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GT: AF Waltrip Ferrari on pole for Gulf 12 Hour race

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Khatir Soltani
From press release

The AF Waltrip Ferrari 458 of Pierre Kaffer, Ryan Dalziel and Alex Popow claimed pole position in 2m11.768 for the second running of the Gulf 12 Hours at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

While it was Kaffer who set the pace in the No. 11 crew, Popow did a strong job to lap close to the times of his teammates bearing in mind that flight complications saw him arrive at the circuit late, having missed both free practice sessions on the opening day.

Unique to endurance events, Gulf 12 Hours qualifying times reflect an average set by all drivers in each car, meaning that the grid is likely to mirror race performance. That being the case, with less than one second covering the top seven crews in the GT3 class, another hugely competitive battle is in prospect.

Second position on the grid went to the inaugural Gulf 12 Hours runners-up Kessel Racing (2m11.963) in the form of Philipp Peter, Daniel Zampieri and Michael Broniszewski.

Defending first race victors AF Corse occupy the second row of the grid with their closely-matched Ferraris. Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Gaetano Ardagna (2m12.077) line up marginally quicker than the sister car (2m12.200) of Stephane Sarrazin, Nicolas Minassian and Enzo Potolicchio.

Potolicchio's performance is also worthy of note, his best time within a second of the best efforts from the French former Peugeot Le Mans works drivers.

Khatir Soltani
Khatir Soltani
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