02
May
2004
|
10:00
Europe/Amsterdam

FIA GT 2004: win for Saleen Pirelli

Magny Cours, May 2 nd 2004 - Great week end for the Konrad Motorsport team that dominated with the Saleen S7-R Pirelli fitted these French days, finishing with the first victory of Michael Bartel and Uwe Alzen. Friday, during the free practice with changing climatic conditions, cars #4 and #5 of Alzen and Lechner recorded the best times of the day . Saturday, the day dedicated to the qualifying, they impressed the competition for the great performances establishing the pole position and the second best time . In the warm up today they confirmed a perfect general equilibrium and an ideal compatibility with the new compound of the Pirelli PZero covers: news in range from the first race of Monza 2004, and here the most suitable for the French circuit characteristics. A fundamental contribution for the final victory, a terrific conclusion for a great week end: Michael Bartel confirms: a fantastic result obtained thanks to the hard job carried out in the days between Valencia and Magny Cours, on engine, tyres and brakes".

The race has seen a truly powerful duet Saleen Pirelli : the final distance of nearly a minute inflicted to the second Matteo Bobbi / Gabriele Gardel (then penalized with a 50 second penalty for the contact with Lechner jr.) on Ferrari 550 and the best lap of the race are the representative data's of the real potential of the Saleen. Some youth problems for the Ferrari 575 of GPC Squadra Corse team: the car of Emanuele Naspetti and Mike Hezemans #13 has not seen the chequered flag for engine problems, while Babini and Peter's Ferrari #11 has run with difficulty for the breaking of an aerodynamic part because of debris in track. In N-GT class the Ferrari 360 Pirelli equipped leaded the qualifying obtaining the pole position in front of the Porsche, has been crushed by the Ferrari 575 of team JMB that has forced it to the withdrawal at the 69 lap.

CLASS
POS
NO
NAME
TEAM
TIME/ GAP
BEST LAP
GT
1
5
BARTELS /ALZEN
Konrad Motorsport - Saleen S7-R
3:00:13.04
1:39.093
GT
2
17
WENDLINGER
JMB - Ferrari 575
+ 38.230
1:39.510
GT
3
2
CAPELLARI
BMS - Ferrari 550
+ 30.191
1:39.591
GT
5
4
LECHNER JR
Konrad Motorsport - Saleen S7-R
+ 1:03.632
1:39.260
GT
6
11
PETER/ BABINI
GPC Squadra Corse - Ferrari 575
+ 1 LAP
1:40.146
NGT
8
99
MAASSEN
Freisinger - Porsche 996
+ 2 LAPS
1:42.916
NGT
9
50
ORTELLI
Freisinger - Porsche 996
+ 3 LAPS
1:43.147
GT
17
13
NASPETTI
GPC Squadra Corse - Ferrari 575
+ 14 LAPS
1:40.206
NGT
21
62
PESCATORI
GPC Squadra Corse - Ferrari 360
+ 38 LAPS
1:43.427