Ferrari on top, 24 cars in one second

Ferrari on top, 24 cars in one second

At the end of the pre-qualifying session for the Silverstone round of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series, 24 cars were separated by less than one second. James Calado set the fastest time of the day, at the wheel of the #55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari.

Better weather conditions for the hour-long pre-qualifying session, this afternoon at the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit. All 55 cars were quickly out of the starting blocks, to complete their final preparations for tomorrow’s qualifying session and three-hour race.

The usual suspects topped the timing sheets early on. For a while the time set by Dani Juncadella in the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG (2’00.482) was good enough for top spot, but first Philipp Eng (#99 ROWE Racing BMW) improved on that time and in the dying minutes of the session James Calado (#55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari) went five thousandths of a second better when clocking a 2’00.322.

In the Pro-Am Cup the #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi and the #87 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG swapped places all session long, but in the end it was Mercedes-driver Jules Gounon who set the fastest time in class, and even got into the top-5 overall. The #333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari just made it into the top-10 overall as well. In the Am Cup David Perel was quick to set a 2’01.779 in the #888 Kessel Racing Ferrari, just edging in front of the #488 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Rino Mastronardi.

Sunday sees the qualifying session at 9.45 UK time, with the three hour endurance race starting at 14.55. The Lamborghini Super Trofeo and Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup both have their second races of the weekend before that. All sessions will be streamed live on our website.