All-Ferrari front row at Fuji
In the GTE-Pro class Davide Rigon and James Calado win their first career pole on AF Corse’s 458 Italia no. 71 in front of the no. 51 of Bruni-Vilander.
#71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 GTE: Davide Rigon, James Calado
Luis Betancourt
Oyama - All the Ferraris put in a superb performance in qualifying at the 6 Hours of Fuji, the third last round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC). The Prancing Horse monopolised the front row in the GTE-Pro class, while taking second and fourth place in the GTE-Am. However, the race is long and full of unknowns, beginning with the rain, which should be falling at the start although we don’t know how heavily. GTE-Pro. Toni Vilander and Davide Rigon began the
First career pole
GTE-Pro qualifying in Ferraris no. 51 and 71 of AF Corse. The Finnish world champion clocked 1:38.647 on his first attempt, while the Italian driver of car no. 71 immediately put in his fastest time of 1:38.445. Vilander bested this with 1:38.4431 on his second lap. At that point James Calado and "Gimmi" Bruni took over the two 458 Italias. Calado got the best out of the car with a time of 1:38.145, the fastest of the day, and an aggregate time of 1:38.295, while it was harder going for Bruni who stopped the clock at 1:38.376, securing second place for crew of the no. 51 with an aggregate time of 1:38.403. GTE-Am. The two Ferraris in the
Second and fourth
GTE-Am class came second and fourth. Viktor Shaytar and Aleksey Basov drove championship leader car no. 72 in qualifying, with Italy's Andrea Bertolini set to join them for the race. The Russians recorded two excellent laps of respectively 1:39.798 and 1:40.458, taking second place on the grid with 1:40.128. The 458 Italia no. 83 AF Corse was fourth, driven by Emmanuel Collard (1:39.893) and François Perrodo (1:41.139) in an overall time of 1:40.516. Rui Aguas will join them for the race.
The Chevrolet of Larbre Competition driven by Roda-Ruberti-Sylvest clocked the fastest time in the class of 1:39.901, while overall pole position went to the Porsche of Bernhard-Webber-Hartley. The race will start on Sunday at 11 am local time (4 am CET) and will end at 5 pm (10 am CET). Rain at the start is almost a given, making the result even harder to predict.
Ferrari
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