For the 6 Hours of Imola, the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, the two Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3s will begin the race from the eighth and ninth positions on the grid. Amidst a fervent crowd of tifosi and enthusiasts, the two Maranello cars brilliantly earned places in the Hyperpole for the second successive time. Here, the top 10 fastest cars from the first qualifying session engaged in a thrilling battle.
The crew of the number 55, made up of the official Prancing Horse driver, Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and François Heriau will start from eighth place, on the fourth row. In the Hyperpole, held amidst air temperatures of 18.5 degrees and temperatures on the asphalt of 29.8 degrees, the Frenchman set the best time of 1:43.523, on the third of five laps completed.
Immediately behind him was the sister car, the number 54, driven by Thomas Flohr, who was able to stop the clock at 1:43.650, slowed on his final attempt by on-track traffic. The Swiss driver will alternate at the wheel of the Ferrari 296 LMGT3 with Francesco Castellacci and another Maranello official driver, Davide Rigon.
The second round of the FIA WEC will see the green flag tomorrow, Sunday 21 April, at 1 p.m.
François Heriau – Vista AF Corse #55 – “Qualifying went pretty well, especially the first part. I was straight into the good pace and fighting for the first position and ended up P4. The car felt really good. My teammates did a good job yesterday to prepare the car and work on the balance with the engineers. The second part of the qualifying was not so good for me. I think I made a few mistakes which prevented us from being closer to the top. But still, P8 is not a bad result for us, especially because I didn't drive FP1 and FP2. Tomorrow will be a long race; Imola is challenging. We need to take care of the traffic because it's going to be a big challenge. We need to have a safe race, and given the pace the three of us have, I'm pretty sure we will be in the fight and we will do everything to get a good result.”
Thomas Flohr – Vista AF Corse #54 – “I had a fantastic first part of the qualifying. The car felt really good. We made it into the Hyperpole, the top five. And then, unfortunately, exceeded the track limit, and then the biggest disappointment was I ran into traffic. That really killed my lap. I felt we deserved to be in the top five. Now we need to catch up in the race and try to make a position as good as we had in Qatar or better.”