Marlboro's Stars on Ice: Stoner beats Massa in winter kart race

What happens when you coop up a bunch of racers at a snow-capped ski resort for a few days? Well you can bet they'll be racing each other down the slopes. It's just in their blood. But snow or no snow, eventually they're going to find a way to race something motorized. And that's exactly what happened this past weekend in Madonna di Campiglio in the Italian Alps, where every winter Marlboro's two premier racing teams – Ferrari in Formula One and Ducati in MotoGP – meet to kick back before the racing season kicks off.

Apparently tired of swooshing down the slopes or hitting on Tamara Ecclestone in the lodge – the Formula One chief stopped by with his model daughter for a cup of hot cocoa – a handful of Ferrari drivers and Ducati riders went karting...on the ice and snow. With Ferrari test driver Marc Gene off to work testing the new F60 and Kimi Raikkonen out with tonsil trouble (shame, because he's the one with the most ice racing experience), test driver Luca Badoer, Felipe Massa and his brother Eduardo lined up against Ducati riders Casey Stoner, Nick Hayden and test rider Vittoriano Guareschi. Felipe, who organizes the occasional karting event in his native Brazil, was in the lead until his knee-scraping counterpart Casey Stoner passed him on the penultimate lap and beat him to the finish line. Hayden took the final step on the podium ahead of Badoer, Guareschi and Eduardo Massa, proving that, on ice at least, racing prowess on two wheels is worth at least as much as four.

[Source: Autosport]