World Champions again!!!

The Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello has won the FIA-GT World Championship for the third consecutive time!!! Read on www.fiagt.com about the details.

The FIA has finally accepted the appeal against the disqualification of Gabriele Gardel's 550 Maranello which finished fourth in the last race in Zhuhai. Initially the Ferrari had been disqualified because at the end of the race it didn't have the minimum required amount of fuel in the tank. The disqualification technically made Bartels-Scheider world champions with the Maserati MC12. However, it turns out that the airflow test (stalling the engine from 5000 rpm by obstructing the air duct) had been performed prior to this check. Ferrari claims that test this had burned 0.8 litres of fuel, which would otherwise have made the car legal since only 0.4 litres were missing from the minimum required amount. FIA accepted the explanation and reinstated Gardel's 4th place and world-championship winning points.

A messy finish to an exciting championship, but the bottom line is that the 4-year old Prodrive 550 when driven by professionals (Gardel and Lamy, ex-F.1) can still fight it out evenly against the mighty Maserati MC12. As much as I love the MC12 I can't help feeling good for the 550... what a great car!