Maranello, 21 September

It was a day of important qualifying sessions for the 458 GT in various GT championships.
The Nurburgring was the scene of the final session of the season, which would decide the starting grid for the 1000 Kilometres, which brings the 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series to an end. It was not a great day for the Kessel Racing team, as the accident involving Brazilian driver Cesar Ramos in the morning’s free practice session, knocked out the Swiss team’s 458 GT3, which was leading the Drivers’ classification, with the aforementioned Ramos teamed up with Scuderia Ferrari test driver Davide Rigon and Daniele Zampieri. Only an amazing job from the mechanics ensured the car was able to get out for the final session, allowing the championship leader to secure fifteenth place. Pole position went to the Mercedes of Buhk-Schneider-Gotz, who will be joined on the front row by the Esta Motorsport 458 GT2, in the hands of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Matteo Bobbi and Alexander Skryabin. In the Pro-Am class, the best time was set by the Russian SMP team, with the trio of K. Ladygin-Shaitar-A.Ladygin while the sister car of the French SOFREV team took pole in the Gentlemen category with an all transalpine crew of Ricci-Balthazard-Policand. Tomorrow for Rigon and his team-mates, it will be a difficult task to achieve their goal of taking the title, but in six hours of racing, anything can happen.
This weekend in Austin sees the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship and this afternoon, qualifying was on the agenda. In the GT-Pro category, the two AF Corse 458 GT2 cars finished fourth with Vilander-Kobayashi and seventh with Fisichella-Bruni. Pole position went to the Aston Martin of Senna-Makowiecki. A top spot for Ferrari came in the GTE-Am class, with Aguas-Potolicchio-Malucelli (8 Stars Motorsport) while the AF Corse car with Gerber-Griffin-Cioci came third.