WEC | Possible comeback for Ferrari: “296 in Sao Paulo is good”

At Interlagos, the Bronze-licensed drivers François Heriau and Thomas Flohr, as required by the regulations, were the protagonists of the qualifying session held in the afternoon, in dry track conditions and air and asphalt temperatures of 14.4 and 19.10°C, obtaining the fourth and eighth times with the 296 LMGT3 #55 and #54.

A result that earned both cars access to the Hyperpole reserved for the top ten cars. In this last session, Heriau – who shares the car with official Ferrari driver Alessio Rovera and Simon Mann – stopped the clocks at 1’35”656, thus obtaining the seventh fastest time, with a gap of 1”243 over the Lamborghini #85, which will start in pole position.

“Qualifying went quite well and, despite the traffic on the track, I managed to get into the Hyperpole, where I wasn’t able to make the most of the tyres as the red flag interrupted the warm-up phase,” admits Heriau.

“In the end we managed to get a seventh place which, looking at the race, I think is a good starting position. Looking ahead to the 6 Hours we are quite confident and aware that our 296 LMGT3 is well suited to this track.”

Three places further back was the other Ferrari of the Vista AF Corse team: on his return for the Hyperpole, Flohr went off the track at turn 4, without consequences for the driver, but which led to the display of a red flag, and did not allow him to improve on the position he had already obtained.

The reference time for Flohr – who will be at the start of the race with Prancing Horse official Davide Rigon and Francesco Castellacci – remains the one obtained in qualifying, 1’35”877, which earned him tenth place on the starting grid.

“In qualifying the feeling with the car was excellent and we could have fought for a Top3 position – Flohr regrets – It’s a shame about the Hyperpole: the tyres hadn’t reached the optimal temperature yet and I went off the track. In any case we are optimistic for tomorrow’s race because the car didn’t suffer any damage.