Vilander Leads Ferrari GT Qualifying Sweep at Road Atlanta

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Risi Competizione and Scuderia Corsa will start tomorrow’s Motul Petit Le Mans from the GT Le Mans and GT Daytona class poles, respectively, in a Ferrari qualifying sweep Friday at Road Atlanta.

Toni Vilander reeled off a 1:17.660 to give the No. 62 Risi Ferrari 488 GTE its second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech Championship class pole.

The Finn will share driving duties with Giancarlo Fisichella and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Richard Westbrook put the No. 67 Ford GT into second in class, 0.045 seconds slower than the Ferrari, while the sister Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entry will start from fourth in class.

They were split by Antonio Garcia’s championship-leading No. 3 Corvette C7.R, which qualified third.

Just 0.071 seconds separated the top five cars in class, which included four of the class’ five manufacturers.

Matteo Cressoni put the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 on GTD class pole going faster than Andy Lally’s Acura NSX GT3 by just 0.078 seconds.

Cressoni, the team’s third driver this weekend, shares the Ferrari with championship leaders Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan, who only need to start tomorrow’s race in order to wrap up the title. 

Jack Hawksworth’s No. 15 Lexus RCF GT3 will start the race from third in class while the Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS of Sheldon van der Linde was fourth, in the South African’s IMSA debut.

The Motul Petit Le Mans will take the green at 11:05 a.m. ET on Saturday, with live coverage on FS1.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.