Team M-Sport Bentley ready to race in Italy

After months of development work, peaking with a satisfying 4^th placed finished in the car's test race at the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi last December, together with the announcement of six Bentley Boys, Team M-Sport Bentley is confident of strong performance from the outset.

The Continental GT3's first competitive race in the Blancpain Series will be at Monza, near Milan in Italy. After free practice and qualifying on Saturday, the three hour race takes place on Sunday 13^th April at 2:45pm.

The Bentley competitor is based on the acclaimed Continental GT V8 coupe road car, including its outstanding 4.0-litre twin turbo V8 engine.

"The race at Monza is what we've been working towards for the last year, and we're ready for it. The car performed well at the series test days at Paul Ricard, we have a motivated driver lineup, and the whole team is eager to get started. We're looking for a strong finish and get our season started as we intend to go on," commented Brian Gush, Bentley's Director of Motorsport.

M-Sport Bentley will field two cars throughout the season. Car 7 will be driven by the all-British driving team of former Bentley Le Mans champion Guy Smith, Andy Meyrick and Steven Kane. Car 8 will be piloted by a European driver lineup of Belgian ex-F1 racer Jerome D'Ambrosio, Englishman Duncan Tappy and Frenchman Antoine Leclerc.

All six drivers have shown the right combination of experience, teamwork and speed to lead Bentley's return to competitive racing since victory at Le Mans in 2003.