Molina front row leads Ferrari qualifying in Las Vegas

Making his return to Blancpain GT World Challenge America competition, Miguel Molina captured a front-row position to lead a competitive qualifying session for three Ferrari teams competing in Saturday’s season-ending doubleheader at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

R. FERRI MOTORSPORT. After sitting out the two most recent weekends, Molina returned to the No. 61 Ferrari 488 GT3 and promptly put it on the front row for Saturday evening’s 90-minute race under the lights. Molina turned a best lap of 1:32.354-seconds, good for second fastest in Friday’s second 15-minute session. With the driver championship already in hand, Toni Vilander put the No. 61 Ferrari on the second row in the opening qualifying session, with a fourth-fastest lap of 1:33.057-seconds on the circuit that includes the banked oval and infield road circuit. Ferrari leads the manufacturer standings by 17 points, while R. Ferri Motorsport is atop the team standings by 14 points. Vilander leads the drivers by an insurmountable 54 points.

SQUADRA CORSE. Martin Fuentes was fourth in the Pro-Am category in the opening 15-minute session. He turned a lap of 1:33.628-seconds in the No. 7 Ferrari 488 GT3. Fuentes already clinched the Am class driving title, and moved to Pro-Am for the final two events of the season. Fuentes will have a new co-driver this weekend. Veteran Renger van der Zande turned a lap of 1:32.987-seconds in the second session, fifth fastest in the competitive class.

SCUDERIA CORSA. Local resident Alessandro Balzan made his return to American racing with a solid third-place starting position in the Pro Am class for Race 2.  Balzan turned a best lap of  1:32.925-seconds in the No. 64 Ferrari 488 GT3. Bret Curtis turned a lap of 1:34.924-seconds driving to earn the seventh starting position in the opening race for the Las Vegas-based team.

Schedule. The three Ferrari teams face a grueling Saturday schedule with a pair of 90-minute races to be staged under very different conditions. Race 1 will be held in daylight at 1:55 p.m. (all times ET), with the season finale set to run under the lights at 10:30 p.m. Both races will be streamed live on gt-world-challenge-america.com.