Ford Chip Ganassi Racing drivers, Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell, will start Round 5 of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship from third place on the grid after a strong showing in today’s qualifying session. Lining up right behind them in fourth place will be Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla in the #66 Ford GT, completing a much improved performance for Ford at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.
“We struggled here last year, taking sixth and seventh in qualifying so this is a big improvement,” said George Howard-Chappell, WEC Team Principal. “We did our very best and the driver’s ideal laps (calculated by adding together their best sector times from all of their laps) are really close to their actual laps so that was some great driving. We can’t compete with the Ferrari’s pole position time but the weather could be a variable and the Ford GT seemed really good in the wet so let’s see what the race brings.”
Andy Priaulx was first out in the #67 Ford GT taking first place with his time of 1:39.630. As the times tumbled in the latter part of the session, a strong lap from Harry Tincknell kept their aggregate lap time high enough for third place.
“P3 feels like pole position here in Mexico,” said Priaulx. “We know it isn’t a strong track for us but we got a great balance in the car and I was happy to finish my run in P1. Harry then did a great job but the Ferrari just found something more on that second run. I think this is an amazing result for us.”
The first man out in the #66 Ford GT was Stefan Mücke who held P1 for a while before being pipped by Priaulx. The aggregate time with his team mate Olivier Pla gave the duo fourth place on the grid, just one tenth of a second off the sister Ford GT.
“I think we can be happy with today’s result as we are much closer to the front than we were last year,” said Mücke. “I think I could have gone faster on the first flying lap but I was blocked by the #71 Ferrari in Turn One so that was a shame. All four of us did almost the same lap time so I think we got the maximum out of the car today. We know it will be a tough race. We have a little disadvantage on top speed but we will be out there fighting for a podium tomorrow.”
The 6 Hours of Mexico gets underway tomorrow, Sunday, Sept. 3, at 12:00 local time (19:00 CET).
