Winners... The winning drivers of the various Ferrari Challenge races received their prizes under the cheerful applause of the audience. And after listening to the national anthems, the unavoidable Jeroboam bottles of Champagne came to play... A job well done, guys!! Red, grey and stylish yellow ...     ... and a corso at 250 km/h - the limited edition Ferrari! Among the hightlights was the demonstration of limited edition Ferrari cars, including 12 "Enzo" and a number of F-40, F-50 and 288GTO. You may imagine to see such a number of them is a rare occurance (keeping in mind the Enzo represents a value well above 600.000 Euro) and to see them in a race track as their natural element was stunning. Later conversations confirmed it was a lot of fun for the owners and every car made it home to the box safely.     The high priest of race driving - Michael Schumacher!!! Michael Schumacher is the superstar of the racing world; the most successfull driver ever in the most demanding racing division, 7 times world champion (more than any other), with the most coveted brand that ever has been. Needless to say his arrival was eagerly awaited by the fans and caused frenetic cheers! the man of F1... picture by F1-total.com As said, the main event and biggest thing to happen was to see Michael Schumacher - and i can say, 50.000 enthusiastic visitors didn´t spare applause and standing ovations when Michael Schumacher, after doing a short interview, started his demonstration with a live introduction of the new Maserati MC12. picture by F1-total.com click to enlarge picture exclusive to ThePuristS.com picture exclusive to ThePuristS.com But not only the Maserati came to play; the Ferrari Test Crew of Maranello brought Michaels the current world champion car, the F-2004, for a couple of fast rounds. picture by F1-total.com opposite view of picture above the number of professional photographers may speak for itself... picture exclusive to ThePuristS.com Needless to say, Michael Schumacher really "let it fly" over the course... And this included real fun, such as a complete round in opposite driving direction around the course (which isn´t that easy to do with a F1 car). An amazing demonstration, particularly as he didn´t sparse expense on the throttle, despite having had a crash with +300 km/h in Maranello last weekend.     and a Girard-Perregaux! the world´s fastest Perpetual Calendar... A surprise was to follow: Part of the performance was a track test of the wonderful Ferrari 575M Maranello with "handling package". It´s a most stunning car and with the current F1-champion at the steering wheel, you bet it got to show the limits. The high G-forces while racing driving are remarkable; a race driver is exposed to +3G, while even very fast roller coasters do not significantly provoke more than 1G of force. Talk about stress! And exactly this was the purpose; Michael Schumacher and Kai Ebel (a very well known TV host and Formula1 reporter in Europe) went for a few rounds around the F1 course of the Nuerburgring (and, i may add, in an amazing time). While on the road, Kai even conducted an interview with Michael Schumacher! An impressive show! Now the stunning aspect in terms of Girard-Perregaux watches: During the show and the race rounds, Kai Ebel sported the brand new reference 90285 Vintage45 Perpetual Calendar! And this highly complex watch made it without a problem! I think that´s remarkable, because the perpetual calendar is a really finicky complication; this should say a bit about the GP solution! And here we go with some impressions:

Ferrari 575M Maranello, Michael Schumacher and Kai Ebel
picture exclusive to ThePuristS.com



"small talk at +200 km/h"
picture by Michael Bartz - fotocommunity.de



The final round ended with a major burnout and some nice "dance"...
picture exclusive to ThePuristS.com



different perspective - picture by F1-total.com



different perspective - picture by F1-total.com



later interview; Kai Ebel (left), Michael Schumacher (right)
picture by F1-total.com



different perspective - look at Kai´s wrist!!
picture exclusive to ThePuristS.com



different perspective - look at Kai´s wrist!!
picture exclusive to ThePuristS.com



different perspective - look at Kai´s wrist!!
picture exclusive to ThePuristS.com