Toni Vilander lifted the Alan Simonsen trophy with Pole Position for the #88 Maranello Motorsport squad, their first at this event after no fewer than three second places on the grid in earlier runnings of this race (2012-14).
In the event’s first ever top ten shootout the 488 GT3 was last on track after setting the fastest time in the earlier qualifying sessions.
The early runners saw the eighth fastest qualifiers, Miedecke Stone Motorsport put their #35 Aston Martin on top and stay there until the final trio hit the track, the Aston Martin finally fourth on the grid ahead of a gaggle of more fancied runners.
Marco Wittmann delivered on the promises made by the BMW M6 GT3 runners earlier in the week after Timo Glock’s lap was spoiled by a couple of fumbles. Wittmann’s 2:03.249 finally exploded the Aston dream but the final pair of runners always promised something special. Withthe heat of the day meaning that the fabled 2 minute mark was never in reach it all came down to a pair of drivers, one an Aussie superstar, and one a global GT racing legend, on a lap apiece. Chaz Mostert again elivered the form that he has shown from the get go in the #90 MARC Cars BMW, 2 tenths up on Wittmann’s effort.
Toni Vilander’s effort though was world class, fast up the Mountain, committed across and a storming run back down again, superb under braking and neat and tidy at the end of the lap where others had been a little ragged. He ended the session as the only man in the 2:02s – 2:02.861 good enough to grab the headlines for himself, for Ferrari and for Melbourne based Maranello Motorsport.
The race starts tomorrow at 05:45 in full darkness with lights to flag coverage in sound and vision on www.radiolemans.com, the series website, Nismo.tv and across Australia on 7Mate
