WEC - The 488 GTE of Rigon & Bird on pole in the 6 Hours of Mexico

Mexico City, 2 September 2017 – Ferrari is again out alone on top of the Constructors' rankings thanks entirely to Davide Rigon and Sam Bird whose two phenomenal laps won a surprise second pole position, and the relative point, of the season to add to the one at Spa-Francorchamps. In the 6 Hours of Mexico, which will start Sunday at 12 pm local time (7 pm CET), the 488 GTE no. 71 of AF Corse will start in front of the Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen. Car no. 51 of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi will set off in seventh after an imperfect qualifying, while in the GTE-Am class the two Ferraris will be fourth and fifth with car no. 61 of Clearwater Racing in front of the no. 54 of Spirit of Race.   GTE-Pro. In GTE-Pro class Davide Rigon started the session in no. 71 and James Calado in no. 51. Davide stopped the clock at 1:39:855 on the first pass improving at 1:39:688 on the second. At that point, Sam Bird took the wheel and fully exploited the car's potential with an excellent 1:39:162, which no one else could match bringing the average time to 1’39”425. In car no. 51, James Calado immediately recorded 1:40:117 and failed to improve after overshooting in the first part of the following lap. The Welsh driver returned to the pits and handed the 488 GTE to Alessandro Pier Guidi who, on his first attempt, also went wide and saw the lap cancelled. He then produced two almost identical times, the best of which was 1:40:001. The combined time of 1:40”059 was enough for seventh place.   GTE-Am. In the GTE-Am class, the Ferrari 488 GTE no. 61 of Clearwater Racing came fourth in 1:43:296 thanks to Weng Sun Mok's 1:45:348 and Matt Griffin's 1:41:245. Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr recorded the fifth best time with 1:44:540 for the Italian and 1:44:756 for Flohr. The class pole went to the Porsche of Dienst-Cairoli-Ried in 1:42:056. The Porsche of Hartley-Bernhard-Bamber took overall pole in 1:24:562, a new track record.