The qualifying for the third round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup 2020 was run on a dry, but overcast Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France.
There were dark clouds hanging in the area, and the weather forecast actually said rain during qualifying, but at least it started out dry.
First up was the 6 GT3 cars.
The drivers once again had to be aware of Track Limits, which not all had listened to. At least there were several laptimes deleted.
Iron Lynx Ferrari #8 started out being fastest, ahead of its sister car #77, followed by all the Kessel Racing cars.
Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche #2 lost both their first and second time due to Track Limits.
When they finally managed to post a time, it was fastest of all but did get beaten by Iron Lynx #8 shortly after.
Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche #2 had a spin on their fourth lap, but would still have a few more tries, before the 15 minutes of qualifying was up.
The times kept dropping, with Kessel Racing Ferrari #74 and Iron Lynx Ferrari #8 both had a go at being fastest, just like the battle we have seen at the previous race weekends.
Iron Lynx Ferrari #8 with Rino Mastronardi (plus Nicklas Nielsen) took Pole Position, ahead of Kessel Racing Ferrari #74 with Michael Broniszewski (plus David Perel), and Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche #2 with Nicolas Leutwiler (plus Julien Andlauer). That was the third Pole out of three for the #8.
Photo: JJ Media
The all-female crew of Michelle Gatting and Deborah Mayer in the third Iron Lynx Ferrari #9 was not present this weekend.
Then it was time for the 18 LMP2 cars.
Racing Experience #11 had a spin on their out-lap from the pits, but didn’t hit anything, and thankfully wasn’t hit either, since a long line of cars had followed it closely. United Autosports #23 also had a spin, but that was on their first flying lap.
DKR Engineering #3 was the first car posted a fast time, but just like the GT3 cars, the times dropped for every single lap put in.
Cool Racing #37 also wanted to mix up for the Pole, and they kept improving the times over and over. Mühlner Motorsport wanted a shot of Pole too and got really close.
And then the track limit warnings came flowing in, which affected #37 amongst others.
Photo: JJ Media
Graff #26 with Rory Penttinen (plus Matthias Kaiser) snatched Pole Position on the very final lap, right in front of Cool Racing #37 with Nicolas Maulini (and Edouard Cauhaupe), while DKR Engineering #3 with Jean Glorieux (plus Laurents Hörr) was third. That makes it three different LMP3 cars on Pole this season.
The race will start at 14.00, and can be viewed on YouTube.
Update
Iron Lynx Ferrari #8 subsequently lost Pole due to the diffusor height not complying with homologation. So they are sent to the back of the field.
