Ferrari returned to victory lane at Road America with Risi Competizione pushing the new-for-2011 Ferrari F458 Italia to its first American Le Mans Series victory with Jaime Melo and Toni Vilander.

The Brazilian/Finnish combo topped the dominant BMW squad with Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen leading home GT championship leaders Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller.

Taking advantage of the latest Michelin racing tires on all four wheels, Melo took the lead with 90 minutes remaining and built a 9.7 second advantage only to have it disappear under a caution with 40 minutes to go.

Restarting in second place, over seven seconds behind the leading BMW of Werner, Melo gained back the entire margin and retook the lead just four laps later to pull away to a nine-second victory.

The win however, did not come without drama. Exiting the pits on one stop, Vilander had to re-close the driver’s door. With his engineer on the radio barking instructions – the Finn was trying to release the pit lane speed limiter, close the door and change gears at the same time. – rapidly running out of hands.

All this was going on as Oliver Gavin’s Corvette was hot on his tail and looking for a way past. Both cars fought over the same piece of track in turn one and spun in unison. Both were able to continue with Vilander winning the points in the “drifting” competition – almost saving the spin before executing a quick getaway.

Click the PLAY button below to listen to Toni Vilander at the post-qualifying press conference

[powerpress url=”//www.michelinracingusa.com/wp-content/uploads/vilander_press_conf_roadam_11.mp3″]