Jaime Melo will start tomorrow’s sixth round of the American Le Mans Series in his Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT from the front row of a super-competitive GT2 class. With the first seven cars qualifying within six tenths of a second of each other, including the two new Corvette GT2 racers, it was one of the tightest sessions to be held so far this year.
Melo, as always, was on the pace straight away and held provisional pole for much of the 20-minute session. His quickest time of 1:21.287 was set on his seventh flying lap, despite a mistake which saw him nearly lose the back end of the Ferrari in braking at the Carousel. He was, however, narrowly beaten to pole position by the Flying Lizard Porsche of Jörg Bergmeister.
The Brazilian said afterwards: “It was a good lap, even with the mistake at the Carousel where I maybe lost a tenth of a second. We have been having some turn-in oversteer in the car but, even with that, I think that was the maximum time the car could hold. I tried once more after my fastest lap but the car was oversteering so I said, that’s enough, let’s save the tires for the race.
“Now we need to improve the set up for the rear [of the car] on entrance to corners to try to have a comfortable car for the race. Second on the grid is not bad, it’s still very close, and we can be there for the race. Pierre looked good in free practice and has learnt the track quick so I think we’ll be able to push from the very first moment to the end.
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