01 October 2016
Braselton, 30 September 2016 – Christina Nielsen will start the Petit Le Mans from fourth place. The Danish girl, who leads the IMSA championship in the GTD class with teammate Alessandro Balzan, qualified the Ferrari 488 GT3 of Scuderia Corsa securing a position in the middle of the pack in a race during which the goal is to stay out of trouble in order to meet the objective if taking the title. Christina completed eight qualifying laps, improving at almost every lap and recording her best time on the last one when she stopped the clock at 1’22”103. Jeroen Bleekemolen on a Dodge Viper recorded the best time in class. Nielsen and Balzan will be joined in the race by Jeff Segal the is a contender for the North American Endurance Cup too.
GTLM. The Ferrari customer teams secured a third and a fifth place in GTLM class in which two Ferrari 488 GTE were competing. The qualifying session of car number 62 of Risi Competizione team was entrusted to Toni Vilander, while Daniel Serra took to the track car number 68 of Scuderia Corsa. Vilander, who will be joined in the race by Giancarlo Fisichella and James Calado, completed eight laps during the qualification session and clocked 1’18”352 on the fourth lap. After that, the Finn let the tyres rest before pushing again and obtaining a time of 1’18”294, good enough for third place. Serra, who will race with Andrea Bertolini and Alessandro Pier Guidi, completed one lap less, recording his best time on the fifth: 1’18”349. Ford number 67 of Richard Westbrook set the pole position.
A very long race. Qualifications are always important, but the relative weight of the starting position decreases as the distance increases. And the Petit Le Mans lasts fully 10 hours or 1000 miles. The start is scheduled for 11 a.m. local time (5 p.m. CET) and the race will end around 9 p.m.