AF Corse GT Am on Le Mans Podium

GTE PRO - The fact that most prestigious endurance race in the world would not look kindly at Ferrari was clear right from the very beginning: the “balance of perfomance” was decisively adverse for the cars that dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012. Following the start, some unlucky events affected the race of the Prancing Horse cars. At the end, the best result was the fifth place of the Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 N°71 driven by Kamui Kobayashi, Toni Vilander and Olivier Beretta (JPN/FIN/MCO). One position behind was its sister car, the 458 Italia GT2 N°51 with GiancarloFisichella, Gianmaria Bruni and Matteo Malucelli (ITA/ITA/ITA).

GTE AM – The things went much better in the GTE AM category where two of the three AF Corse 458 made it to the podium. Piergiuseppe Perazzini, Lorenzo Casè and Darryl O'Young (ITA/ITA/HKG) took the second podium step in their Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 N° 55. In third position, Jack Gerber, Marco Cioci and Matt Griffin (ZAF/ITA/IRL) in their Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 N° 61. Both the cars fought long and hard with the Porsche N° 76 (the eventually class winner) taking the chequered flag with a small gap from the winner. In summary, the double result is memorable. Finishing in eleventh, even though it did not see the flag due to a crash in the 12th hour, was the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia N°54 driven by Yannick Mallegol, Jean Marc Bachelierand Howard Blank (FRA/FRA/USA).

There was disappointment regarding the 8Star Motorsports 458 Italia N°81 – managedby AF Corse – with the crew composed of Enzo Potolicchio, Rui Aguas and Jason Bright (VEN/POR/AUS). These drivers were among the favourite for the GTE AM victory, but the explosion of a rear tyre in the first half of the race and the further damage this caused to the car forced the team to carry out a 30 minute pit stop beforeto rejoining the race. At the end, they were ninth.

In the Championship (the 24 Hours of Le Mans is part of the FIA World Endurance Championship) the playing field is now very open. Ferrari is second among the GT Manufactures with 116 points (just 2 behind Porsche), while AF Corse is in third position in the teams championships on 60 points (14 behind nearest rival Porsche Team Manthey). The championship continues on September 1st at the Sao Paulo Circuit in Brazil.