The combination of Pierre Kaffer, Ryan Dalziel and Alex Popow claimed pole position for AF Waltrip at the Gulf 12 Hours, leading an all Ferrari 458 GT3 top five for the start of the race at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit.
All five of the Prancing Horses stampeding at the top of the timesheets were split by just six tenths of a second, the grid set using the average times of the fastest laps of all the drivers who will share the car during the race.
Kaffer’s time (2:11.144) was the fastest of the pole setting trio. However, the fastest lap of the session (2:10.811) was that of Jeroen Bleekemolen, anchoring the Autolando team in the Porsche that will start the race from sixth place.
Kessel Racing – Michael Broniszewski, Philipp Peter and Daniel Zampieri – will start from second, ahead of a pair of AF Corse Ferraris, the second example – starting from fourth – crewed by Stephane Sarrazin, Nicolas Minassian and Enzo Potolicchio. The second AF Waltrip car rounds out the Ferraris at the top of the timesheets
United Autosports will start from seventh, Mark Patterson, Will Bratt and Matt Bell sharing an Audi R8 LMS for the event. Alvaro Parente, who will join United Autosports for next year’s Avon Tyres British GT Championship the ASM Team crew eighth fastest in the better of the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 in the field.
Newly crowned SPEED EuroSeries champion Ivan Bellarosa set the second fastest lap of the session, driving the Wolf CN Prototype for the Avelon Formula team. With his co-drivers’ times taken into account, however, they will start from 11th.
Barwell Motorsport, running a Aston Martin Vantage GT4 will start 20th, triple 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner Tom Kimber–Smith unsurprising the fastest man of the team that also consists of his father, former BTCC driver Geoff, Jan Andersen and Barwell boss Mark Lemmer
