FIA GT 2004: positive prologue at Monza

The first official tests for season 2004 of FIA GT Championship concluded. Pirelli Competizioni supported with good satisfaction its new teams at their debut on the track of Monza with the trepidation of the first day of school also because the new PZero tyres were presented for the first time. The new tyre, derived from the PZero tyres purposely developed for the new Maserati MC12 during this winter. The PZero equipped Saleen S7-R, impressed for their performances in terms of power and consistency: in fact, the fastest lap of this tests session was signed by Alzen driving the Saleen Pirelli, the first driver to broke the 1.44 sec. Good start also for the Ferrari 575 GTC - Pirelli of new team GPC Squadra Corse. The Italian team has carried in track a new car which covered hundred of laps without any problems. The car has been driven without trying to find the best time on lap but going to examine thorough on all the aspects of reliability. In a real winter climate, with 10 of air temperature and 12 of the asphalt, Emanuele Naspetti, Philipp Peter and Fabio Babini shared the wheel of their Ferrari 575 with enthusiasm for the good performances of car and the new PZero  tyres. The first race which will be here at the Autodromo of Monza on March 27-28, when all the teams, cars and drivers will unveil their real plans. Practice Results: 1 Alzen Saleen S7-R 1.43:900 2 Newton Saleen S7 1.44:000 3 Cappellari Ferrari 550 1.44:330 4 Bobbi Ferrari 550 1.44:678 5 Lechner Saleen S7-R 1.45:491 6 Peter Ferrari 575 GTC 1.45:744 7 Calderari Ferrari 550 1.45:908 8 Babini Ferrari 575 GTC 1.46:377 9 Naspetti Ferrari 575 GTC 1.46:450 10 Fomenko Porsche 996 1.46:450