WEC - Second and fourth place in qualifying at COTA for the 488 GTE

Austin, 16 September 2016 – Ferrari had grounds for compliant in qualifying in the GTE-Pro class where the 488 GTE no. 71 of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird missed out on pole by 42 milliseconds, while James Calado in car no. 51 was held back by traffic after Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni had clocked up the best overall time. It was a difficult qualifying session for the 458 Italia no. 83 AF Corse in the GTE-Am class, which only managed to get the sixth fastest time.   GTE-Pro. In the GTE-Pro class “Gimmi” Bruni started the round in no. 51 and Davide Rigon in no. 71. On his first flying lap Davide stopped the clock at 2:04:549, with a 2:04:570 on the following lap. “Gimmi” soon notched up the best time of 2:04:525 and decided to return immediately to the pits to hand the 488 GTE no. 51 to Calado. Sam Bird in no. 71 lapped in 2:04:756 and failed to improve next time round, when his time was invalidated for exceeding track limits. The final average time for no. 71 was 2:04:652, just 42 thousandths behind the Aston Martin no. 95 of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen. James Calado in no. 51 was very unlucky to run into traffic on every lap. His best time was 2:05:118, making an average overall time of 2:04:821, just 17 thousandths of a second off third place which went to the Ford no. 66 of Oliver Pla and Stefan Mucke.   GTE-Am. The only Ferrari in the GTE-Am class, the 458 Italia of AF Corse with Emmanuel Collard and François Perrodo (Rui Aguas will join them for the race), had a very difficult session. Collard was the first to take to the track, stopping the clock at 2:08:575, while Perrodo was unlucky with traffic and only managed 2:09:799. Their average overall time of 2:09:187, only earned sixth place in the category, a position from which they will have to attack in the race, which starts on Saturday at 5pm local time (midnight in Europe). Pole position in the category went to the Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana in 2:07:683. The Audi of Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer took overall pole.