Qualifying for the 2023 Ferrari World Finals at Mugello brought out the second group, the one for the Coppa Shell drivers, and the session was dominated by one man: Axel Sartingen.
The Lueg Sportivo - Herter Racing team driver stopped the clock in 1m52.015s, inflicting abysmal gaps on everyone else. Sartingen’s best lap time was set early on, and he now looks odds-on favourite for the Superpole and the race win tomorrow.
Ferrari Challenge veteran Fons Scheltema was the only driver to come close, the Kessel Racing driver climbing into second place, 263 thousandths of a second behind, while the rest of the field were left scrapping for the remaining positions.
Thomas Gostner (CDP - MP Racing) did well to get behind Ernst Kirchmayr by less than a tenth of a second, a result that puts him in a good position.
Both Cameron Root and Manuela Gostner were less brilliant than yesterday, finishing fifth and sixth respectively in today’s official qualifying, the final two to qualify for Superpole. The Ron Tonkin Gran Turismo team driver was the first to finish more than 1 second away from the benchmark time obtained by Sartingen, but he still managed to beat Manuela by 9 thousandths.
Christian Herdt-Wipper (Emil Frey Sportivo) set the seventh fastest time ahead of David Voronin (Foreign Cars Italia) and the two drivers of the Gohm - Scuderia GT team, Alexander Nussbaumer and Thomas Lofflad, the latter wrapping up the Top 10.
Worthy of note was the final position in qualifying for John Viskup, yesterday the protagonist of a spectacular recovery in the last heat of the Ferrari Challenge Coppa Shell which saw him move up 17 positions in just 30 minutes of racing.
