Risi Ferrari Takes GT Pole at Petit Le Mans

Photo: John Dagys

Fresh off its first win of the year at Virginia International Raceway, Risi Competizione continued its hot streak in American Le Mans Series competition with Matteo Malucelli taking the GT class pole for Saturday’s Petit Le Mans.

The Italian peddled the No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia to a fast lap of 1:18.861, narrowly edging out the No. 93 SRT Motorsports Viper GTS-R of Jonathan Bomarito by 0.027 seconds.

It marked the second pole of the season for the Houston-based squad and broke BMW Team RLL’s three-race pole win streak.

Malucelli and full-season driver Olivier Beretta will be joined by rapid Scot Robin Liddell on Saturday.

Bomarito and co-drivers Kuno Wittmer and Tommy Kendall will line up second in class, ahead of the sister Viper, qualified in third by Marc Goossens.

The top-five was completed by the two class championship contenders, with Antonio Garcia reeling off a 1:19.128 to go fourth in class, ahead of rival Dirk Muller in the No. 56 BMW Team RLL, which completed the top five.

Garcia and Corvette Racing co-driver Jan Magnussen holds a 16-point lead over BMW’s Mueller.

In GTC, Spencer Pumpelly scored his third class pole of the year, taking his Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup to a best lap of 1:24.118.

Pumpelly edged out the No. 22 Alex Job Racing entry of Jeroen Bleekemolen by 0.315 seconds. The No. 27 Dempsey Racing machine of Andy Lally was third in class.

Bleekemolen and co-driver Cooper MacNeil head into tomorrow’s race with a 13-point lead in the title race, with Alex Job Racing two points behind Flying Lizard in the teams’ title race.

The 16th annual Petit Le Mans takes the green flag at 11:30 a.m. EDT, with live coverage on FOX Sports 2.

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