The five Ferraris competing in the 6 Hours of Silverstone, the third round of the 2018/2019 Super Season of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), didn’t have an easy qualifying. In the GTE-Pro class, the 488 GTEs of reigning world champion team AF Corse will start from rows three and five with cars no. 71 and no. 51 respectively. In the GTE-Am class the Prancing Horse cars took third and fourth row, with the 488 GTE no. 54 of Spirit of Race best-placed.
GTE-Pro. In the GTE-Pro class, James Calado and Sam Bird started the session respectively in cars no. 51 and no. 71. The British world champion set a time of 1:56.782 before passing the baton to his teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi. The Italian, held up by the GTE- Am cars, set a time of 1:57.429, for an average combined time of 1:57.105, good enough for ninth. In no. 71 Sam Bird notched up an excellent 1:56.142 on the first lap, before David Rigon climbed into the cockpit of the 488 GTE. The Italian set a best lap time of 1:56.878, for an average combined of 1:56.510. Pole position went to the Ford no. 66 of Mücke-Pla in 1:55.727.
GTE-Am. The GTE-Am class served up a repeat of the main category, with the Ferraris fighting for a place on the third row. In the end, 488 GTE no. 54 of Spirit of Race was the best of the Ferraris, with Giancarlo Fisichella (1:58.748) and Thomas Flohr (2:00.871) driving it to sixth place in 1:59.809. The 488 GTE of MR Racing qualified in seventh with Eddie Cheever III (1:58.949) and Motoaki Ishikawa (2:01.057), in a combined time of 2:00.003. Clearwater Racing’s entry will set off in eighth thanks to a time of 2:00.118, courtesy of Weng Sun Mok (2:01.889) and Matt Griffin (1:58.348). Pole position in the class went to the Porsche of Team Project 1 (Bergmeister-Lindsey-Perfetti) in 1:59.001, while the Toyota of Kobayashi-Conway-Lopez took overall pole in 1:36.895. The Silverstone 6 Hours will kick off at 12 pm local time (1 pm CET) on Sunday.
