Vipers on top at Monza

Reigning champion Olivier Beretta and former F1-driver Karl Wendlinger started from pole and led for most of the race, followed closely throughout by their sister car, driven by American David Donohue and Frenchman Jean-Philippe Belloc, driving a Viper in competition for the first time.

Donohue took the lead briefly after the first round of pit-stops, but Wendlinger soon regained the advantage, handing over to Beretta who crossed the line 0.23 seconds ahead of Belloc.

Third was the Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 911 GT2, which inherited the place after Emmanuel Clerico's Paul Belmondo Racing Viper ran out of fuel and the Lister Storm, in fine form in the early stages of the 500 km race, fell to gearbox problems.

The drive of the race, however, must go to young Briton Christian Vann, driving a Chamberlain Engineering Viper GTS-R with German Christian Glasel.

In the final stages of the race, when in an unexpectedly high fifth, he built up speed in an attempt to catch the GL PK Viper.

Lapping faster than he had managed during qualifying, he finally overtook the other Viper on the outside of the first chicane. "It was the drive of my life," Vann said afterwards.

The Roock Racing Porsches, which have suffered all weekend after arriving late, had a race filled with minor problems, but showed their potential when Stephane Ortelli ran comfortably in third place, before tyre problems and a series of unplanned pit-stops put them out of contention.

The top five cars will receive penalty weights ranging from 25 to 5 kg for the next round of the Championship, which takes place at Silverstone on May 9th.


FIA GT Championship 1999,

Round 1 : 500 km of Monza:

Ps.No. Driver , Car Laps Behind

-- --- ----------------------------------------------------- ----- -------

1 1 Beretta/Wendlinger Oreca Chrysler Viper GT 86 2:40.19

2 2 Donohue/Belloc Oreca Chrysler Viper GT 86 +0.230

3 15 Kaufmann/Ligonnet Freisinger Porsche 911 GT2 85 1 lap

4 19 Glasel/Vann ChamberlainChrysler Viper GT 85 1 lap

5 33 Vosse/Dufourney GL PK Chrysler Viper GT 85 1 lap

6 21 Belmondo/Gosselin/Rostan Belmondo Chrysler Viper GT 84 2 laps

7 8 Neugarten/Salvarini Haberthur Porsche 911 GT2 83 3 laps

8 3 Hürtgen/Ortelli Roock Porsche 911 GT2 83 3 laps

9 29 Sabatini/Spinelli/Villa Autorlando Porsche 911 GT2 83 3 laps

10 77 Nearn/Palmberger/Smith Seikel Porsche 911 GT2 82 4 laps

11 4 Arhlé/Haupt Roock Porsche 911 GT2 82 4 laps

12 24 Felbermayer/Felbemayer RWS Porsche 911 GT2 81 4 laps

13 10 Euser/Hezemans Marcos Marcos Mantara LM 80 6 laps

14 9 Garbagnati/Bucci/Casadei Haberthur Porsche 911 GT2 80 6 laps

15 6 Konrad/tba Konrad Porsche 911 GT2 79 7 laps

16 26 Grassi/Munz Tecno Race Porsche 911 GT2 79 7 laps

17 78 Mastropietro/Padovani/Sanguiolo Porsche 911 GT2 78 8 laps

18 27 Tamburini/Melgrati Mac Racing Porsche 996 77 9 laps

19 16 Jurasz/Lintott Freisinger Porsche 911 GT2 76 10 laps

20 20 Bodis/Barta/Ratkai Bovi Porsche 911 GT2 70 16 laps

21 5 Eschmann/Price/R'son RoockSport Porsche 911 GT2 62 24 laps

22 22 Clérico/Pillon Belmondo Chrysler Viper GT 52 34 laps

Retired

23 25 Bailey/Needell/Verdon Lister Lister Storm 33 53 laps

24 28 Frigerio/Babini/Massa Ebimotors Porsche 911 GT2 27 59 laps

25 69 Ried/Ried/Vuillaume Proton Porsche 911 GT2 25 61 laps

26 18 Amorim/Hoy ChamberlainChrysler Viper GT 6 80 laps