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Friday, 14 March 2014 12:43

Krohn Racing Post-Qualifying Report Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring

The 62nd Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring qualifying took place this afternoon, with Krohn Racing finishing the 15-minute qualifying session in the 11th position in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class.

Italian and Ferrari factory driver Andrea Bertolini qualified the No. 57 Ferrari F458 for Round Two of the 2014 IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. While Saturday's race will be a challenge for every driver and crew in the field, Krohn Racing is confident that they can make up the positions during the 12-hour enduro.

TRACY W. KROHN, Krohn Racing Team Owner/Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTLM:
"We're still learning some things about the car here. This qualifying didn't produce the hoped for result, but the reality is that where we start is not that significant over the course of a 12-hour race. We're trying to get the car good for the race and we know that we have a different set up from the other Ferrari. We're talking about what we need to do to make the car more comfortable, and I know we'll be there for the start of the race tomorrow."

ANDREA BERTOLINI, Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTLM:
"In the end, it was a qualifying that we were doing a little testing. We worked with Michelin for the tire pressure, and the car was too good at the beginning. After the first lap or two, there was a big drop-off, so we know something needs to be different for the race and we will use a different tire compound. We want to finish the race without a problem. I am looking forward to tomorrow and want to thank all the guys for their hard work and great job. I feel really good driving with Tracy and Nic. We have a good team and are ready to see what we can do in 12 hours tomorrow."

HAYDEN BURVILL, Krohn Racing Engineer:
"We're running the 2012 package on the car and we know it has some limitations, but we still had a reasonable goal in mind that we didn't quite achieve. Qualifying didn't turn out quite as I'd expected. We probably could have done a better job with selecting which lap we wanted the tires to come in on, and that's always a collaboration between the team and Michelin. We agree on strategy on when we want to turn our fastest lap during the session, and we missed that target slightly, which didn't help. I really think the car would have gone a couple of tenths faster than the best lap we did if we had hit that target. We made a couple of slight set-up changes in the last practice and they didn't give us the gains we predicted, but it was only a couple of tenths that we think we may have left on the table. I was impressed with the speed of the BMWs, and the Porches did what we expected. The fact that we're P11 in GTLM isn't really an indication of how close the last five cars are, because they are really close together. Although we're nowhere near the speed of the pole car, we certainly have a race pace we can be comfortable with."

The green flag drops on the 62nd Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at 10:15 a.m. EDT on March 15. In the U.S., tune into FOX Sports 1 for the LIVE start of the race at 10:00 a.m. EDT on March 15, then switch over to IMSA.com at 1:00 p.m.