WEC - Second and third row for Ferrari in Shanghai qualifying

Shanghai, 5 November 2016 – The AF Corse number 51 and 71 Ferrari 488 GTE cars will start from second and third row positions in the 6 Hours of Shanghai, which is set to kick off tomorrow at 11 am local time (4 am CET). In the GTE-Am class, François Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard achieved a solid result, and will start from second position on the grid.   GTE-Pro. After a change in the boost pressure on the 488 GTE cars, which occurred before the morning free practice, Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni and Davide Rigon start the qualifying session the 51 and 71 cars, in the GTE-Pro class. David only completed a single lap, and on clocking a time of 2’02”644, decided to return to the pits, after failing to see an improvement in the second attempt. On his first bid, “Gimmi” stopped the clock at 2’02”124 but the time was later cancelled because he had exceeded track limits at turn 16. In the following attempt, the Italian driver clocked up a time of 2’02”313, before returning to the pit to hand the car over to James Calado. In the number 71 488 GTE, Sam Bird recorded a time of 2’03”329 on his first attempt, but did not succeed in improving on this, resulting in a combined time of 2’02”866. Calado, for his part, matched Bruni’s time almost to the thousandth of a second, clocking in at 2’02”318, leading to a combined time of 2’02”315, a performance fast enough to grant the pair fourth place on the grid behind the two elusive number 67 and 66 Ford cars, and the Aston Martin driven by championship leaders Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen. Car 71, conversely, will be starting in sixth.   GTE-Am. In the GTE-Am class, the only Ferrari competing, the number 83 AF Corse 458 Italia driven by Emmanuel Collard and François Perrodo, who will be joined by Rui Aguas for the race, took second place behind the Aston Martin number 98 driven by Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana. Collard started the session with a time of 2’04”348, while Perrodo did very well to stop the clock at 2’06”321, with the pair obtaining a combined time of 2’05”334, allowing them to keep an eye on their only true rivals to win the title starting from second place on the grid. The overall pole position went to the Porsche number 1, driven by Mark Webber and Neel Jani.