After the first race meeting of the seventh season of the FIA GT Championship, newcomers Biagi and Bobbi lead the GT Drivers Classification, while their team, BMS Scuderia Italia, has already amassed a 12-point lead in the Teams Classification. In N-GT, although JMB Racing drivers Bertolini and De Simone lead the Drivers points, Team Maranello Concessionaires leads the Teams points after its Ferrari 360 Modena cars finishing in second and third places. 

For the second 500 km race, at the French track of Magny-Cours, the cars will carry penalty weight, with the nr 23 BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 Maranello carrying 40kg, the nr 22 car 30 kg and the nr 21 Care Racing car 20 kg. In N-GT, the nr 52 JMB Racing Ferrari 360 Modena will have 20 kg ballast, with the nr 88 and 89 Team Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 360 Modena cars 15 and 10 kg respectively. 

This race should see Yellow Racing make its debut, after missing the Barcelona round. The Italo-Swiss Ferrari 360 Modena is likely to be driven by team owner Fabio Venier, with the second driver yet to be named. The race-by-race entrants are likely to include French teams Monteiro Racing Porsche 911 GT2 - a familiar face from the early history of the Championship - and a Porsche 996 GT3-RS entered by Protonic Desbrueres, driven by Philippe Brocard, Daniel Desbrueres and Dany Snobeck. Brocard previously entered a car in the final round of the 2001 Championship. 

DOUBLE FIRST FOR BIAGI & BOBBI

Thomas Biagi and Matteo Bobbi drove into the FIA GT Championship record books in Barcelona, when they became the first pair of drivers to win the overall race on their debut -- with the sole exception the first-ever FIA GT winners, JJ Lehto and Steve Soper, at the Hockenheimring, 1997. A number of drivers have won on their first appearance, such as Tom Coronel at the A1 Ring in 2000, and Mike Jordan at the Nurburgring in 2001, but they were paired with more experienced FIA GT drivers. But this was still an exceptional performance for the two young Italians in the nr 23 BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 Maranello. 

Bobbi, aged 24, has previously competed in the Formula Nissan 2000 series, and is also a Formula One test driver for Minardi. "I like Magny-Cours a lot; I won both races when I took part in the Formula Nissan race there last year. Barcelona and Magny-Cours are my favourite tracks, so I am really looking forward to the next race. It will not be easy to repeat the same result, as Lister will undoubtedly be very quick there. We have not tested since the last race, so the car will be the same. The 40kg penalty weight will be a bit different, but I do not think it will be as penalising in Magny-Cours as it would have been at Barcelona. We'll have to see in the free practice sessions." This weekend, Bobbi will be driving the third Minardi Formula One car in the Friday morning test session at Imola, for the San Marino Grand Prix. 

Biagi has been a F3000 driver for many years, and this is first venture out of single-seaters. "I am also confident for the race, although I know we will face a strong challenge from the Lister Storms, the Chrysler Vipers and from our team-mates. The team has done a good job, and I know they will do the same in Magny-Cours. I have very mixed feelings about Magny-Cours. My first race in F3000 was there, which was good, but I also have some bad memories, after Marco Campos died there in an accident in 1995. That was a very bad time for me, so I would really like to do my best, to be able to dedicate the race to his memory." Biagi is pleased with his move to the FIA GT Championship : "It's a big step forward for me, with very professional teams and organisation. And there is a very good atmosphere inside my team. It's all very positive !" 

MIXED FORTUNES FOR JMB RACING 

JMB Racing claimed its first win for nearly a year at Barcelona, when the nr 52 Ferrari 360 Modena of Andrea Bertolini and Fabrizio De Simone finished first in the N-GT category. "It was really great - a whole new experience for me," De Simone said. "I didn't know the car very well beforehand, but we worked very well together, with the team and my team-mate, Andrea Bertolini, from the very beginning. I think our victory was a result of all the work we put in together, and the way the victory was built up is more important than the victory itself. That first race was an excellent start, but now we have to continue to work for the rest of the season. But I am really very happy, as my last win was back in April 1999, and it was also Andrea's first FIA GT win. I like Magny-Cours a lot, and I am quite confident about the track, so I hope I will be up to speed quicker than in Barcelona. " Last year, De Simone drove in the FIA European Touring Car Championship. " I have really enjoyed the transition to GT racing. My first experience of endurance was in the 6 Hours of Vallelunga last year; I have found myself fitting into this kind of racing very well - sharing the set-up work with a team-mate, pit-stops and longer races. Although it is completely different from touring car races, it keeps the spirit of a sprint race, so it is a very complete package. I am really very happy indeed." 

However, it was a different story for the two Ferrari 550 Maranello cars entered by the French team in the GT class. After two engine failures, the nr 10 car of Terrien, Derichebourg and Pescatori, could not take part in the race, while the nr 9 car suffered repeated problems. "It was difficult, but it was a situation we had expected," Fabio Babini explained. "The project got underway quite late, and therefore we saw Barcelona more as a test session for us, getting in as many kilometres as possible, making a number of changes and doing a lot of pit-stops. We hope that the car will be a lot more reliable for the next race; JMB Racing has been working extremely hard, to give us a good car for Magny-Cours." In previous years, Babini has driven an Art Engineering Porsche 996 GT3-R, and then, last year, a Paul Belmondo Racing Chrysler Viper GTS-R. "I am very pleased to be driving a Ferrari. From the first time I drove it, I could feel that it was very good - the set-up, the chassis... it's the future of the Championship. I think that Barcelona proved what the car can do - but I hope that it will soon be the nr 9 and 10 Ferrari 550 Maranello up there, not just the 23 and 22 ! We'll have to see. I am also very pleased to be racing with Philipp Peter, who is a very fast driver, and I think we will form a good team !" 

GOOD START FOR AUTOPALACE

FIA GT New French team Autopalace will be facing its home race after making an excellent start in the Championship, finishing in fourth place in the N-GT category with the nr 58 Ferrari 360 Modena, driven by Frenchmen Guillaume Gomez and Steeve Hiesse. "We were very pleased with our result," Hiesse said. "It was excellent, especially considering that we had only received the car two days beforehand, and had only done around 5 laps. I had previously only done fifteen laps in an N-GT car in December, so everything was totally new to me. Our aim for the race was to get the car to the finish line, and get some points if we could, but we had not expected to be so far up - we had hoped for 6th or 7th, not 4th ! The level in the Championship is very high, and the differences between the teams and the drivers are very small, with a lot of homogenous driving pairs, so it is going to be very difficult to make the difference. Good preparation and strategy will count a lot, and it will be vital not to make any mistakes." 

This was the first time Hiesse had taken part in such a long GT race. "The French Championship races are only an hour long, meaning each driver has around half an hour in the car. Physically, I did not have any problems. The car is very pleasant to drive, and not too tiring, although it is difficult to keep the same high rhythm for such a long time. We hope to have a new gearbox and new evolutions for the engine soon, as we hope to be able to close the gap to the Team Maranello Concessionaires cars in Qualifying, when we were well behind." 

As French drivers, both Gomez and Hiesse know the circuit of Magny-Cours well. "I won there last year in an Almeras Porsche. But I don't know if that will give us much of an advantage, as I think most of the drivers will be familiar with the circuit, which hosts a lot of international meetings. Our aim is to get closer to the class leaders in Qualifying, and then to manage our race as well as we did in Barcelona, so that we can aim for the podium and eventually, for our first win."