Bathurst 12 Hours: Rigon and Vilander shine in qualifying

Bathurst – Qualifying went particularly well for two of the five Ferraris taking part in the Bathurst 12 Hours, the most important endurance race in Australia. Davide Rigon, Steve Wyatt and Michele Rugolo took their 458 Italia GT3 to fourth on the grid (second in the Am category.) The car 77 crew posted a time of 2.03.840 to outpace the similar car of the Clearwater Racing team, driven by Toni Vilander and Matt Griffin, teamed on this occasion with Mok Weng Sun, who stopped the clocks in 2.04.058. That was good enough for sixth on the grid, (fourth in the Pro-Am category.)

The others

The number 27 car of TFM-Ferrari Motorsport New Zealand, crewed by Lester-McIntyre-Smith was 16th fastest, (eighth in their class) with a 2.05.004, while the number 29 car of the Pirelli team combination of Manolios-Miller-Capelli managed a 2.06.894 to start 25th, 15th in their category. The number 50 Ferrari entered by Vicious Rumour Racing was unlucky and will start from the very back, after Benny Simonsen ran into trouble and failed to do a single lap in qualifying.

D’Alberto is OK

Things were much worse for the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 458. The car that won here in 2014 was seriously damaged and will not be able to start the race, which gets underway at 05h50 local time (19.50 CET) with live streaming of the event available on the site. Driving the 88 car at the time of the accident was Tony D’Alberto, who collided with the 99 Aston Martin of Yu-Venter-Merlin, hitting the barriers hard at the Forest’s Elbow corner. It was very disappointing for the Mark Coffey team and its other drivers, Mika Salo and Ben Collins, although the most important news is that hospital checks showed there were no lasting effects for D’Alberto. Pole went to the number 15 Phoenix Racing Audi of Mapelli-Vanthoor-Winkelhock in 2.02.552, while fastest in the Am category was the Athlete-Global Team Nissan, crewed by Strauss-Chiyo-Reip in 2.03.297.

Scuderia Ferrari