AF Corse enjoyed double success at the Six Hours of Silverstone last weekend. The Ferrari team claimed class honours after a tough battle in both the GTE-Pro and GTE-Am categories with their 458s.
It follows the team’s brilliant performance at this year’s Le Mans 24 hours, in which they were able to win the Pro category, despite a crash in practice and starting from the rear of the grid. It could have been even better at Silverstone however, as the #71 Pro car was running in third place until contact was made on the last lap at the last corner with the Aston Martin. It was therefore classified in fifth place.
“It was a great race and it’s a fantastic feeling following on from Le Mans 24 Hours. We won here last year and the championship so we’re good on this type of circuit. As usual it was a tough race but it was one we could control from the beginning, keeping close to the Porsche and Aston Martin. The AF Corse guys did a fantastic job, they were very quick,” former Ferrari F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella said.
“In the race we were able to follow the Porsche as close as possible until we got into LMP traffic. The Aston was coming up on us very fast and managed to overtake me and the Porsche. Our strategy was to try and be at the same speed as them but at the same time use less fuel. That was our plan and I think we achieved it 100%,” team mate Gianmaria Bruni added.
Piergiuseppe Perrazini was the target of much criticism following Le Mans after his involvement in Anthony Davidson’s huge crash. The Italian hoped the win at Silverstone would silence those critics.
“In my second race in the world championship there is a great victory,” he said. “After the big crash at the 24 hours, there was a lot of discussion about me and the victory is very important. Now this is the greatest satisfaction for me and the team because I had a bad period after that crash.”
“It was a good battle and we had the same strategy as the No.51 car. We tried to save fuel but it was hard at the beginning as the Aston Martin and Porsche were very quick. Our strategy was to be as quick as possible and save one pit stop. Piergiuseppe Perrazini was great and saved more fuel than anybody – Matt did an incredible double stint and saved fuel. The car was perfect,” team mate Marco Cioci said.
“We had good pace in the car and we realised we were very good on fuel like the other AF Corse Ferrari. The WEC races are hard and the drivers are good so to win them you need every piece of the puzzle to fit into place – the team and the drivers to do the maximum job and today we did that. I’m chuffed to win at Silverstone,” the team’s third driver, Matt Griffin added.
Ferrari now leads the GT manufacturer’s championship with 197 points. Additionally, AF Corse enjoys a sizable gap over its nearest rival in the team’s championship to lead with 118 points.
