Melo delighted to deny Porsche pole

Melo, who shares his car with Gianmaria Bruni, set a lap of 2m20.336s which was just four hundredths from Marc Lieb's Felbermayr-Proton 911 GT3 RSR.

But the time came off the back of a difficult build-up to qualifying following a brake issue in free practice and a loss of track time.

"It's nice to be in front of Porsche because they are really strong on this track, especially in a straight line," said Melo. "Considering the brake problems we had yesterday and today it is hot weather.

"I think we can improve the car for the race still. But I am quite satisfied with the qualifying, less so with the car behaviour but we have a margin of improvement for the race."

Melo added that Ferrari's decision to opt for the wider tyres and heavier weight this year may have assisted the 430's pace around the 4.3-mile Spa circuit.

"It has more overall grip and it is working better on the fast corners and a little bit more power, but we are just struggling with the brakes a little bit at the moment. Something I hope we can fix for the race!"