The first qualifying session of the World Endurance Championship season brought little satisfaction for the Prancing Horse cars, either in the LMGTE Pro class or the Am. At the end of the ten-minute battle for pole, the best of the 488 GTEs secured fourth place.
LMGTE Pro. The session, interrupted for four minutes due to a red flag, offered few surprises, with the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs unable to fight for pole position, as indeed all the free practice sessions held at Sebring International Raceway had indicated. The world champion James Calado, in fourth, 2.066 seconds behind poleman Michael Christensen in the Porsche, and Antonio Fuoco fifth, 2.155 off the pace, were markedly slower than their rivals, especially in terms of top speed, a decisive factor on this track.
LMGTE Am. The Ferraris were also forced to limit the damage in the gentleman drivers' session and, in that regard, Sarah Bovy's fourth place was a positive result. She qualified the Iron Dames' 488 GTE 1.936 down on the Aston Martin poleman Ben Keating. A trio of Ferraris finished from seventh to ninth: the AF Corse car driven by Thomas Flohr, the Spirit of Race entry with Franck Dezoteux and the second AF Corse car with Christoph Ulrich at the wheel. Meanwhile, Claudio Schiavoni took eleventh place with the second Iron Lynx unit.