FFF Loses Barcelona Pole Due to Yellow Flag Infringement

Orange1 FFF Racing Team has lost its pole position for the 3 Hours of Barcelona due to a three-place grid penalty for a yellow flag infringement during qualifying.

The Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup stewards deemed that Mirko Bortolotti failed to respect a waved yellow flag during the first of three qualifying sessions.

A stewards’ report deemed that Bortolotti improved his final sector split, and his overall lap time, while a yellow flag was displayed at Turn 12.

Bortolotti, Marco Mapelli and Andrea Caldarelli ended up setting the fastest average time to claim what was initially their fourth pole position from five races this year.

The top starting position for the Endurance Cup season finale has now been awarded to the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon, Raffaele Marciello and Felipe Fraga.

AKKA-ASP is the only other team to have taken an Endurance Cup pole this season, after Marciello topped Super Pole qualifying for the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa.

GPX Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Earl Bamber, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet will start alongside the Mercedes on the front row of the 46-car grid.

The Silver Cup pole-sitting Toksport WRT Mercedes-AMG of Marvin Dienst, Oscar Tunjo and Berkay Besler has been promoted to third in the starting order, while the FFF Lamborghini will take up the grid position next to it on row two.

Despite the result change, Bortolotti, Mapelli and Caldarelli keep the additional point they gained for leading qualifying because the penalty was a grid drop rater than a lap time deletion.

FFF Racing Team’s drivers are 16 points behind leaders Alessandro Pier Guidi, Nicklas Nielsen and Come Ledogar.

STARTING GRID: 3H Barcelona

This article was corrected to clarify that the FFF Lamborghini retains its extra point for setting the fastest lap during qualifying.