Fumanelli Leads BOEM by Kessel to 12H Mugello Pole

BOEM by Kessel Racing will start the Hankook 12H Mugello from pole position after a late flyer from David Fumanelli allowed the team to beat Team GP Elite in Friday’s qualifying session.

The No. 8 Ferrari 296 GT3, which Fumanelli shares with L.M.D.V, Alessandro Cutrera, Marco Talarico and Marco Frezza, set a combined time of 1:49.416.

This was enough to beat GP Elite’s No. 32 Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by Lucas Groeneveld, Jesse van Kuijk, Daan van Kuijk and Max van Splunteren, to pole by a mere 0.088 seconds.

That came largely in part thanks to Fumanelli, who charged to a 1:47.912 to set the fastest individual lap across all three sessions and gave Kessel the leg up after GP Elite had dominated the first two segments.

As a result, BOEM by Kessel became the tenth different pole sitter in ten races at Mugello, as no team has ever scored a repeat pole position at the event.

The No. 71 Juta Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Lukas Sundahl, Casper Stevenson, John Corbett and Arenas Geciauskas qualified third, ahead of Herberth’s No. 91 Porsche in the hands of Ralf Bohn, Scott Noble and Jason Hart.

The German squad secured GT3 Am pole in the process, with Hash, Alex Fontana, Ivan Jacoma and Yannick Mettler completing the overall top five for Car Collection Motorsport.

Hofor Racing’s No. 11 Mercedes-AMG GT3 qualified sixth, ahead of Kessel’s No. 5 Ferrari 488 GT3 and the No. 14 Poulsen Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.

Series regulars CP Racing and their No. 85 Mercedes-AMG, driven by Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster and Shane Lewis will start the race from ninth position.

Rounding out the overall top ten was Pellin Racing’s No. 29 Ferrari, which Jeff Westphal and Kyle Marcelli share with Lisa Clark.

Buggyra ZM Racing claimed pole position in the GT4 class, with the No. 416 Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Aliyyah Koloc, David Vrsecky and Adam Lacko 0.531 seconds clear of the No. 424 Lionspeed GP Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS driven by Jose Garcia, Daniel Miller, Patrick Kolb and Dennis Bohn.

The first half of the Hankook 12H Mugello kicks off Saturday at 12:30 p.m. CET (7:30 a.m. EDT), with live streaming on the 24H Series YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Qualifying