Bitter Silverstone for Pirelli's teams
BITTER SILVERSTONE
FOR PIRELLI'S TEAMS
Regulation penalties and punctures plague the Maserati MC12s and Aston Martin DBR9s, while the bonnet flew off the Corvette C6-R. In GT2 Kirkaldy reduces the hopes of Scuderia Ecosse (Ferrari), while shine the Team Edil-Cris 430 GTCs.
Silverstone (UK) 6 May 2007 - The Bertolini-Piccini fifth place in the Playteam Maserati MC12 and seventh by Babini-Davies in an Aston Martin Racing-BMS DBR9 were the best results achieved by teams on Pirelli in the GT1 class at Silverstone in the second round of the FIA-GT Championship. In the lower class, Kirkaldy's spin cancelled out ambitions of victory for the Ecurie Ecosse Ferraris on PZero, while the Porsche 997 GT3-RSR was unable to find the ideal solution throughout the weekend that would enable the German coupé to repeat its performance in China. The most assertive strategic choice of soft compound tyres by Aston Martin-BMS and Scuderia Ecosse for Silverstone did not pay off.
In the case of Maserati-Pirelli, it had been know for some time that one of their cars would have to serve out a penalty of 30 seconds, imposed by arbitration on Bertolini (he overtook a competitor at Zhuhai while the yellow flag was out), an insurmountable handicap with the reduction of race duration to two hours. Even so, the great performance by the reigning champion and his co-driver Piccini enabled Maserati number 11 to climb back up to fifth place. Meanwhile, a drive-through penalised the other Playteam MC12, relegating it to eighth place despite an excellent race by Pier Guidi. And the bonnet flew off the PZero Racing fitted Corvette C6-R of Peter-Hines and that required several minutes in the pits for repairs, condemning the Team PSI car to becoming a back marker.
In the GT2 class a Kirkaldy's spin in the early stages cancelled any chance the pole position winner had of victory in his Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 430 GTC on Pirelli. The team's second car, driven by Mansell and Niarchos, was never able to compete with the leaders, unlike the PZero Racing fitted Ferraris of Team Edil-Cris in the hands of Ruberti-Pasini and Cressoni-Rugolo, which came second and third in their class, ahead of the Porsche-Pirelli 997 GT3-RSR of BMS-Scuderia Italia.
Pirelli Competizioni's Circuit Manager Pierluigi De Cancellis explains a race that was anything but satisfactory for Pirelli. "We were confronted with a track that had much more aggressive asphalt than we expected and that penalised out choice of soft compound tyres for Aston Martin and the Ferraris of Scuderia Ecosse. It is also the case to underline the great race by the two Edil-Cris cars, which were always effective and competitive despite not having taken part in test sessions before today. And the penalty inflicted on Bertolini-Piccini's Maserati after Zhuhai meant they were really not in the running for victory".
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