Silverstone (England) staged the opening round of the FIA GT Championship at the weekend and the F430 GT cars immediately stamped their authority on proceedings, with four cars in the top four of the GT2 class.

The Ferrari F430, in its GTC, Challenge and GT formats was a key player in races held in three countries - England, the United States and Italy, over the weekend.

Long Beach (California) hosted the third round of the American Le Mans Series and for the second consecutive time, victory in Class GT2 went to the F430 GT of Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher. It was an action packed race which saw the Tafel Racing car valiantly fight off the final attack of the Porsches driven by Bergmeister-Henzler and van Overbeek-Pilet, while the Corsa Motorsport F430 GT, in the hands of Jeannette-Mowlem, finished fourth. The Risi Competizione cars were out of luck in Long Beach, with Brix-Friesacher fifth and Melo-Salo ninth, having been delayed with startermotor troubles. After three races, Mueller and Farnbacher head the classification on 54 points, a lead of six points over Bergmeister-Henzler.

Silverstone (England) staged the opening round of the FIA GT Championship and the F430 GT cars immediately stamped their authority on proceedings, with four cars in the top four of the GT2 class. The race took place on a track that was wet at first, before remaining damp, as reigning champion Toni Vilander dominating proceedings, with team-mate Gimmi Bruni (AF Corse), ahead of the sister car of CR Scuderia, in the hands of Bell and Kirkaldy, followed by the car with an all-Italian line-up of Malucelli-Ruberti, driving for BMS Scuderia Italia: fourth was the other AF Corse 430 GTC, crewed by Biagi-Montanari.

The famous English circuit also witnessed the second round of this season's European series of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli. Main players this weekend were Frenchman Ange Barde (Modena Motors) and the home grown Michael Cantillon (Ferrari GB Dealer Team.) Both men did the double in the Trofeo Pirelli and Coppa Shell respectively. Actually, the first man past the flag in the second Trophy race was Andrea Piccini, driving as a guest of the Ferrari GB Dealer Team and therefore not eligible for the championship. Also worthy of note, strong races from Austria's Philipp Baron in race 1 of the Trofeo Pirelli and Spain's Angel Santos, with two third place finishes in the Coppa Shell. Trofeo Pirelli Europe Result: 1st Barde 104 points, 2nd Baron 97 points, 3rd Blancardi 90 points; Coppa Shell Europe Result: 1st Cantillon 109 points, Santos 72 points, 3rd Carboni 66 points.

In the GT Open Championship which got underway at Vallelunga, there were two top triple finishes for the F430. In race 1, victory went to Maceratesi-Montermini (Playteam) ahead of Giao-Couceiro (Playteam) and Pasini-Bonetti (Advanced Engineering) this latter pairing taking the win in the second race, ahead of Maceratesi-Montermini and Monfardini-Frezza (GPC.)