Ferrari Loses 6H Spa Pole as No. 50 Car Underweight

Ferrari has been stripped of pole position for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps after its No. 50 car was found to be underweight after Friday’s qualifying session.

Antonio Fuoco had scored his second consecutive pole at the wheel of the Ferrari 499P he shares with Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina, beating the Penske Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell by 0.507 seconds in Hyperpole.

But a stewards’ report released on Friday evening revealed that the pole-winning car was found not to have complied with the minimum weight regulations.

A statement released by Ferrari said that the No. 50 car was found to be around 1 kg underweight, with the discrepancy pinned on a change of component at the rear end following a collision with another car in Friday morning’s third practice session.

The penalty is the disqualification from qualifying, with all lap times set by Fuoco in both Hyperpole and first qualifying deleted.

As such, the No. 5 Porsche of Campbell, Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen is now promoted to pole position, ahead of the Cadillac V-Series.R shared by Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber and the Proton Competition Porsche of Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer.

Notably, the Penske organization scores its 100th pole in sports car racing as a result.

Ferrari’s top representative on the grid is now the third-string No. 83 AF Corse car, which is promoted to eighth.

Fuoco, Nielsen and Molina will take the start of Saturday’s race from the rear of the 19-car Hypercar field.

United Autosports Loses Front Row Grid Spot in LMGT3

The No. 95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo has also been disqualified for a similar infringement, losing second place on the LMGT3 grid.

Josh Caygill had put the No. 95 McLaren on the front row behind class polesitter Sarah Bovy, but the car was found not only to be underweight but also to have an incorrect weight distribution in post-qualifying checks.

It means the car Caygill shares with Nico Pino and Marino Sato goes to the very back of the grid.

In a statement supplied to Sportscar365, United Autosports wrote that the No. 95 car was “unintentionally non-compliant with weight regulations.”

“We accept the findings of the FIA and ACO and will investigate fully,” the Anglo-American squad added.

The WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin and Ahmad Al Harthy is promoted to a spot on the front row, while the Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R of Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz inherits third.

This article was updated at 11 p.m. CEST (5 p.m. EDT) with comments issued by Ferrari and United Autosports.