World Endurance Championship - Difficult qualifying for Ferrari 488 GTEs at the Nürburgring

Nürburg, 15 July 2017 – It was a difficult qualifying for the four Ferraris entered in the 6 Hours of the Nürburgring, the fourth round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship, which begins on Sunday at 1pm. Some of the Ferrari drivers in both the GTE-Pro class and the GTE-Am had a lap cancelled for exceeding track limits. In the GTE-Pro class, Davide Rigon and Toni Vilander will start from fifth, while Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado set off in seventh. In the GTE-Am class the 488 GTE of Spirit of Race, will start from third with Miguel Molina and Thomas Flohr joined for the race by Francesco Castellacci, while the championship leader, Clearwater Racing's car no. 61 of Matt Griffin, Weng Sun Mok and Keita Sawa will be in fifth place on the grid.   GTE-Pro. In GTE-Pro class Davide Rigon started the session in no. 71 and Alessandro Pier Guidi in no. 51. Davide stopped the clock at 1:54:366 on the first lap and immediately improved to an excellent 1:54:204, before handing over to Toni Vilander, driving this weekend in place of Sam Bird. The Finn, who didn't change tyres, ran into some traffic on his first attempt but then obtained a best time of 1:55:311 that took the combined one to 1:54:757. In car no. 51, Alessandro Pier Guidi had two laps cancelled in a row for exceeding track limits, in the first one he went wide at Turn 1, then he didn’t respect track limits at Turn 17 when he had recorded a time of 1:54:352. This meant that the Italian driver's time was 1:55:270. At that point James Calado took the wheel of the 488 GTE without changing tyres and notched up a time of 1:54:805 which brought the combined one to 1:55:037. Class pole went to the Porsche of Estre-Christensen in 1:54:007.   GTE-Am. In the GTE-Am class, the Ferrari 488 GTE no. 54 of Spirit of Race was third fastest. Miguel Molina recorded 1:56:190 before handing the car to Thomas Flohr (1:59:726), which brought the combined time to 1:57:958. Ferrari no. 61 of Clearwater Racing, the championship leading crew after the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finished fifth with the time of 1:58:335, with Matt Griffin recording 1:56:131 and Weng Sun Mok 2:00:539. Class pole went to the Aston Martin of Dalla Lana-Lamy-Lauda in 1:56:721, while the overall pole position was taken by the Toyota of Kobayashi-Conway-Lopez in 1:38:118.