{"id":74991,"date":"2013-07-26T14:50:52","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T12:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtspirit.com\/?p=74991"},"modified":"2013-07-26T22:10:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T20:10:21","slug":"24-hours-of-spa-2013-smp-racing-ferrari-458-qualifys-first-ahead-of-superpole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/2013\/07\/26\/24-hours-of-spa-2013-smp-racing-ferrari-458-qualifys-first-ahead-of-superpole\/","title":{"rendered":"24 Hours of Spa 2013: SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Qualifies First ahead of Superpole"},"content":{"rendered":"

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SMP Racing #70 Ferrari 458 Italia will lead the 20 contenders of the Superpole session later today at the 24 Hours of Spa 2013<\/a>, after qualifying first during last night\u2019s session. It was driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi with a best time of 2:20.383, the fastest in the Pro-AM class. In the Pro Cup class, the #150 Porsche 997 GT3 R of Manthey Racing was the fastest with a best time of 2:20.782. The Gentleman Trophy was won by St\u00e9phane Lemeret in the #52 Sport Garage Ferrari 458 Italia.<\/p>\n

The HTP Motorsports Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3<\/a> had impressed during the practice session, it set the fifth fastest time during the qualifying session. The Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 followed closely behind HTP\u2019s and set the sixth fastest time. Other than Mercedes, AF Corse Ferrari team will also have two Ferraris at the Superpole session out of the 20 cars present.<\/p>\n

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In total, four Ferraris will be at the Superpole, two from SMP Racing and two from AF Corse, Hexis Racing will race a McLaren 12C GT3 which qualified 8th overall while Marc VDS Racing #3 and #4 BMW Z4 GT3s will also join the Superpole session. The top 20 best list was closed by Pro GT by Almeras team from France with their #34 Porsche 997 GT3 R. <\/p>\n

The 20 minute Superpole session will begin at 18:15 CET and will determine the final order of the top twenty qualifiers for Saturday\u2019s endurance, the Total 24 Hours of Spa.<\/p>\n

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Marc Lieb, Porsche 997 GT3 R #150, Manthey Racing: <\/p>\n

\u201cQualifying was ok. We basically worked the whole day on race set up and we had only one shot with new tyres. It was the right time to get out, it was the quickest time of the circuit at the beginning of the first session. It\u2019s going to be my first ever superpole! We can be first or 20th, it\u2019s a big gamble on one lap. We are happy with our performance, we did not expect to be that quick. We are confident but I would not say that we are favourites as the Porsche is not the quickest car on track. It\u2019s nice for me to have a chance to fight for the win again as I won here 10 years ago with Romain Dumas and St\u00e9phane Ortelli and I\u2019m looking forward to the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alessandro Pier Guidi, Ferrari 458 Italia #70, SMP Racing: <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be first in the overall classification tonight, but tomorrow it\u2019s the Superpole so we could be 20th on the grid on Saturday\u2026 But I\u2019ll try to be on pole. We showed that we have the pace. We are in a PRO-AM Cup so we also need to find a good compromise on the car set-up for all the drivers. Today I did my best time in my second lap, so it was like a Superpole\u2026 For SMP Racing it\u2019s very important to be on top tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

St\u00e9phane Lemeret, Ferrari 458 Italia #52, Sport Garage: <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to be first of the Gentlemen Trophy but a little bit disappointed not to be in Superpole. We were supposed to use the last set of tyres at the end of the night session, but due to the red flag we did not have time to put it on. It\u2019s positive to set the pole in the category. It is my first time in the Ferrari 458 and I was immediately confident with it. It\u2019s the first time that I\u2019m in charge of qualifying, so it was interesting and nice. And I\u2019m in front of Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Bouvy, the most experienced driver here with his 19th participation (17th for me).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SMP Racing #70 Ferrari 458 Italia will lead the 20 contenders of the Superpole session later today at the 24 Hours of Spa 2013, after qualifying first during last night\u2019s session. It was driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi with a best time of 2:20.383, the fastest in the Pro-AM class. In the Pro Cup class, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":74992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29568,29572],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74991"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}