Morbidelli fastest in practice

Reigning champion Gianni Morbidelli of Italy topped the timesheets at the end of the first practice session at Kyalami on Friday afternoon for Sunday's final round of the international Superstars Series for V8 production cars.

The 41-year-old from Pesaro in Italy, who was a Formula 1 driver for Minardi, Ferrari, Footwork and Sauber between 1990 and 1997, celebrated his return to Kyalami after an absence of 16 years with the fastest lap of the half-hour session.

He drove his ROAL Motorsport BMW M3 around the 4,2-km Midrand circuit in a time of 1 min 50,67 sec. Italian Fabrizio Armetta was a surprise second quickest in a Motorzone Chevrolet Lumina CR8, the 37-year-old Roman achieving a best lap time of 1 min 51,28 sec, six tenths of a second slower than Morbidelli.

Luca Rangoni was third with a time of 1 min 51,57 sec in an Audi Sport Italia Audi RS4. The 41-year-old from Bologna was making his first appearance in the Superstars Series after finishing second in the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia. Fourth fastest on a sultry Highveld summer's afternoon with storm clouds threatening was another former F1 driver and Le Mans 24 Hour winner Pierluigi Martini, the 48-year-old from Lavezolla in Italy recording a best time of 1 min 51,73 sec in a Zakspeed Chrysler 300C SRT-8.

The 17 cars entered for Sunday's two races were specially flown to South Africa from Italy for the first appearance of Superstars outside Europe.

The opening practice session (there is another at 11h00 on Saturday morning before the afternoon's qualifying at 15h00) was held up for a few minutes with 10 minutes remaining when Kristian Ghedina lost control of his Movisport BMW 550i in turn six after something came loose underneath his car. The 40-year-old former Olympic downhill skier, who hails from Cortina d'Ampezzo, recovered to post the ninth-fastest time of the interrupted session.

Sunday's races, to be held over 25 minutes plus one lap, are at 11h30 and 15h00 and will be televised live on SuperSport 6.