News June 23 2006

Car on roof incident forces Maserati team out of Nurburgring

Maserati’s engineers thought they had prepared for everything when they entered a special mobile laboratory for future racing and road cars in the notoriously tough 24 race at the Nurburgring.

What they didn’t expect was to be taken out of the event by a rival car landing on their roof! After four and half hours of racing the Maserati GranSport Laboratorio was in fifth place and Eric Van de Poele was at the wheel when the yellow flag came out for an accident. Van de Poele takes up the story.

"I was on the inside. I was not going too fast as I was in a group of five cars and the yellow flag was out. Then, I was hit by a car that had hit the guard-rail and landed on the roof of my GranSport. It was a shame as we were doing really well".

Van de Poele was not hurt, but the GranSport could not be repaired. Michael Bartels confirmed that the GranSport Laboratorio project was a valid one.

"The car was going well. We were all very pleased seeing as the project was born only a short time ago. The race was a close one and, in my opinion, an outsider will end up on the podium tomorrow. I think we could also have had our way".

Giorgio Ascanelli, Maserati Corse's Technical Director: "We worked hard to enter the car here at Nurburgring. It is a tough event and we could have done well. I would like to pay my compliments to the team for the work they are carrying out".