LM GTE @ 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 2017
AFCorse Official’s Davide Rigon and Sam Bird combined to take the GTE-Pro class pole in their Ferrari 488 GTE #71 and LMGTE PRO Victory of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. Bird scored a seventh class win in the FIA WEC, 5 in GTE Pro and 2 in GTE Am. Davide Rigon scored his 4th WEC class win, 3 in Pro and a 1 in Am.
GTE-Pro was an intra-team affair between the # 51 and the # 71 AFCorse Official Ferraris. The Ferrari’s boys were not afraid at all to make contact, which they did many times over. There was also a tense moment down Kemmel straight where Calado drafted the two then-leading Fords and went by both of them on the outside to snatch the class lead. A bit like Michael Schumacher “used” Ricardo Zonta to pass Mika Hakkinen on the exterior braking for Les Combes at the 2000 Belgian GP.
At the end, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi finished 2nd on their AF Corse FERRARI 488 GTE #51. That was James Calado third consecutive 2nd place in GTE Pro and its 8th consecutive podium finish. With a 2nd podium finish, the 2017 debutant Alessandro Pier Guidi’s hadn’t yet finished off the podium!
Despite a 2nd best time during qualifications and being on the lead at the beginning of the race, the # 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing UK finished 3rd with Stefan Mucke, Olivier Pla and B. Johnson, after losing pace in the second half of the race in comparison to the Ferraris. The FIA WEC used a little backdoor in their new automatic BoP system to hit the Ford GTs for the Belgian round as Chip Ganassi’s cars received a four-liter reduction of their fuel tanks.
With this third place for the Ford GT, the team scored its eighth WEC podium finish across the two cars.
After a first victory at Silverstone for the first race of the season, Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell Racing and L. Derani finished 4th in the No. 67 FORD GT. Their GT was kneeled down by fuel priming issues which stopped the car in its tracks twice: once at pit exit and another time at Eau Rouge. This meant that both Derani’s and Tincknell’s brilliant drives were overlooked by the end results that showed them in P4 – only after Andy Priaulx passed Fred Makowiecki on the outside, too!
911 RSR #91 driven by Fred Mako and Richard Lietz finished 5th in the LMGTE PRO class.
After playing the lawn mower and losing front bumper of their Porsche 911 RSR #92, Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre finished 6th in the LMGTE PRO class.
Aston-Martin proved highly uncompetitive with the best Vantage starting from seventh and both finishing 3 laps behind the leaders. Darren Turner and Jonathan Adam finished 7th on #97.
Aston Martin Racing proved highly uncompetitive with the best Vantage starting from seventh and both finishing 3 laps behind the leaders. Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen finished 8th on # 95
After clinching pole position in the GTLME AM qualifying session, the trio of Paul Dalla Lana/Pedro Lamy/Mathias Lauda drove a faultless race to convert their advantage into the race win. The #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche was a strong challenger for the lead, reducing the gap within ten seconds during the third hour. The Aston Martin Racing trio managed the situation to the checkered flag and crossed the line with an advantage of 31.110 seconds over their closest rival, to claim their third consecutive win at the circuit.
