Ferrari front runners in Le Mans qualifying
Le Mans, 9 June – In front of grandstands packed since the early hours of this morning with fans keen to watch the 79th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, qualifying for the famous marathon event ended at midnight, having decided the grid for the 15h00 Saturday start. The Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 No. 51 entered by AF Corse and driven by Giancarlo Fisichella, Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander set the second fastest time of 3.58.040, just 0.448 seconds slower than the quickest BMW Motorsport M3 GT which therefore takes pole for the LM GTE PRO class thanks to the efforts of Augusto Farfus, Jorg Muller and Dirk Werner. After the session, Giancarlo Fisichella was pleased with the car’s excellent performance and great stability. “We are happy with second place, even if we only missed out on pole by a whisker. Our race pace is excellent and during my turn at the wheel I managed to do a great time, even with the car on full tanks. The 458 is really nice to drive and we are all confident for the race, even if we are up against very well prepared rivals like the BMW.”
Among the other Ferraris, the Team Farnbacher car driven by Dominik Farnbacher-Allan Simonsen, Leh Keen, was fifth fastest in 3.59.519, while the Luxury Team 458 Italia GT2 in the hands of Stephane Ortelli-Frederic Makowiecki-Jaime Melo was eighth in 4.12.361. Rob Bell-Tim Sugden-Xavier Maasen (JMW Motorsport) are eleventh in 4.00.890 and thirteenth is the Luxury Racing entry driven by Anthony Beltoise-Philippe Thiriet-Francois Jakuboski in 4.01.176) ahead of the AF Corse car of Robert Kauffman-Michael Waltrip-Rui Aguas, fifteenth in 4.02.216.
In the LMGTE Class pole goes to the Ferrari F430 GTC entered by AF Corse and driven by Piergiuseppe Perazzini (4.01.282) crewed with Marco Cioci-Sean Paul Breslin, beating the Porsche of Felbeermayr Jr-Felbeermayr Snr-Christian Reid by over two seconds. Fifth is the JMB Racing Ferrari of Manuel Rodrigues-Jean Marc Menahem-Nicolas Marroc. Seventh place for the Krohn Racing crew of Tracy Krohn-Niclas Johnsson-Michele Rugolo, ahead of the CRS Racing F430 GTC of Pierre Ehrt-Roger Wills-Shaun Lynn, ninth in class.
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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