4th October 2003

BMS SCUDERIA ITALIA READY TO SEAL CHAMPIONSHIP

The BMS Scuderia Italia team will start tomorrow's penultimate round of the FIA GT Championship at Estoril from second and seventh positions overall. Fabrizio Gollin set the pace of the Ferraris with a time of 1m36.661s in his Prodrive-prepared Ferrari 550 Maranello, four tenths of a second off pole position having encountered traffic on his fastest lap. Matteo Bobbi, carrying 50kg of success ballast, set sixth fastest time in the morning session, a 1m37.299, but was deposed in the afternoon. Enzo Calderari, Lilian Bryner and Stefano Livio qualified their Care Racing Ferrari 550 Maranello in 11th position overall.

The BMS cars are split by two Saleen S7Rs and two of the new Ferrari 575 models, which are making their GT Championship debut this weekend. "The weight on our car is quite low at 15kg," said Gollin, who will share his BMS Ferrari with Luca Cappellari. "It was possible to do better in qualifying and close the gap to the pole man, but I am not sure we would have found it so easy to go faster than him. However, we are happy because we are in front of the Ferrari 575."

Thomas Biagi and Matteo Bobbi are leading the drivers' championship and could win the title this weekend. "We are very happy with this time," said Biagi. "I did a 1m37.8s lap with old tyres so I think our set-up for the race is really good. We are not thinking about the championship, we would like to relax and enjoy the day, do our work and see what comes."

Team manager Tiziano Minuti was proud of his drivers. "Thomas and Matteo's car was very fast in free practice, but we had a big problem with the brakes on Friday. Now everything is okay, the set-up is good and the tyres are good for a long run. Yesterday they set fifth fastest time on tyres that were 40 laps old, which is incredible.

"Our qualifying position is not important because we have two very fast drivers in that car, and during the race we are very consistent. Gollin is a very fast driver, especially at this circuit. Yesterday and today he set fast lap times after just one or two laps, so I believe tomorrow will be very good."