Ferrari Maintain Championship Hopes at Donington SRWC
26.8.01

Three Ferrari 333SPs were entered for Round Six of the FIA Sportscar Championship at Donington.

Two were "proper" cars - those of the BMS Scuderia Italia team driven by Gounon/M Zadra and Bryner/Calderari/A Zadra, whereas the third one had a Judd engine fitted instead of the V-12 Ferrari unit. This was driven by Vann/Lavaggi.

In qualifying the Ferraris struggled against the more modern prototypes. The two Dome-Judds were quickest, on 1:36secs, and the best Ferrari, that of Gounon/M Zadra, was in fourth place some three seconds behind. It has to be pointed out, however, that the winning Ascari of Collins/Lupberger was also three seconds behind the pole-sitters!

The Ferrari team was not on the pace of the Ascari and Domes all weekend despite the flat out style of Jean-Marc Gounon. The Frenchman, whose main aim is to help Marco Zadra in his title quest, encountered problems from the start. "The engine cut out at the start and I dropped back in the early stages. Finishing second today was quite lucky but I am sure Marco will not care about that too much", explained the ex-F1 driver.

The other two Ferraris were out of luck - the Bryner/ Calderari/A Zadra car retired with a loose wheel and the Judd-engined 333 of the GLV team retired with transmission failure.

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