Image: Ferrari
Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco felt there was more time in the lap which saw him take pole in the #50 Ferrari 499P for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 1000 Miles of Sebring.
“I had the feeling that it was a good lap, it was good enough, but I made small mistakes in some corners,” the Italian told reporters after taking pole.
He continued, ”But it felt quite okay in general. I was trying to improve on the second lap, but it was not the case, so I slowed down and came back to the pits.”
This echoed comments by Oliver Jarvis, LMP2 class pole sitter, who said getting a perfect lap at Sebring was almost impossible. Commenting on his lap in the post-qualifying press conference, the Briton said, “I wouldn’t say it was an incredible lap. There’s still a little bit more on the table, but that’s Sebring,” the #23 United Autosports driver told a packed media centre.
“It’s so difficult to get the perfect lap, because every time you drive into a corner, something slightly different happens. You hit a bump on a slightly different angle and it changes the car! But, really pleased with the lap.”
Fuoco also told reporters that the state of the track helped in qualifying compared to earlier sessions.
“I think the temperature of the track was the key, because it was dropping quite quite a lot. So for sure, with the cool track, the track is fast. So I think we improved quite a lot for the track condition”, the 26-year-old said.
The Italian also confirmed Ferrari did a qualifying simulation in free practice, but it was only in qualifying itself where the Ferrari was able to show it could, and did, take pole.
“Yeah. We tried [to do a qualifying sim] in free practice with the other car, but it’s quite difficult to find a free lap, let’s say, but in qualifying it’s different. So I think we put it all together and we showed our potential at the moment,” concluded Fuoco, with a grin on his face.
Keyword: Fuoco felt there was more in pole-setting Sebring lap