Russian Age Aston Martin sets overall best time

WEATHER
Hot and sunny, with temperatures around 30° C on Wednesday.  Cooler on Thursday morning for the second session. 

LAST YEAR
2004 saw the first-ever race meeting at the Dubai Autodrome, when the LG Super Racing Weekend held its last-ever round at the new circuit, including the tenth round of the FIA GT Championship.  The race was won by the BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 Maranello of Matteo Bobbi and Gabriele Gardel, with the AF Corse Maserati MC 12, racing on a non-Championship basis, crossing the line second, and the Care Racing Ferrari of Bryner, Calderari and Biagi.  The N-GT class was won by the Freisinger Motorsport  Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen, ahead of Emmanuel Collard and Stephane Ortelli, in the Freisinger Yukos Motorsport Porsche, with the GPC Ferrari 360 Modena of Christian Pescatori and Jaime Melo third. 

HANDICAP WEIGHTS
For the tenth round of the Championship, the nr 9 Vitaphone car is the heaviest, carrying the maximum 100 kg ballast.  The nr 10 Maserati has 80 kg, with the nr 15 Maserati on 60 kg.  The nr  6 GLPK Corvette, victorious in Zhuhai, has 50 kg, while the nr 11 Larbre car has 30 kg.  Cars having missed rounds, such as the nr 3 GPC Ferrari 575 M Maranello and the nr 12 Larbre Ferrari, and new cars such as the nr 18 Russian Age Ferrari 550 Maranello, have 40 kg.  In GT2, the nr 66 GruppeM Porsche, whose drivers Marc Lieb and Mike Rockenfeller have already claimed the title, will carry 75 kg, after winning in Zhuhai with the maximum normal ballast weight of 50 kg.  The nr 88 GruppeM Porsche has 50 kg, while Ebimotors has 20 kg after finishing on the podium in the last two events.  New entrant JMB has 20 kg, as does the Lammertink Racing Porsche, and the Spyker Squadron Spyder has 5 kg.  These weights do not include the amounts allotted by the GT Bureau due to the performance balancing system, which sees the nr 9, 10 and 15 Maserati MC 12s with an extra 50 kg added to their minimum weight, as well as 30 kg to the nr 16 Maserati, 10 kg to the Aston Martin and Lister

PADDOCK NEWS
26 cars are due to take the start of Friday?s tenth round of the Championship, 14 in the GT1 class, 10 in GT2  and one each in G2 and G3.
-          GPC Sport has both the nr 2 and 3 Ferrari 575 M Maranello cars back in action.  Stéphane Lemeret has joined Deletraz and Piccini in the nr 2, while the nr 3 is shared by Italians Andrea Montermini and Marco Cioci.  The team?s 360 Modena is shared by an all-Italian trio of Lambertini, Drudi and Rosa
-          Larbre Competition also has two Ferrari 550 Maranello cars this weekend, with the nr 12 in the hands of Steve Zacchia, Jean-Luc Blanchemain and Vincent Vosse
-          JMB Racing sees the return of Philipp Peter in the nr 16 Maserati.  The Austrian driver,  who has been on pole position twice this year, shares the car with two Dutch drivers, Peter Kutemann and Dick Waaijenberg
-          The nr 17 Russian Age Racing Aston Martin, first seen in Zhuhai, is racing this weekend under the colours of Middle East Aston Martin, as the Dubai GT Racing Team. The car will be driven by multiple FIA GT Champions Christophe Bouchut and Stephane Ortelli.
-          Russian Age Racing is also entering its Ferrari 550 Maranello, under nr 18, for  Fomenko and Vasiliev, who will drive the car without Bouchut for the first time.  The car did not take part in the first free practice session, having arrived at the circuit on Wednesday evening after a quick journey from the final LMES race in Istanbul.
-          Congratulations to GruppeM driver Emmanuel Collard, who won the LM P1 class of the Le Mans Endurance Series, along with Jean-Christophe Boullion, in the Pescarolo Courage C60 sports prototype.  Other FIA GT regulars to win their class include former Champions BMS Scuderia Italia, who won the LM-GT1 class, and Marc Lieb, who was victorious the LM-GT2 category.
-          After a good start to their FIA GT campaign in Zhuhai, the Spyker Squadron's Spyder C8 will be shared this weekend by Jeroen Bleekemolen and Donny Crevels, both from the Netherlands.  Bleekemolen previously drove for GLPK in the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa this year; he drove for Carsport Holland in the 2001 season, and still holds the record as the youngest race winner in the Championship.
-          Belgian Racing is the sole G2 car this weekend, with the Vertigo Streiff shared by Kuppens, Leinders and Vanina Ickx.
-          In G3, Jonathan Sicart has entered a Ferrari 360 Modena,  from the Ferrari Challenge.  The car will be driven by husband-and-wife team Carine and Jonathan Sicart, and Ange Barde, vice
-Champion in this year's European Ferrari Challenge. 

FIRST FREE PRACTICE SESSION : LARBRE IN THE LEAD / GRUPPE M BEST IN GT2
Larbre Competition, whose driver Gabriele Gardel is one of the seven fighting for the 2005 Drivers title, started the Dubai event by setting the best time in an extremely close session.  With a lap of 1:58.389, the team was 0.176 of a second faster than the nr 2 GPC Sport Ferrari 575 M Maranello.  The GLPK Carsport Corvette was third, the Vitaphone and JMB Maserati cars fourth and fifth, and the Russian Age Aston Martin DBR9 sixth.  This means that there were four different manufacturers and five different types of car in the top six, separated by just 0.76 seconds - which is extremely promising for Friday's race.   In GT2, the two GruppeM cars were fastest, with the nr 66 setting a fastest time of 2:03.628, half a second ahead of the nr 88 car.  The nr 90 Spyker Squadron was third-fastest, overtaking the nr 89 JMB Ferrari 360 at the end of the session. The Ebimotors car was fifth fastest.  With the track still slightly sandy at the beginning, and with temperatures cooling, the times came down gradually through the session; the times set today were comparable with those from the second free practice session in last year's event.

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