Imola: BMS Ferrari race report, wins championship

BMS take FIA GT Championship title with Care Ferrari 550s at Imola

Using Care Racing owned and Prodrive developed Ferrari 550 Maranellos, BMS Scuderia Italia today proved themselves worthy champions when, for the second consecutive year, they took the Teams' FIA GT Championship title, with three rounds of the series still to run.

Fabrizio Gollin and Luca Cappellari consolidated their lead in the fight for the Drivers' Championship by finishing second in the points, despite carrying 100kg of ballast, with Care Racing drivers Lilian Bryner, Enzo Calderari and Stefano Livio taking the third position on the points-scoring podium, also with 100kg. There were two podium ceremonies after the race as the new non-homologated, non-points scoring Maseratis took the chequered flag in 2nd and 3rd places behind the strong-running Saleen of Alzen and Bartels.

Matteo Bobbi and Gabriele Gardel, themselves carrying 45kg of ballast, had an incident packed race, including a puncture which subsequently caused considerable bodywork damage to the front right quarter of the car. They fought back from this and a stop-go penalty for avoidable contact with the no. 2 car to take 4th place in the points, taking them to within 16.5 points of their Italian team-mates, Gollin and Cappellari.

The result once again underlined the reliability and performance of the Care Racing Ferrari 550s, coming hot on the heels of BMS's success at the 24 Hours of Spa and the commanding lead currently held by Care's sister cars in the GTS category of the new Le Mans Endurance Series.

Matteo Bobbi (I), BMS Scuderia Italia car no. 1: "It was very hard for all of us driving today, very hot. My first stint was aggressive and I was setting good lap times. I caught Gollin and tried to overtake him but we didn't understand each other as he went on the right side of the track and didn't see me, I then tried to overtake, and we touched. After the stop and go we pushed hard to try and make up some time. It was good for our Championship that we finished in front of Babbini and Peter, and for the teams' Championship it was fantastic. I'd like to thank as always Prodrive and Michelin for providing us with really great cars and tyres."

Gabriele Gardel (CH), BMS Scuderia Italia car no. 1: "It's not that I am unfit, but there was no air in the car at all. After the puncture, my heart rate was way too high and I had to stop a bit early. It was very unlucky that it happened at the beginning of a lap as it meant I had to do almost a whole lap before coming in again. The incident with Cappellari was unfortunate. He braked too early and I had nowhere to go but to run wide and we almost touched. "

Luca Cappellari (I), BMS Scuderia Italia car no. 2: "It was very hard with 100kg ballast, on this track particularly. We used tyres which were hard as we were looking for the championship and wanted to score as many points as possible.

Fabrizio Gollin (I), BMS Scuderia Italia car no. 2: It was a very tough race today because of the heat. I think the next race will be our 5th race with 100kg - a record on its own! It was important for us to finish the race today, for the Championship which is too important to us."

Lilian Bryner (CH), Care Racing car no. 3: "The heat was impossible, almost dangerous at times. We came through the field well after having had some problems with the set up in qualifying yesterday. The car was much better today, easier to handle even with the 100kg. We are really happy with this 3rd place as we wanted to finish the race without any risk as it's important for our Championship. I want to thank Michelin and everyone on the team for a great job."

Enzo Calderari (CH), Care Racing car no. 3: "I think we had a very good strategy today as we tried to stop only twice without making a splash. The tyres we had were perfect but with 100kg it was very difficult to drive the car, and with the heat of course. I think we should thank Frederic Dor [of Care Racing] for providing us with three perfect cars that allow us to always finish races on the podium."

Stefano Livio (I), Care Racing car no. 3: "I am very happy. I started in 10th position but I knew my potential and that I could improve our position in the race. After only a short time I had a very good feeling with the car and passed many cars in front of me."

-care racing-