The Houston-based Risi Competizione Ferrari team, with qualifying driver Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy), will start from the eighth position in the GTLM class for the Lone Star Le Mans race, the penultimate round in the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) , September 19.
The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia is one of eight GTLM class competitors to race alongside all classes of competition in the 38-car field in Saturday's two hours and 40 minute race, beginning at 11:35 a.m. CDT.
Fisichella's fastest time in the 15-minute qualifying session was 2:05.996 at 97.945 mph around the 3.47-mile/5.515-kilometer circuit, which Houston, Texas-based Risi Competizione considers their home track. The No. 911 Porsche factory entry of Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet will start from the pole after qualifying in a single lap with a time of 2:04.396 at 98.395 mph.
Fisichella and teammate Pierre Kaffer (Germany) are both making their second appearance at COTA and will start 23rd overall in the 38-car field.
RICK MAYER, No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia, Risi Competizione Race Engineer:
"The car wasn't what we hoped for. We thought we might be P5 or P6, because we knew we couldn't beat the BMWs or the Porsches. The Continental Tire Series race came before our qualifying and their rubber is not compatible with our rubber and that makes the track pretty slippery. This tends to affect the lower downforce cars, which is the Ferrari more than the other competitors. We made a small change before qualifying and I don't know if that was for the better or worse, but we just had no grip and general oversteer, as well. We'll make some adjustments for the morning. I'm sure the track will be better for warm-up because there will be some WEC rubber down and some other soft rubber and I think the race will come back to us a bit, but we'll have to see how we do."GIANCARLO FISICHELLA, No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia, Risi Competizione Qualifying Driver:
"Well, this was one of the worst qualifying of my career. I'm really disappointed we lost two seconds from this morning. The car was really difficult to drive. There was zero grip. We made just a few changes, but the main problem was all the rubber on track from the Continental Tire race before us, which is not good for our car. We're struggling and just hoping for a better day tomorrow."
DAVE SIMS, No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia, Risi Competizione Team Manager:
"Qualifying didn't go as well as we would have liked for it to have gone and it was not our normal qualifying. The temperature was up from what we practiced all day, but it was the same way for everybody. We're going to do some more rebalancing on the car to make it more race worthy for tomorrow and we're going to get started on this right away to make the car more driveable."
Tune-In Information:
Live coverage of the Lone Star Le Mans race is on FOX Sports 2, Saturday, September 19 from 12:30-3:30 p.m. CDT. The race will re-air on FOX Sports 1, Sunday, September 20 at 1:00 p.m. CDT. Live timing and scoring is available for all on-track sessions at IMSA.com and on the IMSA Smartphone app.
