28 January 2016
Daytona Beach, 28 January 2016 - The Ferrari 488 GTE made is American debut today, qualifying in the second and third rows for the esteemed 24 Hours of Daytona in Florida. Although inclement weather prevailed during the practice and qualifying sessions today, the GT cars were faster than prototypes under slick conditions.
GTLM. The best results from the field of 488 GTE was the Scuderia Corsa number 68 with Alessandro Pier Guidi behind the wheel. Pier Guidi qualified the car in fourth position, stopping the clock at 2.03.309, 77 thousandths better than Toni Vilander with 488 GTE of Risi Competizione. Pier Guidi will share the car with Daniel Serra, Alexandre Premat and three-time winner Memo Rojas in the classic endurance race. Vilander will compete with Olivier Beretta, Davide Rigon and Giancarlo Fisichella as his teammates.
SMP Racing. The third 488 GTE entered in the weekend’s race, the number 72 team SMP Racing, will begin the race in eleventh position. The car did not get any time during a very rainy qualifying as Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni veered off the track in the first lap of the session. The pole position and the best time of class was clocked by Nick Tandy with Porsche.
GTD. The two Ferrari 458 Italias entered in the GTD class are both committed to start in midfield on Saturday. Jeff Segal of Scuderia Corsa’s number 63, qualified with a time of 2.09.398. The car, which starts eleventh on the grid, will also be driven by Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan and Robert Renauer. Car number 51 of team Spirit of Race will stand fourteenth at the start and will be driven Raffaele Giammaria, Matteo Cressoni, Marco Cioci, and Peter Mann. Television coverage of the 24 Hours of Daytona will be broadcast from Saturday, January 30 at 2:00 PM EST (8:00 PM GMT) on FOX Sports 1. You can also stream the race live on IMSA.com. Stay up to speed @FerrariUSA and take part in conversations with #FerrariGTRacing and #FerrariFirst.