Caldarelli Storms to First Temerario GT3 Pole at VIR

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Andrea Caldarelli delivered the first pole for the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 in qualifying for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.

The Lamborghini factory driver reeled off a 1:44.773 in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports entry to outpace the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg by 0.037 seconds.

It marked Caldarelli’s third career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole, the Italian’s first since last year’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and came just one race after Caldarelli and co-driver Sandy Mitchell’s class victory in the six-hour race at Road America, the first in global competition.

Neil Verhagen set the second quickest lap but was demoted to a third place start after his 1:44.810 lap time was deleted due to bringing out a red flag in Friday’s practice when he crashed the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

The No. 59 Team RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Max Esterson qualified fourth, with Valentin Haase-Clot completing the top-five in GTD Pro aboard his No. 68 YRB Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Casper Stevenson delivered DragonSpeed’s first-ever pole in GTD, having taken the team’s No. 81 Corvette to a best lap of 1:45.188.

Stevenson edged out the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Lorenzo Patrese by 0.064 seconds to claim his second career pole.

The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Russell Ward will start third in class after making a late-session improvement despite an early spin in the grass.

Eduardo Barrichello lost his fastest time, which would have been good enough for fourth, after failure to adhere to controlled powertrain parameters during Laps 3 through 5, and will start 11th as a result.

It promoted the Practice 2 pace-setting No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal to fourth, with Patrick Gallagher completing the top-five in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW.

The Michelin GT Challenge gets underway Sunday at 12 p.m. EST with live coverage on network NBC and Peacock, as well as IMSA’s YouTube channel internationally.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John