The #66 Ford GT of Stefan Mücke (GER) and Olivier Pla (FRA) will start the ‘6 Hours of Silverstone’ from pole position after a dominant showing in today’s Qualifying session. Mücke and Pla are currently in second position in the fight for the world title so every point counts at this stage of the season.
The #67 Ford GT of Andy Priaulx (GB) and Harry Tincknell (GB) will start tomorrow’s race from the second row of the grid after qualifying in fourth place.
“Great job by Stefan, Oli and all of the crew on #66,” said team principal George Howard-Chappell.“I’m really pleased to see them take first place and it’s nice to get that extra point for qualifying on pole. It was a bit of a shame for the #67 as we’d hoped to get the whole front row but we just missed that. Those guys have been fast in all the sessions so far but it wasn’t to be for them today. We have two strong and fast cars so now we’re looking forward to the race and we will do the best we can.”
Mücke was the first on track in the #66 GT, immediately grabbing pole position. He then handed over to Pla who posted an almost identical time, sealing the deal for the duo.
“We decided to go out early and that worked out perfectly for us,” said Mücke. “We made some changes just before Qualifying which helped us to maximise everything. You can see that we got everything we could out of the car as our lap times are almost identical. I’m proud of the team who have all worked hard today and happy to get pole at their home race.
“I’m very happy with that and I must thank the team for giving us the tools to get the job done,” said Pla. “We weren’t feeling confident going into Qualifying as we were struggling with the balance of the car in the last practice session. Our engineer, Graham (Taylor) did a great job identifying what was wrong and we made a change just before we went out, which was very positive.”
With Qualifying done the team is now 100% focused on the race ahead. It will be a tough challenge but there is a reason why this is called ‘endurance racing’!
“It is going to be a tough race. Six hours, new asphalt and the fact that what will happen on a double stint is still a little unknown. We’ve done our homework though and we are ready for another podium.”
The 6 Hours of Silverstone gets underway on Sunday, August 19 at 13:00 CET.
Source. Ford/Photo. John Patterson
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