The qualifying duties for the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia were given to Pierre Kaffer today for today's Oak Tree Grand Prix race at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR), August 23 in Danville, Virginia.
The 15-minute qualifying session saw Kaffer take the popular red Risi Competizione Ferrari to the third position on the GTLM grid with a time of 1:43.122 and a speed of 114.156 mph around the 17-turn 3.27-mile road course. The front row was set by the factory Porsche 911 RSR duo of Nick Tandy (1:42.532 at 114.813 mph) in the No. 911 and Jorg Bermeister (1:42.629 at 114.704 mph) in the No. 912 Porsche.
Kaffer had the fastest pace and topped the time charts in both Friday practice sessions and had high hopes for a repeat pole today after setting a new track record in 2014. His chances were thwarted when a rear tire went down and he had to settle for third and the second row-starting slot.
Kaffer and teammate Giancarlo Fisichella won overall in the Oak Tree Grand Prix last year after an exciting last lap pass by Fisichella to overtake the leading No. 17 Porsche contender of Wolf Henzler (and Bryan Sellers).
Today's two-hour and 40-minute sprint race is once again a GT-only class race, both GTLM and GTD, where the team goal is to repeat and defend their overall victory. The Risi driving duo finished third in their last outing at Road America in a battle-to-the-finish between Kaffer and Bergmeister for second-place.
PIERRE KAFFER, No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia, Risi Competizione Qualifying Driver:
"I'm quite satisfied with the qualifying. We are third, on the second row behind the Porsche and I think that's a very good position to start the race. I'm pretty sure our pace is very consistent and the race tomorrow will be very tough for everyone. We know what we have to do. We've collected a lot of data in the practice sessions about the new low energy tire of Michelin so I know that it suits our car very well and I'm really looking forward to taking the start tomorrow. As we have seen last race at Road America, it was a great fight between Jorg (Bergmeister) and myself, and I think the battle will go on again tomorrow although I think this time it will end the other way around."
GIANCARLO FISICHELLA, No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia, Risi Competizione Driver:
"I think it's been a good weekend so far. The car is really good. We had a small issue on the qualifying session, but even with that issue, Pierre was able to be third, which is a good starting position for the race. The most important thing is the balance of the car and the consistency of the car during the race and this is really, really good. We're going to fight to win, like last year. I think Porsche is very strong. We need to do as usual, a fantastic job with the pit stops, and if we do it we can fight for the victory. I'm looking forward to it."
RICK MAYER, No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia Risi Competizione Race Engineer:"Well, qualifying wasn't what we thought it would be or where we thought we would be. We thought we had a faster car than that, but we did have a left rear tire going down that made the car very difficult for Pierre to drive. We'll regroup tomorrow and hopefully do better in the race."
Tune-In Information:Live coverage of the Oak Tree Grand Prix race airs live on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday, August 23 from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. EDT. Live timing and scoring is available for all on-track sessions at IMSA.com and on the IMSA Smartphone app.
