Maranello, 17 March

Qualifying went very well for Ferrari at the Sebring circuit which hosts the first round of the FIA World Endurance Championship that gets underway at 10h30 tomorrow. This is a new series promoted by the ACO with the FIA and the Sebring 12 Hours is also the opening round of the American Le Mans Series. The AF Corse Ferrari 458 GT2 number 51, driven by Giancarlo Fisichella, Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander, will start from the virtual pole in the LMGTE PRO category, with Bruni having qualified in 1.58.427. a time that was never bettered in the hour session. “I had a good feeling for the car and I think it’s looking very good for the race,” commented Bruni afterwards. “The entry is very high quality and for sure we can expect a very spectacular race in which we will try and capitalise on what we did in qualifying.” Second fastest in class was the Luxury Racing Ferrari in the hands of Melo, Makowiecki, Vernay, who were very quick right from the start, with a time of 1.58.723. Fifth on the grid was the second AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, driven by Andrea Bertolini, Olivier Beretta and Marco Cioci (1.59.084,) with the Extreme Motorsport 458 GT2 (Sharp-Van Overbeek-Cosmo) taking seventh in 2.00.094. Ferrari also dominated the GTE AM category with class pole going to the Luxury Racing crew of Ehret-Farnbacher-Jakubowski. The 458 number 61 driven by the AF-Waltrip team of Robert Kauffman, Michael Waltrip and Rui Aguas will start from sixth in class tomorrow.