In BMW’s 50th anniversary weekend, Dries Vanthoor was able to secure the overall pole in the GTP class for tomorrow’s Mobil 1 Sebring 12 Hour.

In the other classes, Steven Thomas brought home the LMP2 pole spot for the #11 TDS Racing Oreca in the bronze-only session, while Ferrari swept the top spot in the GTD classes with the #81 DragonSpeed (GTD Pro) and #21 AF Corse (GTD) entries.

The GTD and LMP2 class qualifying sessions were rather clean for the most part with a notable spin out by James Clarke and the #43 Inter Europol Oreca.

GTP qualifying became rather complicated quickly when Jack Aitken’s #31 Whelen Cadillac stalled early during the out lap and pulled out the red flag for the session. The red flag would be removed in time for GTP qualifying to complete with only a few laps allocated. Vanthoor’s sister car, the #25 BMW RLL driven by Sheldon van der Linde hit the wall following the red flag conclusion. However, no other safety flag came out to conclude the weekend. 

“Yeah, I mean, all the things especially for the 50th anniversary,” BMW driver Vanthoor said. “I was speaking to Andreas (Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport) two minutes before qualifying, we were having a laugh that it was the race they did here 50 years ago.  It’s a good thing now, especially with our livery, we got here, it’s a nice thing to be on pole and to have that car. Having some nice screen time in the beginning of the race, hopefully.”

“As I said, for Ferrari is a great day, especially after let’s say a kind of tough Daytona,” AF Corse driver Alessandro Pier Guidi stated. “Last year we were really strong. This year we struggled a bit. We work hard to come back. We prepared the weekend as best as we could. In the end I think the work pays off. Of course, it’s just a pole position of 12 hours. Still a long way to go. I always prefer to start in the front, though.”