Monza: FIA GT 2005 Round 1
This past weekend the Monza racetrack was home to the opening round of the 2005 FIA GT Championship season, with weather conditions as chilly and wet as last year’s.

For JMB Racing, the new season coincided with a new car, the team entering two Maserati MC12s, for Andrea Bertolini and Karl Wendlinger #15, and Philipp Peter, Chris Buncombe and Roman Rusinov #16. For the FIA GT 2005 season, in addition to Pirelli tires, already the official partner of the team in 2003, JMB Racing can count on the support of Red Bull, Dietsmann, Fillatice, SMP Bank, Free Ideas and ACE.

While the five drivers have had prior experience with the team, having raced with JMB in the past (2004 for Karl, Chris and Roman; 2003 for Philipp; 2002 and 2003 for Andrea), Chris and Roman on the other hand, discovered Maserati for the first time.

All this didn’t matter much, and despite the fact that the team only had two days of testing in the week prior to the race, in order to familiarize itself with this new car, as soon as the open trials began, JMB Racing’s Maseratis positioned themselves among the fastest cars. Effective, and well-oiled, the Maseratis allowed the team a rapid technical mastery.

The first qualifying session on a drying track was decisive since the second round took place on a track drowned under heavy rain: this obviously did not allow for any improvements.

The Pole Position claimed by Philipp Peter was a first in FIA GT for the driver, as well as for Maserati. With the fourth place going to Andrea, less than four tenths of a second slower, and six cars within eight tenths of a second, the race promised to offer spirited competition.

In spite of the permanently morose weather, 40 000 spectators showed up on Sunday to watch the race that started on a damp track, off-line. Philipp Peter took the lead of a compact and aggressive group, which offered very few clear openings and that would fight to the end of a thrilling race.

Leading for 67 of the 87 laps the Maserati #16 ended up in fourth place. Despite the promising times clocked by Chris and Roman, they could not withstand the assault launched by the Lamy / Gardel’s Ferrari and the two Maseratis of the Bartels / Scheider and Babini / Biagi. They finished in that order after an intense and keenly disputed race. As for #15, after a very good beginning, it ended up in fifth position after being held up by a pit stop to replace the driver’s door which had come undone after a minor collision.

The Maseratis have already proved their speed and reliability, at the top level of competition. JMB Racing effectively etched out a promising beginning. From here on until the next race, at Magny-Cours, the team will be working hard at perfecting its knowledge of the car which will thus lead the way to their explicitly expressed objective for the season: that of victory in the FIA GT Championship.

Equally noteworthy is the fact that at Monza, for the 1st leg of the Trofeo Maserati, Alex Buncombe, Chris’s brother was victorious, coming home 26 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, in a Maserati entered by JMB Racing.

Next meeting for the FIA GT Championship is 1 May, at Magny-Cours. In the meantime JMB will be present at Spa for the first race of the Le Mans Endurance Series 2005, with a Ferrari 575 entered in LM-GT1 for Peter Kutemann, Antoine Gosse and Hans Hugenholtz.
Susy Viola