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Laguna Seca: Risi Competizione qualifing report

MELO STORMS TO LAGUNA GT2 POLE Jaime Melo drove his ...

Published: Oct 20, 2007, 8:57 PM

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MELO STORMS TO LAGUNA GT2 POLE

Jaime Melo drove his #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GT to a storming GT2 pole position this afternoon at a windy Laguna Seca track. His quickest time of 1:22.880 established a new track qualifying record (beating the record of 1:23.611 set last year by Mika Salo in a Risi Ferrari 430), was his sixth such record of the year, and once again was at a circuit he has never previously visited. Melo has recorded the most pole positions by any GT2 driver this season.

The red Ferrari lost valuable track time in this morning's practice session after being the victim of contact by the #37 P1 car just after the infamous 'Corkscrew' turn. The damage was not extensive, but a new bumper, splitter mount, tires and rims were required which meant going back to the garage area. This lack of practice did not turn out to either set back or hamper the brilliant Brazilian in qualifying.

Jaime Melo said after the session: "When you have a great team and the car is going really well, it all comes together very easily. This morning we had some problems on the track but now the car is very consistent and easy to drive and a good lap time was easy to do.

"I really like this track with all the fast corners and it is good for us, like all the tracks so far! For the race we will have to be very careful at our braking points, and we have to work a little bit more on our set up to try and get some more grip, but we will aim to do our best and do well in the race. It's always nice to start from first place and we need to do our best now and concentrate and not make any mistakes. Our strategy will be absolutely no risk and maybe we will drive more tomorrow in our mirrors than we usually have to do."

Houston's Tracy W Krohn qualified the #61 Krohn green Risi Competizione Ferrari today, and will line up on the fifth row of the GT2 grid after setting a best time of 1:26.691.

"Qualifying went fine for me. We thought we had a really good set up on the car; it will be good for the race. There was a little bit too much push and I went into one corner a little bit too aggressively and went off track a little bit but the car felt good. The track temperature during qualifying was quite low and probably we could have done with a few more laps and the tires would have been in better, but we ran out of time. I'm really excited about the race -- I think we have a really good car. If we can get it turned on and stay out of trouble, I'm expecting a really good finish here -- a podium finish."

-credit: rc

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