In the European and North American series of the Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy, the German Bjorn Grossmann (Autohaus Gohm) came out on top, ahead of Max Blancardi (Motor/Malucelli) and Poland's Michael Bronizewski (Kessel,) thus getting ever closer to the title. In the Shell Cup, England's Michael Cantillo (Ferrari GB Dealer Team) only needed to finish twentieth to take the title as he had a dominant 55 point lead - in this he succeeded. Standing on the top step of the podium after this first race was Hungary's Tibor Valkint, followed by the German Frank Gelf (Warm Up) and Britain's Jaimie Constable (Ferrari GB Dealer Team.)

8 November 2008
Saturday saw the champion crowned in the European series of the Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy: Max Blancardi, driving for the Motor/Malucelli team, took the title by just a single point from Germany's Bjorn Grossman (Autohaus Gohm) who headed the order going into the race.

In the seventh and final round of the season in the one-make series, which also as a one-off included competitors from the North American series, Blancardi managed to get the better of outgoing champion Ange Barde (Modena/Motor) and the Czech driver Robert Pergl (Scuderia Praha). Among the gentlemen drivers in the Shell Cup, victory went to Gianluca Carboni (Kessel), followed by Frenchman Jean-Marc Bachelier (Ferrari GB Dealer Team) and his team-mate and reigning champion, Michael Cantillon.

The second race in the Italian Pirelli Trophy ended with victory for Giuseppe Cirò (Motor/Piacenza): crossing the line behind him were Andrea Belluzzi (Motor) and Giorgio Sernagiotto (Motor/Piacenza).

On the first day of racing for the historic cars in the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge, the first to take to the track were the cars competing in Grid C, for cars fitted with disc brakes: Paul Knapfield came out on top, at the wheel of a Ferrari 512 BB LM, followed by the 512 S of Olivier Cazalieres and another 512 BB LM, driven by Christian Traber. The first event for Grid A+B, for drum braked cars saw the win go to Daniel Maier, driving a Maserati 300S, second was Lukas Huni and his Maserati A6GCS, with third going to Willi Balz, at the wheel of a Maserati 6CM, which won the special classification for Grid A.

9th November 2008
On Sunday every element of the world of Ferrari was represented on track to celebrate the end of the racing season, joined by a crowd of fans who had come to acclaim the Prancing Horse champions.

The racing side of the event saw the F430s entered in the Italian, European and North American series of the Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy take to the track, along with the historic cars in the Shell Historic series, all competing in the final round of the championships.

The world title for the Pirelli Trophy saw Austria's Philipp Baron crowned champion: following the Baron Service team driver home were Giuseppe Ciro (Motor/Piacenza) and Andrea De Lorenzi (Rossocorsa/Pelllin.) In the Final for gentlemen drivers in the Shell Cup, the title went to Riccardo Ragazzi, who had already taken top honours in the Italian championship. The youngster from the Ineco/MP Racing team managed to get the upper hand over Massimo Mantovani (Motor/Malucelli) and Angel Santos (Cars Barcelona).

The busy event also featured track sessions for the historic single-seaters run by the F1 Clienti Department of Maranello and the laboratory-cars taking part in the exclusive FXX Programme, with its owner drivers completing new sessions on the card.

After the spectacle put on by Gimmi Bruni and Toni Vilander at the wheel of the F430 GT2 cars, which were victorious (in class) in the FIA GT Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours, the fans who had flocked to Mugello gave an enthusiastic welcome to the demonstration by Scuderia Ferrari.

Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa completed several laps of the track as well as doing some pit stops. Michael Schumacher went out in his FXX car, accompanied by Luca Badoer and then, in the latest Ferrari car, the California, with Jean Todt at the wheel.

The event ended with the usual track parade and a greeting from President di Montezemolo, who thanked the team and drivers for their great work throughout the year, resulting in the team taking the Constructors' title for the sixteenth time, the eighth in the last ten years. In acknowledgement of this achievement, the commemorative 430 Scuderia Spider 16M was unveiled.

Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.