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Baron, Marti and Gai make history at Le Mans

Le Mans, 11 June – Fifty competitors from the European and Italian series of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli took to the Le Mans track today in what turned out to be a closely contested event. This was the first time that the famous French track has hosted a round of the Ferrari one-make series since its inception in 1993 and seeing the cars tackle this long circuit was a fascinating spectacle and the 458 Challenge cars were very much up to the task. Emerging victorious in the European Trofeo Pirelli was Baron, while Marti was the best of the Italian Coppa Shell and Gai the leader of Italian Trofeo Pirelli competitors. The cars’ maiden outing was watched by a special guest in the shape of Ferrari CEO, Amedeo Felisa, who was in Le Mans to watch the race.

As usual in this series, the racing was close, although at the flag, the champion of 2010 European series Philipp Baron was the winner of the Trofeo Pirelli category and indeed, he led comfortably throughout the second part of race. The Baron Service driver crossed the line ahead of a fighting Max Blancardi (Motor/Malucelli) and Alexandr Skryabin (Ferrari Moscow) who finished second and third overall. The battle for the European Coppa Shell honours was certainly exciting: Philippe Prette (Motor/Malucelli) came out on top ahead of Jean-Marc Bachelier-Yannick Mallegol (Motor/Piacenza) and Klass Hummel (Scuderia GT). As for those competitors running the F430 Challenge car, Holger Harmsen (Lueg Sportivo) was the winner, fending off Howard Blank (Motor/Piacenza) and Vladimir Kirilyuk (Ferrari Moscow).

As for the Italian Trofeo Pirelli, the battle for the top step of the podium was once again fought out between Giorgio Sernagiotto (together with Giuseppe Fascicolo) and Stefano Gai, with the Rossocorsa team driver crossing the line ahead to consolidate his lead in the Italian series, beating Dario Caso (CDP) and Lorenzo Bontempelli (Kessel), second and third in the series. Benedetto Marti (Motor/Piacenza) also delivered a faultless performance to take the lead in the Coppa Shell classification and the forth overall, followed by his team mate Emilio Rossi and Mario Molteni (Rossocorsa), while among the F430 Challenge runners, the order was Andrea Belluzzi (Modena/Motor) followed by Diego Romanini (Rossocorsa/Pellin) and Sossio del Prete (CDP).

Italian series classification

Series Driver Points Driver Points Driver Points

Trofeo Pirelli Italy Gai 54 Bontempelli 35 Caso 34

Coppa Shell Italy Marti 47 Molteni 40 Rossi 38

Trofeo Pirelli F430 Challenge Italy Belluzzi 45 Del Prete 35 La Barbera 30

European series classification

Series Driver Points Driver Points Driver Points

Trofeo Pirelli Europe Blancardi 95 Skryabin 71 Vasiliev 62

Coppa Shell Europe Bachelier Mallegol 93 Andersen 64 Laursen Prette 63

Trofeo Pirelli F430 Challenge Europe Grohmann 79 Blank 64 Harmsen 56

Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)