RISI HOLDING STEADY LEAD AT ONE-THIRD DISTANCE

FOUR HOUR REPORT AT 2:30 PM, SATURDAY MARCH 20

After one third distance, the #62 Ferrari F430 GTC of Jaime Melo, Gianmaria Bruni and Pierre Kaffer is holding a steady lead in the highly competitive GT2 class at the opening round of the American Le Mans Series, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

The Krohn green #61 Risi Competizione entered Ferrari has made great climb from the back of the grid through to 8th place in class, with all drivers having cycled through the car.  Having taken the edge off its Michelin tires after a small spin in qualifying, the team elected to change them before the race and thus started from the back of the grid.

Melo and Bruni have both completed two single stints, and Jaime Melo made the following comments after his second spell behind the wheel:  “We had some problems with the rear tires going off in the first stint, causing us lots of oversteer, but this last one was okay.  The car, Michelin tires and brakes all feel good but there was so much traffic it’s difficult to get a good rhythm.  We’ve got a very consistent car though.  The battle between all the manufacturers at the start of the race was really good for the fans – and it was a good clean fight between us all – but I think it’s better now to have some gap!  We just need to keep this pace up.”

Nic Jönsson, who brought the #61 car up to as high as 6th place, commented after his double stint:  “In the very beginning it was a little crowded because we had to start from the back. I worked my way through the GTCs and it was a little work to get through them. As soon as I got through those guys and a couple of GT2 cars, we settled in to a pace and it went pretty good. We’re running on the pace of the top 5-7 which I’m very pleased with. I tried to just get into a rhythm. We’ll see what we have at the ninth or tenth hour into the race.”

Tracy Krohn has also enjoyed his first session behind the wheel of the Ferrari:  “My stint was not difficult, but the car got a little bit of oversteer about a third into the stint.  It was almost a little past entry to exit on all of the slow speed parts and mid-speed turns, like 13 and 10. But other than that the car was good, the brakes were good. The car wasn’t doing anything unusual. The track has warmed up a great deal since earlier in the week and we haven’t experienced this kind of track temp all week. It caught me out a little bit and I know it caught some other people out.”

Courtesy ALMS © RIF