St Pete PWC: Mancinelli grabs shock GT pole
Daniel Mancinelli will start the first race of the Pirelli World Challenge GT series from pole position at St Petersburg.
Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images
The Italian TR3 Racing Ferrari 488 driver, a former GP3 racer running in the amateur class, beat Audi’s Pierre Kaffer and reigning champion Alvaro Parente to the top spot as a red flag ended the session early.
James Davison set the early pace in his TRG Aston Martin on 1m14.593s, before Patrick Long (Wright Motorsports Porsche GT3R) took away pole with 1m14.184s, as Davison improved to 1m14.188s, just 0.004s shy.
Alex Riberas (R Ferri Ferrari) took grabbed spot on 1m14.066s halfway through, before Mancinelli – who didn’t complete a time lap in practice yesterday – dipped under the 1m14s barrier with a 1m13.953s.
Parente leapt back to second on 1m.13.990s, 0.037s off the fastest time but Kaffer took second in his R8 on 1m13.990s, setting the same time as Parente.
A red flag interrupted the session with 2m44s on the clock, as Jorge de la Torre found the tyrewall. It was not restarted as the track required further repairs, as it did yesterday.
Riberas will start fourth, ahead of Long, Davison, Jon Fogarty (Gainsco Porsche) and Ryan Dalziel (Mercedes).
The only Acura NSX in qualifying was Peter Kox in 14th, after Ryan Eversley hit the wall in his yesterday.
Following his remarkable performance, Mancinelli has been reclassified in the overall GT class.
New Chevy tops GTS qualifying
Lawson Aschenbach got the new Blackdog-run Chevrolet Camaro GT4 off to a flying start by taking pole position for its first-ever GTS class race.
He lapped in 1m18.855s, almost a quarter of a second clear of the Ginetta G55 of Parker Chase. Andrew Aquilante was third fastest in his Ford Mustang, with Jade Buford’s SIN heading the KTMs of Frankie Montecalvo and Martin Barkey.
The new Panoz Avezzano of Ian James qualified ninth in the 19-car field.
GT qualifying times
Cla | # | Driver | Class | Car | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 31 | Daniel Mancinelli | GTA | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 8 | 1'13.953 | 87.623 | ||
2 | 4 | Pierre Kaffer | GT | Audi R8 LMS | 12 | 1'13.990 | 0.037 | 0.037 | 87.579 |
3 | 9 | Alvaro Parente | GT | McLaren 650S | 11 | 1'13.990 | 0.037 | 0.000 | 87.579 |
4 | 61 | Alex Riberas | GT | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 9 | 1'14.066 | 0.113 | 0.076 | 87.490 |
5 | 58 | Patrick Long | GT | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 11 | 1'14.184 | 0.231 | 0.118 | 87.350 |
6 | 007 | James Davison | GT | Aston Vantage GT3 | 11 | 1'14.188 | 0.235 | 0.004 | 87.346 |
7 | 3 | Johnny O'Connell | GT | Cadillac ATS-V.R | 12 | 1'14.286 | 0.333 | 0.098 | 87.230 |
8 | 99 | Jon Fogarty | GT | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 11 | 1'14.316 | 0.363 | 0.030 | 87.195 |
9 | 2 | Ryan Dalziel | GT | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 12 | 1'14.350 | 0.397 | 0.034 | 87.155 |
10 | 8 | Michael Cooper | GT | Cadillac ATS-V.R | 11 | 1'14.621 | 0.668 | 0.271 | 86.839 |
11 | 6 | Bryan Sellers | GT | McLaren 650S | 12 | 1'14.733 | 0.780 | 0.112 | 86.709 |
12 | 88 | Adderly Fong | GT | Bentley Continental GT3 | 11 | 1'14.741 | 0.788 | 0.008 | 86.699 |
13 | 17 | Alec Udell | GTA | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 11 | 1'14.796 | 0.843 | 0.055 | 86.636 |
14 | 93 | Peter Kox | GT | Acura NSX GT3 | 11 | 1'14.836 | 0.883 | 0.040 | 86.589 |
15 | 16 | Michael Schein | GTA | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 10 | 1'15.374 | 1.421 | 0.538 | 85.971 |
16 | 98 | Mike Hedlund | GTA | McLaren 650S | 8 | 1'15.548 | 1.595 | 0.174 | 85.773 |
17 | 14 | James Sofronas | GTA | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 10 | 1'15.975 | 2.022 | 0.427 | 85.291 |
18 | 69 | Pablo Pérez Companc | GTA | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 9 | 1'16.131 | 2.178 | 0.156 | 85.116 |
19 | 78 | Yufeng Luo | GTA | Bentley Continental GT3 | 10 | 1'16.897 | 2.944 | 0.766 | 84.269 |
20 | 44 | John Potter | GTA | Audi R8 LMS | 13 | 1'17.306 | 3.353 | 0.409 | 83.823 |
21 | 54 | Tim Pappas | GTA | Mercedes AMG GT3 | 12 | 1'17.717 | 3.764 | 0.411 | 83.379 |
22 | 04 | Jorge de la Torre | GTA | Aston Vantage GT3 | 12 | 1'18.038 | 4.085 | 0.321 | 83.036 |
23 | 11 | Marko Radisic | GT Cup | Ferrari Challenge Evo | 5 | 1'20.768 | 6.815 | 2.730 | 80.230 |
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