Wednesday November 17th, 1999

Marc Gene, driver of the Minardi Team, will receive an important award from Car and Driver, the Spanish monthly magazine that celebrates the fifth edition of the Car and Driver Award this year.

In the course of the event 8 special awards will be given to different car companies while Marc Gené will be awarded as the best Spanish driver of 1999.

The driver was chosen according to a ranking drafted by the magazine following a standard that emphasises the difficulty of the sport and the car driving, the driver's reliability, performance and the results obtained in the course of the racing season (1st among the F1 newcomers).

"The Fondmetal Minardi Team welcomes the news with pleasure and pride and wishes to congratulate Marc on the commitment and the determination he showed during his first F1 season," a statement by the Team reads. "This award, although indirectly, represents a kind of reward to all the people in the Team for the work done."

The award presentation will take place in Madrid at the Ritz Hotel on December 2nd in the presence of the Spanish press.