Risi Competizione Friday Notes - 24 Hours of Le Mans - 2017
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RISI COMPETIZIONE24 HOURS OF LE MANS PRE-RACE REPORT Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE-Pro No. 82: Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) Toni Vilander (FIN) Pierre Kaffer (DE) (Le Mans, France, June 16, 2017) ...The No. 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE-Pro will start the 85th annual Le Mans 24 Hours from the 11th position in the GTE-Pro class for the historic twice-around-the-clock endurance race, June 17-18. Drivers Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and Pierre Kaffer are this year's pilots in the popular Risi Rosso Corse (racing red) Prancing Horse. Le Mans track action commenced on Wednesday afternoon with a two-hour free practice session. Both Kaffer and Vilander drove the Ferrari 488 for the two-hour practice session. Qualifying round one ran for two hours and had all three Risi drivers behind the wheel. Unfortunately, the team's first round of qualifying was disallowed for a rules infraction by the Stewards on Wednesday. However, the required night time driver's laps were counted. Thursday featured two sets of qualifying for two hours each. Fisichella was first at the wheel and quickly turned a fast time of 3:52.138. Vilander set a similar time over the 18 laps of the two-hour qualifying 2 round, less red flag delays for a couple of accidents. Kaffer turned nine laps in the late-night session and completed some final set up work before the team parked the Ferrari 488, happy with the completion of the tasks set forth. Although as the track temperatures cooled in the late night qualifying session and the qualifying times came down, Risi chose to stay put with their 11th in GTE-Pro class qualifying time on the 8.4-mile Circuit de la Sarthe. The 24-hour race starts at 15:00 local time on Saturday afternoon and is expected to run under sunny skies all weekend. Rick Mayer, Risi Competizione Race Engineer: "I think the event week is going well so far. Our drivers are all happy with the car and comfortable. I think we've gone through enough setup options to have refined our setup to where we can start the race with what we know. In qualifying we wanted to put in a respectable time early and be done with it because qualifying really isn't important here for the race and we preferred to concentrate on the race setup and save the car for the race. Obviously, the times went down as the track cooled and we ended up further down the chart but we're not concerned. We have a good race car, the drivers are happy, the crew is ready and the car is prepared. If we can stay out of trouble I think we can do well." Giancarlo Fisichella, driver, No. 82 Ferrari 488 GTE-Pro: "I think the week has gone well and I'm happy with the car. We have worked to make a nice setup for the 24-hour race. I believe we could have improved in qualifying but we did not want to take a risk and qualifying is not so important here. I'm excited for a good race." Toni Vilander, driver, No. 82 Ferrari 488 GTE-Pro: "The week here at Le Mans has been good. The car has improved and now has a good and comfortable setup for the race. You always want to go faster but we were not so concerned about qualifying. The team decided it was more important to have the right setup on the car for all three of us drivers and to save the car for the race. The team has been doing a good job to prepare everything, as they always do. Now we go out and do our job and race smart - be fast and reliable, and have some positive luck and then we believe we will get a good result. Our goal is always to win and we come here to do that." Risi Competizione crew member Steve Sustich instructs Pierre Kaffer during driver change practice Pierre Kaffer, driver, No. 82 Ferrari 488 GTE-Pro: "I think so far the week has gone pretty well. We tried to improve the car which I think we did over all the sessions. Unfortunately, we missed improving in the last qualifying Thursday night when we decided to not go out again for further qualifying as the temperatures cooled and the track was quicker. We already did our qualifying run in the daylight. But it's a long race and I'm pretty sure we have a solid car and a fast car. Personally, for myself, I feel really confident in the car. I think we are very strong all together as a team -- the drivers and the combination with the Ferrari 488. Ferrari has built a fantastic car and it's already proven that this car is solid for 24 hours. Other manufacturers I think still need to prove that. I believe if we have the luck on your side, which you obviously need as well in races like this, then I'm pretty sure we have a good chance [to win]. Overall Le Mans is a fantastic race and we have always been in the lead group. It's very nice to be part of Risi Competizione, which is not a factory team, and to compete against the manufacturers with this team, which is one of the best teams in the world. I think for other privateers it would be much more difficult to catch up with manufacturers. Thanks to Giuseppe Risi, who always has the passion to go to these races and with all the boys in Risi Competizione, it's fantastic to be a small part in this big project." 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