IMSA, Sebring 12 Hour - Pole and front row for Ferrari teams

Sebring, 16 March 2018 – The field for the 66th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring was set in qualifying on Friday ahead of the second race of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. A combination of great conditions and outstanding driving saw new track records established in both the GT-Daytona and GT-Le Mans classes.   GTD. Leading the GT-Daytona field to Saturday’s green flag will be Daniel Serra in the No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 that he will share with Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda, and Paul Dalla Lana. The pole position time of 1:58.710-seconds on the 3.7-mile circuit marked an improvement of one second from the previous track record as Serra earned his second pole of the IMSA season. The 2016 Sebring 12 Hour winners Scuderia Corsa will start from sixth on the grid with the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 of Cooper MacNeil, Alessandro Balzan, and Gunnar Jeannette, with the sister Scuderia Corsa No. 64 Ferrari 488 GT3 of Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, and Frank Montecalvo slotted in ninth for the start of Saturday’s endurance classic.   Satisfaction. “I’m really happy,” said Serra. “We decided to do this race in the last minute, but ever since the first practice the car was really good. We have four drivers so I didn’t have a lot of track time but I could feel that the car was really good. It was great to put everything together for that fast lap. I knew it was a good lap. The car was even better in than it had been in practice and I was enjoying every corner. It is awesome to start from pole position, our second in a row. It doesn’t mean a lot for the result of the race but it is always good to start from the front.”   GTLM. The GT-Le Mans class also saw a new track record established, with a BMW (De Philippi-Sims-Auberlen) securing pole just ahead of Jame Calado in the No. 62 Risi Ferrari 488 GTE machine. Calado’s time of 1:59.229-seconds in the 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE also bested the existing track record in GTLM as the Briton looks ahead to a front row start on Saturday. Calado will share the driving duties with Toni Vilander and James Calado as Risi targets a return to victory lane on Saturday night.