"Loro finiscono rispettivamente sesta e settima."

Translation: They finish respectively sixth and seventh.

[morabito1]

they finished......respectively,,,,the race is finished if they placed sixth or sventh

[f.formica]

Your point would work in Italian too though :) This means it's either a live commentary (i.e. they are finishing the race as the sentence is uttered), a the speaker is telling a tale, like the plot of a book.