The AF Corse 488 GTE driven by James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi will start from the front row of the LMGTE Pro class grid for the Portimão 8 Hours, second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. In the LMGTE Am class, the second and third rows were monopolized by Maranello machinery.
LMGTE Pro. Thanks to a great performance from James Calado, the #51 488 GTE, courtesy of AF Corse, will start from second spot on the grid, with the race due to get underway tomorrow at 11:00 local time. The British driver stopped the clocks on 1’38”359 on his third lap, while Daniel Serra in the #52 Ferrari, completed the ten-minute battle for pole in fourth position, 757 milliseconds shy of the #92 Porsche which produced the session’s quickest marker.
LMGTE Am. In the qualifying involving the "Bronze" drivers, the Cetilar Racing-run Ferrari, with Roberto Lacorte at the wheel, secured third spot with a time of 1’40”885, 116 thousandths-of-a-second ahead of AF Corse’s #54 488 GTE driven by Thomas Flohr. Third row for the Iron Lynx Ferrari handled by Manuela Gostner and for the #83 AF Corse of François Perrodo, leader of general standings together with Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera. An excellent performance from Takeshi Kimura in the last Ferrari of the quintet, who posted seventh for Kessel Racing. Sixth row for Claudio Schiavoni in the second Iron Lynx entry.