The Ferrari 488 GTEs of AF Corse will start from the second and third row in the 6 Hours of Shanghai this weekend. The penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) sets off on Sunday at 11 am local time (4 am CET). James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi in car no. 51 clocked the third fastest time, while Davide Rigon and Sam Bird were sixth in no. 71. The two Ferraris in the GTE-Am class will also line up in the second row, with Spirit of Race no. 54, qualified by Miguel Molina and Thomas Flohr, ahead of Clearwater Racing no. 61 with Weng Sun Mok and Matt Griffin.
GTE-Pro. In GTE-Pro class James Calado started the session in no. 51 and Davide Rigon in no. 71. James immediately executed a near-perfect lap stopping the clock at 1:59:902, before heading straight back to the pits to hand over to Pier Guidi. Rigon instead recorded 2:00:688 on his first pass and 2:00:370 next time round. Pier Guidi in no. 51 initially only managed 2:01:216, but notched up a good 2:00:593 on the following lap for a combined time of 2:00:247. Sam Bird for his part initially recorded 2:01:848 but continued to push hard, first clocking 2:01:386 and then 2:01:138, for a final combined time of 2:00:754 good for sixth place on the grid. Thiim-Sorensen took pole position in the Aston Martin no. 95 with a time of 1:59:697, but all the other cars are bunched close with the race still looking very much up for grabs.
GTE-Am. Both 488 GTE cars in the GTE-Am class will start from the second row. Spirit of Race no. 54 was the better of the two, qualified by Miguel Molina, author of an excellent 2:01:494 (fastest in class), and Thomas Flohr, whose lap brought the overall time to 2:03:062. Francesco Castellacci will join Molina and Flohr for the race. The Swiss team did better than Clearwater Racing no. 61, with Weng Sun Mok stopping the clock at 2:05:132 and Matt Griffin at 2:01:859, for a combined time of 2:03:495. Japan’s Keita Sawa will join them for the race. Pole position for the category went to Dalla Lana-Lamy-Lauda (Aston Martin) in 2:02:357. The Toyota of Conway-Kobayashi-Lopez took overall pole in 1:42:832.
