Thankfully the rain is no longer present around the Circuit of The Americas and, to the delight of most of the field, the weather conditions are considerably cooler this afternoon than they were in previous days. An ambient temperature of 24oC (76oF) was recorded at the start of the LMGTE qualifying session for tomorrow’s 6 Hours of The Circuit of The Americas.
In an incredibly tight and exciting LMGTE session, the No.99 Aston Martin Vantage V8 of Bruno Senna and Fred Makowiecki claimed pole position with a best lap of 2:04.628. The French-Brazilian duo were in impressive form and beat the No.91 Porsche AG Team Manthey 911 RSR of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet by 0.27 seconds. Just one tenth behind the Porsche was the No.98 Aston Martin Vantage of American Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Richie Stanaway, the latter two being tasked with qualifying. Just 0.7 seconds separated the seven cars in the Pro field and tomorrow promises to offer just as close a race as that seen in Sao Paulo.
In LMGTE Am, the Ferrari 458 Italias of 8Star Motorsports and AF Corse nearly produced a front row lock out for the Prancing Horse, the No.61 AF car running out of fuel on its last lap which had, to that point, been its fastest in the session. Matteo Malucelli and Rui Aguas in the No.81 Ferrari produced a string of fast laps which combined to reward them with pole position with an average lap time of 2:06.515. Agonisingly close to pole was the No.95 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Christoffer Nygaard, their lap time being just one hundredth of a second behind the orange Ferrari. Matt Griffin and Marco Cioci were on qualifying duty in the No.61 entry and, despite their fuel issues, they claimed third place in class.
Tomorrow’s inaugural 6 Hours of The Circuit of The Americas is due to be hot, steamy and exciting in all classes. The race begins at 11:00 (CT) / 18:00 (CET) / 17:00 (BST) and the race will be streamed live on the official website at www.fiawec.com as well as on MotorsTV in Europe and partially live on Eurosport2 and Eurosport International.
CLICK HERE for the results from Qualifying
Photo: CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS (AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA), 6 HOURS OF CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS, SATURDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER 2013.
