ITALIAN OPEN MASTERS 2006 - MURO LECCESE (LECCE), 26TH MARCH – ROUND 1

CONFIRMATION OF TOP POSITION IN THE 125 CC

BIREL DRIVER ACHIEVES SUCCESS WITH 3RD PLACE. GOOD PERFORMANCES FOR WITTMANN AND CRINÒ IN THE 100 ICA, WHEREAS IN THE FA CESETTI AND LANCASTER ARE SLOWED DOWN BY PROBLEMS.

The international track of Muro Leccese hosted the 1st round of the Open Masters Championship which, among international events, can be considered as the most significant in terms of evaluation on the field for each category. Both Birel Motorsport and all the teams associated with Birel take part in this competition with all their main drivers. In particular, Birel’s racing team will deploy as many as 8 drivers in this season: Cesetti, Lancaster, Risitano and Antonucci in FA, Laudato and Cozzaglio in Icc, Wittmann in Ica and Antolfeld in the Junior class. This guarantees the best test bench for the different versions of the “R” and “M” chassis developed for the various categories and, considering the skill of the drivers taking part (mostly foreigners), it is a prestigious and significant competitive confrontation, which is therefore also important in terms of image. Birel’s drivers were the favourites in the first round at Muro Leccese, thanks to the great performances achieved in the “Winter Cup” and the “Margutti”, although things did not go according to predictions in all categories. In FA for example, various problems delayed Birel’s drivers. For Sauro Cesetti, the weekend started to go downhill straight from the beginning because of a disastrous accident during the qualification trials, which relegated him to the last row in the rounds. Thanks to a series of good performances, the driver from the Marches managed to climb back up to 13th place in the 1st final, whereas during the race he was delayed by tyre problems which arose after the new set was fitted, which meant he had to settle for 9th place. Lancaster’s fate was similar, as he gained the 6th position in the Final and managed 13th in the 2nd Final. In FA the 1st race was won by Calado, the 2nd race by Convers. In the 100 Ica Marco Wittmann gave a brilliant performance and ended up second. Unfortunately the German driver missed one leg on account of engine problems and during the 1st race he had to climb up many positions to conquer 6th place. The podium of Race 1 was however dominated by Donlop drivers, with Piccioni ahead of Benjamin and Orlandi. In Race 2 Piccioni won, once again ahead of D’Ambrosio, and Birel’s driver, Filippo Crinò. Marco Wittmann achieved the 4th place. In the 100 Junior the 1st Race was won by Da Costa, although both Antolfeld and Stevens were among the fastest. The German driver of Birel Motorsport gained the 8th place after having obtained the 3rd best time in the qualifying race and having performed well generally in the qualifying races. The English driver Stevens (Jpr Team) on the other hand gained 5th place. Scott Jenkins won the 2nd Race whereas Antolfeld was obliged to withdraw during the opening lap due to technical problems. Despite some set up problems, Will Stevens managed to end up in 7th place, ahead of Godinez and his team mate Viganò. Thanks to Francesco Laudato, Birel reached the highest step of the podium in the 1st Race of the 125 Icc. Laudato won ahead of Kievitbosh and Toninelli; the German driver of Birel – Germany, Simon Solgat, ended the race in 4th place. Frasnelli’s performance with the new Birel team was also good (7th). During the 2nd Race, Laudato had some trim problems and ended up in 3rd place behind Toninelli and Piccini, whereas Solgat once again gained 4th place. Worthy of notice also are Ballay’s 6th place and Frasnelli’s 8th place. The next rendezvous with the Open Championship is for the month of March on the track of Lonato. The highlights will be broadcast on Tuesday, 28th on Rai 3, whereas two races will be broadcast on Friday, 31st March on Rai Sat, starting from 16.00.