2 new Pole Positions out of 3

Today’s qualifying for the 4 hour race at Paul Ricard in the European Le Mans Series was run in sunny conditions.

We saw two new cars on Pole Position out of three categories, but it’s always nice to see new faces at the top of the sheets.

The first part of the qualifying was the GTE category, and there was a bit of a cue to get on the track. JMPW Motorsport Ferrari #66 was first ahead of Proton Competition Porsche #77 and Beechdean AMR #99.

The fight for Pole Position was between Spirit of Race Ferrari #55 and Proton Competition Porsche #77. Matt Griffin in #55 took first position with 0,370 seconds of a gap ahead of #77 and Spirit of Race Ferrari #51, while JMW Motorsport Ferrari #66 starts 4th.

Nicki Thiim outqualified Darren Turner in the TF Sport Aston Martin #90 ahead of the Beechdean AMR #99 – but it was only for 5th and 6th positions.

All 6 cars in were within one second of each other, so none of the cars was left behind.

Spirit of Race Ferrari #55
Photo: JJ Media

Then it was time for LMP3 qualifying.

M.Racing YMR #18 and 360 Racing #6 was battling with RMR MSport #15 for Pole Positions, where the positions were changing all the time. Ross Kaiser in #6 ended up with Pole Position ahead of #15 and #18.

Alex Kapadia was behind the wheel of the RLR MSport #15, helping Morten Dons and John Farano to their best starting position of the year, with second position.

Last up it was LMP2.

SMP Racing #27 was first to put down a time, which took a bit of time to beat. DragonSpeed #21 were the first to beat it, before G-Drive Racing #22 and Graff #39 also went ahead of them.

Third in the Championship Standings, High Class Racing #49 with Anders Fjordbach will start in 11th only out of the 12 cars in class. With almost 2 seconds behind Pole Position, they will have a hard task tomorrow – especially when the fastest Dallara (SMP Racing #27) have half a second to Pole Position.

DragonSpeed #21 with Nicolas Lapierre was quickest with Nicolas Lapierre ahead of the team mates in the shape of G-Drive Racing #22 with Leo Roussel. Graff #39 with Enzo Guibbert made it into third. That way it was Ligier 1-2-3 before Dallara in the shape of SMP Racing #27 was fourth. United Autosports #32 was the fastest Ligier in P5.