a top speed of 285 km/h.

by Claudio Perlini