All driving at the Brazilian GP venue for the first time the three drivers of Krohn Racing’s LMGTE Pro Ferrari 458 worked at learning the track before Michele Rugolo took the car for qualifying of the Six Hours of Sao Paulo.
Rugolo, who shares the car with Nic Jonsson and team owner Tracy Krohn set the second fastest time in class during the 20-minute session, to line up behind Enrique Bernoldi’s AF Corse Ferrari for the race, the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
“P2 is not bad for qualifying,” said Rugolo. “We are in front of our competitors. We are a bit far from the leader but this is his home track so he knows it pretty well. I’m sure the gap between him and me is a driving gap because he knows the track much better and it can make a difference. We improved the car from the morning Practice 3 session. We still have some things we need to do. We know we chose the right direction. We have to do just little changes in the car and I think we can be competitive for the race.”
Jonsson admits there is still potential set-up improvements to be made on the car after the three free practice sessions, now with just the morning warm-up session remaining before the start of the race at 4pm UK time.
Krohn will be improving his personal set-up for the Interlagos track, competing in the Porsche GT3 Challenge Cup Brazil, the national championship supporting the WEC race. While the outings in the Porsche have allowed Krohn to familiarise himself with the track, from a competition standpoint the weekend has not gone so well. Krohn span into the wall at the Senna S in qualifying for the race. However, he will be racing in a repaired car in the build-up to the Six Hours.
“It’s helped me a great deal to be in the Porsche Challenge,” he explained. “It gives me a few more laps on the track and a little bit better perspective that way. I think that overall this week has progressed extremely well. Michele just put the car second, P2, for the start of the race so we have continue to get better. We learned a little bit more about how the car reacts under different temperature conditions as well.”
