Pier Guidi puts Ferrari on pole, 32 cars in the same second

Pier Guidi puts Ferrari on pole, 32 cars in the same second

Alessandro Pier Guidi proved to be fastest in the qualifying for the TM Performance 3 Hours of Monza. In the dying seconds of the session he put the #50 Spirit of Race Ferrari on pole position, edging in front of Norbert Siedler (#19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini) and Davide Rigon (#72 SMP Racing Ferrari). Jonny Adam was fastest of the Pro-Am drivers with the #97 Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin, and Rino Mastronardi drove the #488 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari to pole in the Am Cup

Never before has qualifying for a Blancpain GT Series round been so close: at the end of Q3 no fewer than 32 cars were separated by less than a second. As usual, those last 15 minutes of qualifying were key for the determination of this afternoon’s starting grid. For quite a while Davide Rigon looked set to celebrate his comeback in the series with pole position. At the waving of the chequered flag the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari was still heading the classification, but with a last minute effort Ale Pier Guidi edged in front, beating Rigon’s time by a mere 0.087 of a second. And Rigon even dropped off the front row when Norbert Siedler drove the #19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini to second on the grid, squeezing in between the two Ferrari cars.

Qualifying for the Pro-Am Cup grid positions was close as well, even though Jonny Adam and the #97 Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin were the only Pro-Am Cup competitors to qualify in the top-12 overall. Adam proved to be some two tenths quicker than the #53 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini and the #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi of Christopher Haase. With nine cars inside the 32 that were within the same second, it is clear that the fight for Pro-Am honours will be tough as well.

Also in those 32 was the #488 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Rino Mastronardi, who managed to put eight cars in between himself and the next car in the Am Cup, the #888 Kessel Racing Ferrari of David Perel.

The start of the TM Performance 3 Hours of Monza will be given at 14.45 CEST, and the first endurance race of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series will be streamed live on our website.