Daniel Serra in the 488 GT3 no. 51 of Spirit Of Race will start from pole in the GTD class of the 24 Hours of Daytona. Miguel Molina will be in second for Risi Competizione in an all-Ferrari front row. In the GT-Le Mans (GTLM) class Toni Vilander qualified the 488 GTE of Risi Competizione in seventh place.
GTD. In GTD class right from the start, Daniel Serra in the Ferrari 488 GT3 of Spirit of Race, dictated the pace. He improved lap by lap for a final time of 1:46:049, the fastest ever recorded in this category at the International Speedway. Serra will be joined by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda. Second place was taken by the sister car of Risi Competizione, driven in qualifying by Miguel Molina. He also improved lap by lap, stopping the clock at 1:46:502. Miguel, an official Maranello driver, will share the car with Matt Griffin and Mexicans Martin Fuentes, Santiago Creel and Ricardo Perez de Lara. The first of the two Scuderia Corsa Ferraris will set off in fifth. Alessandro Balzan recorded a time of 1:47:055. In the race, he will share the 488 GT3 with Gunnar Jeannette, Cooper MacNeil and Jeff Segal. The other Scuderia Corsa car, the no. 64 of Sam Bird, Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler and Frankie Montecalvo enjoyed a less successful qualifying. Bird recorded a time of 1:47:839, good for 14th place.
GTLM. In the GT-Le Mans class the Ferrari 488 GTE of Risi Competizione had a less successful qualifying session. Toni Vilander began by recording relatively high times, but improved towards the end for a final best time of 1:43:601 good enough for seventh place. He was just over eight tenths of a second behind the Chevrolet of Jan Magnussen, which took pole in 1:42:779. The overall pole position went to the Cadillac of Renger Van Der Zande in 1:36:083.
Schedule. The race will start on Saturday at 2:40 pm local time (8:40 pm CET) but is preceded by more free practice sessions, including one at night so that all the drivers can become familiar with the conditions they will have to face in the race.
