The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTLM team finally captured their first podium of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in today's BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at the Long Beach street circuit. Their third-place finish was the inaugural GTLM class podium for the brand new Ferrari 488.After a sixth place finish at the 24 Hours of Daytona and a fourth place finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the team was eager to finish each lap and capture a podium this season, while continuing to prove the reliability of the new Prancing Horse model.Giancarlo Fisichella was the Long Beach street race qualifying driver and started on the grid from the seventh class position. He drove 31 of the eventual 72 laps before pitting while in third place for tires, fuel and drive change to Toni Vilander after 43 minutes of the 100-minute race.
A full course caution was thrown shortly thereafter for one of several on-track spins by multiple race competitors. The No. 62 Risi Ferrari stayed in the Top 5 for the remainder of the race and was gifted the podium when the two leading GTLM cars (Corvette and BMW) collided on track. Vilander moved up to third with two laps to go and stayed there through the checkered flag.Today's podium was the sixth in 11 attempts for the Risi Competizione team and backs up their second place finish last year in the Ferrari 458. Vilander previously drove to the first podium (third) of the then new Ferrari 458 model in 2011 with Risi Competizione at this same Long Beach street circuit.
Rick Mayer, Risi Competizione Race Engineer:"That was quite a crazy race. Neither Ferrari had the pace to compete for the win, but we stayed clean and stayed out of trouble. We had a good stop and ended up third. We'll take that and move on to Laguna."Toni Vilander, driver, No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTLM:"It was a really difficult race. We are a little bit in a class of our own. The team did an awesome job today. The car felt quite good to drive but we just don't have any speed or any power. I had our competitors in front of me and they pulled me five car lengths on the front straight. It's hard to gain that back, but it was good to get third place. We will keep working and we keep improving but we need something more as well. Today we were a little bit lucky with the accidents and hits the others had. I had some slight issues towards the end of the race but I'm really happy for Giancarlo, me and the whole team to finish on the podium."
Giancarlo Fisichella, driver, No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTLM:"It's good to get on the podium but we just were lucky. The pace was like the qualifying session, it was not there. The other people appear to have more (power) than us, especially in the straight line speed they are quicker. We need more engine, more speed. Even in the corners we are not quick enough so hopefully next race we might have something."The next race on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule is Round 4, the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California on April 29-May 1.
