Risi Competizione made a triumphant return to the GT ranks, with Gianmaria Bruni scoring his third consecutive Sebring class pole.

The Ferrari factory driver reeled off a best lap of 1:58.815 in his No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia, outpacing defending class champion Oliver Gavin by 0.119 seconds.

It marked Risi's first pole since Petit Le Mans 2010, as Bruni was part of AF Corse's ILMC/WEC efforts at Sebring the past two years.

"It was a very close battle, as always in GT," Bruni said. "I'm very happy to be back here and with Risi Competizione, which makes its comeback after one year. It's great for the team, the crew and engineers. It means all of the work paid off. Tomorrow is another today. But at least today we reached our goal."

Bruni will share the wheel of his Prancing Horse with full-season Olivier Beretta and Matteo Malucelli.

Aston Martin Racing, making a one-off appearance in the ALMS this weekend, were third and fourth on quickest, with Stefan Mucke peddling his 2013-spec Vantage V8 to a best lap of 1:58.990. Mucke is scheduled to share controls of the No. 97 car with Darren Turner and Bruno Senna, although Senna is questionable after coming down with a virus today.

Pedro Lamy in the sister No. 007 entry was a further two-tenths behind in fourth, while the No. 3 Corvette C6.R of Antonio Garcia completed the top-five in class.

A last-lap flyer by Colin Braun saw CORE autosport take the pole in PC. Braun reeled off an impressive 1:53.404 lap time in his No. 05 Oreca FLM09 to bump Bruno Junqueira from the top spot with only seconds left on the clock.

Junqueira spun his No. 9 RSR Racing entry just after setting his quick lap, while the No. 81 DragonSpeed Mishumotors machine driven by Pierre Kaffer had an off-course excursion but also continued.

Kaffer wound up third quickest in the debuting PC team run by Elton Julian.

"I think everybody was getting quicker and quicker," said pole-sitter Braun, who will team with Jon Bennett and Mark Wilkins on Saturday. "The first lap that I put in was a reasonably good lap that I thought would be a really good potential pole lap. But we ended up going seven-tenths quicker. I was a little bit surprised by that but I just had to keep pushing harder and harder."

Dempsey Del Piero Racing took the GTC pole in its class debut, thanks to a late charge by Andy Lally, who put the No. 27 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car on top with just moments remaining in the 15-minute session.

Lally edged out the No. 22 Alex Job Racing entry of Jeroen Bleekemolen by 0.301 seconds, who turned an identical time as Sean Edwards in the No. 30 NGT Motorsport Porsche. They wound up second and third in class, respectively.

"We knew it would get greasy for this session," Lally explained. "We overcompensated with too much understeer. I cooled them down, did the allowed air pressure change and it hooked us up."

The former Rolex 24 class winner and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver will share driving duties on Saturday with Hollywood actor/racer Patrick Dempsey and fellow team co-principal Joe Foster, both making their GTC debuts.

The 61st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebing takes the green flag Saturday at 10:45 a.m. ET. Catch Live! SPEED coverage beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at