Wendlinger & Beretta win Silverstone GT

continued to dominate the FIA GT Championship at Silverstone today, taking victory in the 500 mile race.

Things did not go all Oreca's way, however, as Julian Bailey, driving the
Lister, had the early advantage, overtaking pole-holder Wendlinger at the start
and leading for the first hour. Beretta came out of the pits ahead of
Verdon-Roe at the first round of pit-stops, and led throughout the second
stint. The next round of driver changeovers saw the Lister make a lightning
stop, and Tiff Needell regained the lead of the race. But this was not to last: first Wendlinger overtook him, and the a driveshaft failure forced the Storm
into retirement.

After the loss of the Lister, the No.1 Oreca had a trouble-free run through to
the chequered flag - which came down after 5 hours and 12 minutes of the race.
It looked as Le Mans winner Stéphane Ortelli and Claudia Hürtgen would be
alongside them on the podium, but yet another wheel failure saw them drop down
to fifth, leaving four Vipers in the top positions.

The second Oreca Viper,
driven by Justin Bell, David Donohue and Jean-Philippe Belloc, made it an Oreca
one-two, despite starting from 8th on the grid and losing fifth gear during the
157 lap race. Third place went to a customer Viper, the Belgian-run GL-PK car
driven by Vincent Vosse, Didier Defourny and Marc Duez, after a steady run and
plenty of tyre changes - unlike their no tyre-change Monza strategy.

The Chamberlain Viper driven by Vann, Glasel and Hugenholtz finished fourth for
the second time in a row. The four Vipers were followed by Ortelli's Roock
Porsche and the Freisinger Porsche, whose one point was a good reward for a
long drive without power steering and an ailing engine.

"For us, the weekend did not go as we hoped, with the problem with the rear
damper and rain," Justin Bell said afterwards. "But we got it together for the
wet on Saturday, and so we went into the race blind. Even if it's not running
as well as we'd like, the Viper is still a very, very fast car. This is
promising for the future - we're all very optimistic as we head for Le Mans."

Beretta and Wendlinger now lead the driver's championship with 20 points, while
Oreca has a maximum 32 points in the team Championship. With the new penalty system, they will be carrying 50 kg extra weight when the FIA GT cars meet for the next
round, on the Hockenheim short circuit at the end of June.