The São Paulo 6 Hours will see the Ferrari 499Ps line up from ninth on the grid with the number 83 car entered by AF Corse, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the previous FIA WEC round; and from 14th and 17th place respectively with the number 50 and 51 crews from the official Ferrari – AF Corse team. The race will get underway tomorrow, 13 July, at 11.30 a.m. (local time).
As already seen in the three free practice sessions, qualifying – held in similar conditions, with a dry track and air and track temperatures of around 19°C and 26°C respectively – once again proved tough for the cars from the Prancing Horse manufacturer.
In the first timed session, the fastest Ferrari was the one in Giallo Modena livery, driven by Robert Kubica, who set a lap time of 1’23”595, securing ninth place and progressing to the Hyperpole. In the latter, Kubica – who shares the car with official Prancing Horse driver Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson – improved his time to 1’23”386, confirming ninth place with a gap of +0”816 from the number 12 Cadillac, which will start from pole.
The two red-liveried 499Ps, meanwhile, failed to finish inside the top ten. Antonio Fuoco, at the wheel of the number 50 car, set his best time at 1’23”759, but the Italian driver was unable to improve on his final flying lap due to traffic. The crew, completed by Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, will therefore start from the seventh row. Two rows further back lies the number 51 499P, crewed by the leaders of the World Drivers’ standings, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, the latter stopping the clocks at 1’23”831 during qualifying.