BMS Ferraris finish 1-2 again

But if the result sheet indicates another dominant performance from the reigning champion team, then the reality is that for much of the race the BMS cars were fighting for second and third places. It was the Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago, driven by Briton Oliver Gavin and Peter Kox that starred.

Uwe Alzen led from the start, having taken pole with the Vitaphone Racing Saleen, but within quarter of an hour he had retired with an engine fire. This handed the lead to the Konrad Motorsport Saleen of Robert Lechner.

But as the team's began to make pitstops, so the Konrad car faded from contention and the Lambo, which has proved so quick all weekend, moved to the front having utilised an early first-stop strategy. The car's pace was such that neither BMS Ferrari looked likely to pass the Lamborghini in the final pitstops, but problems getting the Murcielago restarted after stalling dropped the car back to third.

"We had some problems at the second pit stop trying to get the car restarted," said Gavin. "But if anyone had told us before the race we could have third place, we would have been delighted! It's a reward for all the hard work the team has put in."

This left Gollin to cruise home 23.8s clear of the sister BMS car which had also had problems during its final stop. "We did a very very bad pit stop and we lost a lot of time," said reigning champion Bobbi afterwards. "I'm really really disappointed, because we made many mistakes. They have power steering and we don't, so it was very difficult."

Karl Wendlinger, Toto Wolff and Robert Lechner finished fourth in the Ferrari 575 GTC, the last car on the lead lap. Jamies Campbell-Walter and Derbyshire fought up the field to finish an impressive fifth in the privately-run Creation Lister while Thomas Erdos and Mike Newton were sixth in the first Saleen home.

Sacha Maassen and Lucas Luhr brought home the Fresinger Porsche seventh overall to win the NGT class.

Fabrizio Gollin/Luca Cappellari Ferrari 500 Maranello 3h01m01.276s
Matteo Bobbi/Gabriele Gardel Ferrari 550 Maranello 3h01m25.096s
Peter Kox/Oliver Gavin Lamborghini Murcielago 3h02m03.139s
Karl Wendlinger/Toto Wolff/Robert Lechner Ferrari 575GTC 3h02m21.356s
Jamie Campbell-Walter/Jamie Derbyshire Lister Storm + 1 lap
Thomas Erdos/Mike Newton Saleen S7 + 2 laps