Team Modena battle to fourth.

Antonio Garcia and Liz Halliday battled with an ill-handling car to secure a fourth place finish for Team Modena in the GT1 class as the 2007 Le Mans Series season kicked off at Monza.

The pair were forced to deal with understeer on the Aston Martin DBR9 throughout the 1000km event, with the issue preventing the duo from challenging the class leaders over the course of the race, However, despite not being able to match the rival GT1 cars for top speed during the weekend, the pair were still able to take the flag in a solid twelfth place overall.

"I am pleased that we finished," team principal Graham Shultz said. "We got the strategy wrong to a degree but overall it was a good team effort, the team gelled and it was a smooth working weekend. It would have been hard to beat the Corvettes anyway because they are good cars, run by a good team, they were on song and it was their day today."

Garcia had battled with the rival DBR9 of Larbre driver Christophe Bouchut in the early stages of the race before finally finding his way past the Frenchman as Modena then gambled on leaving Garcia to double stint his tyres. However it was a gamble that didn't pay off as the former WTCC racer was forced to bring the car back into the pits to switch tyres.

"I was stuck behind Bouchut but I didn't have the down force at the front so I couldn't follow him at critical parts of the circuit, such as the Parabolica," he said. "Even when I did try to pass him, he was very defensive, though completely fair. He only offered me the outside line if I wanted to pass him, and that was frustrating for me.

"For my second stint I was thinking to do a double stint and my lap times were competitive but again when I was catching the other cars I could not follow them very well and I had to pit for new tyres."

Halliday found herself more comfortable in the car than before at the recent Sebring 12-Hour race, which had been her first opportunity to drive the DBR9, and was able to put in some competitive lap times despite a broken cool suit which meant she became very hot in the car during her two stints behind the wheel.

"The car ran very well and I did a better job than at Sebring," she said. "Today I was consistent, and I could do the times that I wanted to. I am settling into the GT car and getting much more used to having the LMP cars and the slower GT2 cars around on the track."