The seventh round of the FIA GT Championship at Spa, was scheduled over 24 hours with championship points to be awarded for positions at 6, 12 and 24 hours. The regular FIA GT field was swollen by a number of newcomers to give an entry of more than 50 cars. The race was a huge success, more than 65,000 spectators attending on the Saturday alone. Andrea Piccini took his second pole position of the year, his 2:16.393, nearly half a second faster than the Carsport Chrysler Viper of Fabrizio Gollin. Dutchman Peter Kox, joining the crew of the second BMS Ferrari 550 Maranello for the weekend, lined up third, 1.5s slower than the sister car. In N-GT Stephane Ortelli in the Freisinger Porsche edged out Christian Pescatori, with Bert Longin lining up the second Freisinger car third.

The BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 Maranello cars dominated the start of the race. Winner of the last three races, Andrea Piccini led away from pole, keeping the lead throughout his stint and posting many of the race's fastest lap times. However, as the GT cars came in for their first scheduled pit stops, the second BMS Ferrari 550 of Frederik Dor and Enzo Calderai, joined for this race by Peter Kox swept into the lead as it remained on worn tyres. The Ferrari challenge was not to last long though, with Piccini's team mate Jean-Denis Deletraz dropping back slightly before stopping with oil pressure problems and Kox quickly returning to the pits with a broken transmission. 

With the winning Chrysler Viper scoring maximum points at all three opportunities, an eventual total of 20 points, double the usual maximum, overall championship leaders Piccini and Deletraz have slipped down the points standings.

Elsewhere Philippe Alliot retired the Force One Ferrari 550 Maranello early in the race with transmission failure. Yah-Man, Caffi and Chiesa rounded off the top ten finishers in their Ferrari 360 Modena, while a independently entered Lamborghini Diablo ran steadily all race to come home in a respectable 17th place.

The Lamborghini VIP car has seen some interesting personalities take the wheel and has always been in the thick of the action. Singer David Halliday and famous Spanish racing driver Emillio de Villota won at Jarama, while BBC TV's Tiff Needell and journalist Mark Hales took a victory at Silverstone. Ex-F1 racer Parick Tambary and legendary French skier, Luc Alphand teamed up at Magny-Cours, but after a promising start were sidelined by mechanical failures.

Making a poor start from second place on the grid, Piccini dropped down to fifth, but by the time he handed over to Jean-Denis Deletraz at the first round of pitstops he had brought the Ferrari back up into second. Deletraz took the lead from Niclaus Springer in the Lister during the second hour, and Piccini, despite worn front tyres, stroked home the Ferrari in the final stint to cross the line just 1 second ahead of the Lister.

Andrea Piccini, “At the start I thought that one of the cars passed before the green light. I couldn’t close the door so dropped to fifth. It was very difficult for me to pass the Carsport cars because they were very fast in a straight line. I don’t think that Gollin saw me and I hit him, and I am sorry about that. I didn’t hit him deliberately, I was all over the grass, but we touched. I started to push to catch the Lister, but there was always traffic. We lost time in the pit stop with the refuelling. When I took the car I was only five seconds behind. I had to close the gap which was hard because the front tyres were gone. It was a hard race."

Andrea Garbagnati and Andrea Bertolini took third place in the N-GT class in their JMB Ferrari 360 Modena, despite an end of race spin for Garbagnati.One spin each for Andrea Montermini and Christian Pescatori in the class championship leading JMB 360 Modena meant they finished 7th in class, outside the points scoring positions.

The first day of the test was warm and sunny, the Alfa touring car pilot running 98 trouble-free laps as he got familiar with the car, posting a fastest time of 2:03.908. On the second day he completed 55 laps before an off at the Tosa corner resulted in minor damage to the car, curtailing the day's running. Along the way he set a fastest lap time of 2:02.991. Giovanardi was positive in his feedback on the Cambiocorsa Trofeo car, impressed at the car's handling around a demanding circuit like Imola, and confident that an increase in power and further weight loss should see the car become a competitive GT proposition. 

Round 5 of the FIA GT Championship saw the cars start behind the pace car due to the torrential rain and run for 54 minutes of the 3 hour race in formation. The BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari took the lead in the second hour and never looked back, romping home over 20 seconds ahead of the second placed Larbre Competition Chrysler Viper GTS of Christophe Bouchet and David Terrien. For the first time this season both the teams cars finished in the points, the sister car of Enzo Calderai and Lillian Bryner coming home in fifth place.

The result lifts Piccini and Deletraz up to fifth place in the overall championship points standings with 21 points, three points behind the first four in the championship who all tie on 24 points, Bouchet and Terrian's second place putting them on equal points with the championship leading Lister drivers.

In the N-GT class both JMB Racing Ferrari 360 Modenas finished in the points, the Garbagnati/Bertolini car coming second, while the championship leaders Montermini/Pescatori picked up three points coming home fourth. However with Stephane Ortelli picking up his third class win on the trot in the Freisinger Porsche, this weekend sharing with his third consecutive different co-driver, Emmanuel Collard, the JMB drivers championship lead has now been whittled down to just five points.

Also making their series debut were two extra JMB Ferraris. Both had eventful races. The Gianni/Ring car had a warm-up accident and only just made the grid. Gianni spun out in the wet, losing three laps and with the windescreen wipers failing, team mate Tony Ring then miscalculated a bend and slid off, losing further track position. However they made in to the finish, 13th in class, one place behind Kutemann/Alexander's similar car which had started from the pitlane after a techical problem and ran as high as 3rd place in class before Iraj Alexander locked his brakes on cold tyres ran into the back of John Nielsen's Cirtek Porsche.

In the LM-GT class the lead JMB Competition 360 Modena had been only the race's third retirement, running off the track at 6.18pm during Hancock's stint. The sister car retired at 3.30am with electrical failure, while the Autopalace 360 Modena after making several early morning pitstops with battery problems was eventually withdrawn at 5.10am.

In the LM-GT class the quickest of the two JMB Ferrari 360 Modena's, the Short/Wagner/Hancock car, set a time 4:15.951 to line up 44th overall and 6th in class, just under 5 seconds off the GT pole time which was set by the Racers Group Porsche of Luhr/Bernard. The Gomez/Fukuda Autopalace 360 Modena lined up in 47th place with a time of 4:19.536, 10th in class, while Schultheis/MacAllister/Earle in the second JMB Ferrari brought up the rear of the grid in 50th place with a time of 4:27.313.

Two weeks after Thomas Enge had given BMS Scuderia Italia their first pole position at Brno, the No 23 Ferrari 550 Maranello was placed on pole by Andrea Piccini after topping the times in almost every practice session. Piccini started the race and after the first hour, handed the car over to Jean-Denis Deletraz with a 26 second lead, which he maintained for the second hour, Piccini eventually finishing the third hour with a 33 cushion over the second place Viper.

Stephane Ortelli took his second consecutive win in the N-GT class in the Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 996 GT3-R, this time sharing driving duties with Sascha Maassen, a clear lap ahead of the championship leaders Andrea Montermini and Christian Pescatori in the JMB Competition Ferrari 360 Modena whose second place in class extended their N-GT lead. After struggling in qualifying, Montermini had started the car down in 7th place in class, fighting up to second before handing over to Pescatori just before half distance. He then battled with Antonio Garcia in the RWS Porsche, pulling away enough to allow him to make a splash-and-dash stop with 10 minutes left on the clock, crossing the line 1/4 second ahead of the Spanish driver.

Enzo Calderari retired the No22 BMS Ferrari 550 after the transmission bar broke causing a major vibration, while in N-GT Bertolini brought the second JMB 360 home for 4th place in class.
 

In the GT class the lead Wagner/Hancock JMB Ferrari 360 Modena finished an impressive 3rd in class, just over 3 1/2 seconds behind the fastest GT class time, which was set by the dominant US Buckler/Luhr/Bernard Racers Group Porsche GT3.

overall fastest times: 26th Menu/Rydell/Enge ( Prodrive Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello ) 3:52.070, 40th Wagner/Hancock ( JMB Ferrari 360 Modena ) 4:13.754, 46th Earle/McAllister ( JMB Competition Ferrari 360 Modena ) 4:25.267, 48th Gomez/Halliday/Casanave ( Autopalace Ferrari 360 Modena ) 4:25.267.