Pirelli Wins Spa 24-Hour Race for Second Straight Year

Precisely a year after the Vitaphone Racing Maserati MC12 won the Spa 24-Hour race, Pirelli has once again won the most important GT category race of the FIA-GT season. The same car that won a year ago repeated its success in 2006 at the end of a closely fought and gruelling Belgian marathon. The Italian two-seater crewed by Bertolini-Van de Poele- Bartels fought with the Aston Martin of Piccini-Lemeret-Faessler-Deletraz, which was in the lead until a few laps from the end.

At the heart of the outstanding victory was, without doubt, Eric Van de Poele’s performance. He drove a classic race finale, together with the excellent strategy of engineer Giorgio Ascanelli of Maserati Corse and the performance of the car’s P Zero Racing tyres.

In fairness, the 58th 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps race did not begin too well for Pirelli, who lost the second Maserati MC12 driven by Davies-Biagi-Vosse in the early stages due to a technical problem when the car was fighting for the lead. But Davies did set the fastest lap of the race on the second of the event’s 564 laps, another confirmation of the efficiency of the Maserati on its P Zero Racing tyres.