Takes eighth overall in Sonoma
AF Corse Ferrari opened the 2021 Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS season with an Am class victory at Sonoma Raceway.
Americans Jean-Claude Saada and Conrad Grunewald led the class in addition to placing an impressive eighth overall, co-driving the No. 61 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo.
“The car was perfect today,” Grunewald said. “AF Corse obviously has a lot of experience setting these cars up, so when we showed up for qualifying it was perfect. It was a good race. My teammate Jean-Claude did an amazing job, staying out of trouble and bringing back the car in one piece.”
Running 11th overall in the opening laps, Saada gained an on-track position before his pit stop at the 40 minute mark. Grunewald took over in 12th, before working his way up through the field, gaining four overall positions while maintaining the Am class advantage.
The run to victory on Saturday looked highly improbable on Friday. In the opening practice, Saada had a heavy impact with 10 minutes remaining in the session. The team spent the rest of the day repairing the damage, finally completing repair work at 3 a.m.
Grunewald was the fastest Am competitor in qualifying for Sunday’s event, with a best lap of 1:38.875. He will start the race 12th overall in the 14-car field.
The Sunday event is set to take the green flag at 1:15 p.m. PT.