The Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs have qualified in third and sixth positions respectively for tomorrow’s ‘6 Hours of COTA’, Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Frenchman Olivier Pla and his German team-mate Stefan Mücke took the #66 Ford GT to third place in a closely-fought qualifying session, run in sweltering conditions at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

“We can do a lot from third place and I think there is more to come from the car,” said Pla. “I struggled for grip a bit during my run but I need to see the data to understand why that was. I think our race pace will be good so I am looking forward to tomorrow.”

The #67 Ford GT of Britons Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and Marino Franchitti will line up in sixth place for tomorrow’s race, the start of which is expected to be run in even hotter conditions than today’s qualifying session.  Priaulx and Tincknell were on qualifying duty today and both drivers put in top three lap times but Tincknell’s two fastest laps were deleted for track limits infringements.

“I’m pretty happy with that,” said Priaulx. “The car had great pace. It felt phenomenal so it’s very unfortunate that Harry got pinged on track limits on two flying laps as without that we would be lining up in second place. Luckily his banker lap was quick so we are still in the mix. We can have a good race from here. We have a fast car and a lot can happen in six hours.”

“It was very close in Qualifying,” said WEC Team Principal, George Howard-Chappell. “We’re pleased to take P3 with the #66 car. It didn’t go to plan for the #67 car as we had a couple of laps deleted. We’re now looking forward to the race but having seen the pace of one of our competitors this morning it looks like it could be a tough one.”
 
The 6 Hours of COTA will begin at 17:00hrs tomorrow (Saturday) and run into the darkness, finishing at 23:00hrs.