ELMS: First pole for Cool Racing in Monza, Légeret outstanding in LMP3

Nico Lapierre scored Cool Racing’s first pole position in the ELMS this afternoon in a qualifying session that was red flagged with just seconds to go. Lucas Legeret emerged on top of a very exciting LMP3 session, taking pole in his final lap, while Matteo Cairoli was outstanding in the LMGTE Class. 

LMP2

© ELMS/JEP - www.jakobebrey.com

Nicolas Lapierre gave Cool Racing their first pole position in the European Le Mans Series this afternoon.  The Frenchman’s mid session best time of 1.34.967 was enough to start from the lead in tomorrow’s 4 Hours of Monza.  

Paul Loup Chatin set the first benchmark with his #28 IDEC Sport Oreca in 1.35.214. 6 minutes into the session Lapierre did his quickest lap of 1.34.967, taking over provisional pole in the Cool Racing Oreca.  Chatin wasn’t able to further improve his time, so it was up to Norman Nato in the G-Drive to challenge Lapierre for pole.

© ELMS/JEP - www.jakobebrey.com

With 2,5 minutes left in the session, Norman Nato set a 1.35.213, taking up the second spot on the grid with just 1 thousand of a second.  The Frenchman was “en route” for another flyer - and a possible pole position - when Nicolas Jamin went off at Ascari, straight into the safety barriers.  The session was almost immediately red flagged, denying Nato to finish his second flyer and his chance for a third flying lap. Jamin did get out of his #30 Oreca, but the car seems to be heavily damaged in the front, giving the mechanics perhabs an overnight job to get it race ready tomorrow. 

An all French top 3 then, with the Oreca’s dominating again up to P8 in qualifying with all cars within one second. Filipe Albuquerque was ninth fastest in the #22 United Autosports Ligier (1.35.984), after locking up at the brake zone of the second chicane early in the session. The Portuguese only setting his best time just before the red flag was being waived. Alex Brundle in the second United Autosports Ligier will start next to Albuquerque on the fifth row of the grid. Both Dallara’s follow further down the order with the #45 Carlin in P11 and the #47 Cetilar Racing in P15. 

All cars made it out for qualifying, including the #34 Inter Europol Competition which had a big crash this morning in the Parabolica. 

LMP3

It was obvious after both practice sessions that the Norma’s would be on top to fight for pole position this afternoon, but no one expected such a tantalizing 10 minutes of qualifying.  All five Norma drivers had claimed provisional pole at a certain time, but in the end it was Lucas Légeret in the #19 M.Racing Norma who took pole position with a gap of 0.207 seconds over Colin Noble in the #7 Nielsen Racing. 

Noble looked set for pole position when Légeret saw his penultimate lap deleted due to track limits.  The Swiss youngster who turned 18 yesterday didn’t seem to care and squeezed out an impressive 1.44.017 out of his Norma in the dying minutes of the session, scoring his second pole position in the series after Portimao last year and an improvement of yesterday’s lap record with almost 0.9 seconds. 

Damiano Fioravanti was third fastest in the #10 Oregon Team Norma (1.44.377), followed by Le Castellet winner Matthieu Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate and David Droux in the #9 Realteam Racing. Wayne Boyd in the #6 United Autosports Ligier was the quickest non-Norma driver in P6. 

2 cars didn’t make it out on track during qualifying: the #11 Eurointernational and the #5 360 Racing Ligiers. 

LMGTE

Matteo Cairoli was unbeatable in the LMGTE class, taking pole position 0.4 seconds clear from the rest of the field in the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche with a time of 1.46.351.  “I’m over the moon with pole position on my home track said the Italian who lives nearby in Como.  My first lap wasn’t that good, but I got 2 clear laps after that, enough to take pole position.  We’re ready to finish the job tomorrow” said a very happy Matteo Cairoli straight after qualifying. 

Jörg Bergmeister was the only driver who found a pace within a second from Cairoli, but his best lap of 1.46.773 was still 0.422 seconds off pace. The second row of the grid will be reserved for the Ferrari’s of Spirit of Race (#55, Matt Griffin in 1.47.395) and Kessel Racing (#60, Andrea Piccini in 1.47.468).  The #80 Ebimotors Porsche of Fabio Babini will start from fifth position. 

Qualifying results LMP2

Qualifying results LMP3

Qualifying results LMGTE

Free Practice 2

An eventful session this morning with several Full Course Yellows and a long red flag interruption when Leo Roussel in the #34 Inter Europol Ligier went off at Parabolica and hard into the barriers. Roussel got out of the car on his own but was brought to the medical centre and hospital for some precautionary checks.  The session was ended a few minutes before the 90 minute mark when the #11 Eurointernational Ligier got off at Ascari. 

© ELMS/JEP - www.jakobebrey.com

Paul Loup Chatin put the #28 Idec Sport Oreca on top, with a new lap record of 1.35.701, beating Ben Hanley’s record from qualifying last year (1.35.837).  A strong run from Arjun Maini in the #43 RLR Msport put him into second place, 0.114 seconds behind the leading Oreca. The #26 G-Drive Aurus 01 completed the top 3 with Norman Nato quickest in 1.36.035.  The Oreca’s 07 occupied the top 5 this morning, series debutant Renger Van Der Zande on fourth place in the #21 Dragonspeed and Andrea Pizzitola in the #25 Algarve Pro Racing fifth fastest. 

Best of the rest were both Gibson powered Dallara P217’s. Ben Barnicoat (1.36.795) in the #45 Carlin beating Giorgio Sernagiotto in the #47 Cetilar Racing machine with 0.346 seconds. United Autosports had the fastest Ligier with them, Filipe Albuquerque finishing on P11 with the #22 Ligier, 1.6 seconds off the leader’s pace.

LMP3

2 Norma’s were on top again in LMP3, with this time the #9 Realteam Racing M30 of David Droux on top of the timesheets.  His best time of 1.46.531 was 0.036 seconds faster than the inevitable Damiano Fioravanti in the #10 Oregon Team Norma. The #11 Eurointernational Ligier of Mikkel Jensen was the quickest non-Norma chassis again in 1.46.962. Wayne Boyd in the #2 United Autosports Ligier and Lucas Légeret in the #19 M.Racing Norma rounded out the top 5. 

LMGTE

In LMGTE Matteo Cairoli was the fastest man on track this morning. The Italian was really in the mix with the LMP3 cars, setting a best laptime of 1.47.098 in his #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche.  Another track record on this session, and just over 0.4 seconds faster than last year’s track record set by Ricardo Pera in the Ebimotors Porsche (1.4.493). Cairoli set the 25th overall time, with only 5 LMP3 cars faster than his Porsche. 

Jörg Bergmeister was quick again in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche, finishing the session in P2, 0.346 seconds behind Cairoli. Alessandro Pier Guidi set the third time this morning in the #51 Luzich Racing Ferrari, followed by Matt Griffin in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari and Fabio Babini in the #80 Ebimotors Porsche. 

Free Practice 2 results 

The 4 Hours of Monza are set to start tomorrow at noon local time.

Kristof Vermeulen. 

FIA WEC: 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Qualifying report

A dry session with some sunshine turned to rain by the time the Le Mans Prototypes drew close to the end of their session.  As has become the norm it was Toyota leading the way in the top category the #7 of Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, the former setting a 1:53.812 which Conway proceeded to beat with a Spa WEC qualifying record of 1:53.683. The #8 Toyota almost half a second adrift on a combined average (1:54.243) secured the front row.   

“Nice lap, Kamui was quick in FP3 and again in Qualifying so the pressure was on, it was all looking good and the car was pretty hooked up so I was happy to cross the line a little bit quicker.” Conway said. “A good gap to the sister car. All credit to the guys on car#7 all weekend. Tomorrow is going to with conditions so its good to start in the right position. “

Toyota confirmed to SCG that the two cars/6 drivers are free to race each other as long as there is no contact with each other. Given the changeable conditions forecast for tomorrow we could well see some drama.

 

Third on the grid goes to the #17 SMP Racing BR / AER, boosted by its turbos and without restriction they were closer to Toyota pace but still half a second down (1:54.711) on the second place car.  Fourth is the normally aspirated Gibson Tech powered Rebellion #3 a further nine-tenths behind the SMP #17.  So despite the numbers in LMP1 there is still the prospect  of some good inter-team battles going on. 

#4 ByKolles effectively brought an early end to the session with a roll to a stop on pit straight, with the session Red Flagged with 5mins remaining.  The session did re-start, but as track conditions had deteriorated only the #50 Larbre Competition Ligier of Nick Boulle ventured out to no effect.

LMP2

The non-championship entry of G-Drive Racing #26 took the category pole with the Aurus 01 version of the Oreca 07. Jean-Eric Vergne clocked a lap within 3-thousands of a sec of breaking the 2-minute  barrier and Job Van Uitert (2:01.346) combined to set the average, a 2:00.674, breaking the previous LMP2 lap record.

“The car was absolutely amazing out there today. I felt that it was one of the best laps I ever drove in my life,” claimed Vergne. “Breaking the 2-minute barrier would have been nice, but it was more the gap we pulled on the other guys thanks to the lap that Job, all in all a very good qualifying.”

Without the non-championship interloper, we would have had a  Jackie Chan DC Racing category front row, with the might of #38 conquering its sister car the Fortune Cat #37. They were respectively six and nine-tenths behind the average of #26.  Speaking with Sam Hignett (Team Principal at JCDC Racing) he was content that they as championship would still get the pole point and suggested that the wet FP2 had indicated good pace for teams like them running the Dunlop wet weather tyres (#26, 28, 37 & 38). We ran it past our colleagues @theBPillar, and nothing indicative on pure pace, but perhaps we are looking at wear and sustainability over an extended wet duration.. Time (and race conditions) will likely tell us more.. 

Lets just hope they don’t need snow chains! 


A brief note of commendation to the squad in the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07.  Following the loss of sponsorship for their Malaysian predecessors, David Heinemeier-Hansson, Jordan King and Will Stevens have shown themselves to be a strong and competitive trio from the get-go. Lets hope they stay out of trouble and achieve further success this weekend.

GTE-Pro – Priaulx and Tincknell Fly!

The #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK team took pole in GTE Pro as Andy Priaulx and Harry Ticknell set a combined time of 2:12.885 record GTE-PRO pace once more, but it was Andy Priaulx who demonstrated that hooking up a lap was very much a trick for the old dog and not just the young pups like ‘H’!  The #97 Aston Martin Racing AMR crew of Maxime Martin and Alexander Lynn looked to be on for pole but were beaten out by a mere 0.067sec around the 7-kilometre Spa countryside.

Talking about his lap of 2:12.797 Andy Priaulx said “When you get to my age you can’t remember what happened yesterday! It was a nice special experience, Harry nailed a fantastic 12.9, I got back in the car, I knew I had to be on my A game to try and better that, it just came together really well… Those moments when you find that sweet spot in your driving and you give everything and it works, I’m just enjoying every moment, I look in the mirror and ask myself when am I going to stop racing and moments like that, I just want to carry on. Its still in me and I’m really enjoying it.”  

The BoP calculator is clearly at the top of its game around Spa as it is the #82 Team BMW MTEK BMW M8 GTE of da Costa/Farfus in third just 0.092 from pole themselves. As mentioned in our GTE Free Practice Report, it is good to see the men from Munich getting some pace under their belt, and it will hopefully bode well for a fascinating and variety packed race on Saturday.

Porsche and Ferrari seem to have gone off the boil, though wet weather conditions could certainly make the RSRs a strong proposition on raceday. Of course the cynic in the paddock may see this as gamesmanship a month prior to the double-points season finale, but we could never suggest that was a motivation to hold back flat out pace at this time, oh no never…  Both were some 1.2 seconds off the pole time, enough said. Lets see what the race brings.

GTE-AM

The sole casualty of the session was a lurid spin at Raidillon for the #70 MR Racing Ferrari 488 GTE. Ishikawa-san was exceptionally lucky to not do considerably more damage than he did, all of which is understood to be repairable. Indeed he recovered the car under its own power to the pit garage where we suspect a man with a coal shovel and bucket was required to empty the cockpit! The car took no further part in the session.

Pole for the very first time went to TF Sport #90 Aston Martin Vantage with a last lap effort from Salih Yoluc pipping the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR. Yoluc and team-mate Charlie Eastwood set an average time 2:16.061 just 0.110 ahead of Cairoli/Roda in the RSR. 

“It was really amazing, its the first time I have been able to do a qualifying in WEC, so to go out and get pole was great,” said Eastwood. “In terms of the lap again it was one of the best I have done in the GTE car… We have been very close to it a lot of times this year, and Salih at the end to go quickest -AM driver to give us pole overall.” 

Third in category was #56 Project 1 Porsche RSR with a time of 2:16.390. The remainder were all in the 2:17 with the exclusion of the #86 Gulf Racing RSR (2:19.225) and the aforementioned #70 MR Racing Ferrari which failed to set a time.

Nick Holland - Sportscarglobal.com

Qualifying results

ELMS: Norman Nato and G-Drive on pole for the first race of the season

Defending Champions G-Drive Racing will start in pole position for tomorrows 4 Horus of Le Castellet after a thrilling end of the 15 minute qualifying session.  Last year's race winner Norman Nato put the #26 G-Drive Aurus 01 on pole just ahead of Paul Loup Chatin in the #28 IDEC Sport. 

With another lap record for the LMP2 class, the third one this week and the second one today, the Frenchman secured pole position in 1.40.052, just 25 thousands of a second faster than Paul Loup Chatin in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca.  What better way to start the season with a pole position in the first race for the re-badged Aurus 01 ?  A top result too for Nato who replaces Jean-Eric Vergne who is racing in Formula E this weekend. 

Paul Loup Chatin secured the second spot on the front row of the grid, ahead of Alex Brundle who had a very strong outing in the #32 United Autosports Ligier, splitting up the top 4 Oreca’s.  His best laptime of 1.40.293 was 0.241 second off Nato’s pole time, but a big improvement from the times the Ligiers set earlier this week(end). Rounding out the top 5 were Nico Lapierre in the #37 Cool Racing Oreca and Ben Hanley in the #21 Dragonspeed. 

In LMP3, Oregon Team secured their first ever pole position in the championship thanks to Damiani Fioravanti who has been quick all week here at Paul Ricard.  After a session which saw several drivers on top of the timetable, the Italian took pole position in his final lap with a 1.49.686.  Matthieu Lahaye had been on provisional pole until the dying moments of the session in the #17 Ultimate Norma, but eventually lost out 0.128 seconds to Fioravanti.

In an ultimate effort at the end of the session, Lucas Légeret got up to third position in the #19 M.Racing Norma, despite being briefly held up a bit by another car. 

(Dempsey) Proton Competition seemed to be on its way to lock out the front row with Thomas Preining in the #88 ahead of Matteo Cairoli in the #77 Porsche 911 RSR.  However, when Alessandro Pier Guidi dived 0.030 seconds under Preining’s  time in the final minute of the session it seemed like the experienced Italian would snatch the pole away from Porsche and hand it to Luzich Racing in their first race in the series.  

Matteo Cairoli did save the best for last though.  In his final lap, he went pushed his Porsche round the track in 1.52.499, shaving off an extra 0.273 seconds off Pier Guidi’s provisional pole time and giving Proton Competition its first pole of the season. 

The 4 Hours of Le Castellet will start at 12h30 tomorrow, and will be broadcasted live on the ELMS website and social media feeds.  

Qualifying results LMP2

Qualifying results LMP3

Qualifying results GTE

Kristof Vermeulen. 

FIA WEC: Lap record and pole for Toyota, Perez Companc crashes out of qualifying

A new lap record and pole position for Toyota yesterday evening as Fernando Alonso put in a staggering 1.40.124 at the end of the session.  Alonso even claimed being able to go faster and a 1.39 could have been possible. The previous qualifying record at Sebring was held by Marco Werner in the Audi R10 back in 2007 in 1.44.974. The quickest race lap so far has been set by Sebastien Bourdais in a Peugeot 908 in 2009.  The Toyota TS050 Hybrid literally trashed both records, shaving off almost 4 seconds from the previous qualifying record.

The #3 Rebellion R13 of Thomas Laurent and Gustavo Menezes was “best of the rest”, claiming third place on the grid ahead of the #17 SMP Racing  of Egor Orudzhev and Stéphane Sarrazin. Orudzhev was the quickest of the non-hybrid drivers, his best time of 1.41919 also remarkable faster than the previous record of the Audi’s.

In LMP2 Jackie Chan DC Racing swept out the front row, putting the competition almost a second behind them. Stephane Richelmi continued his strong performance and clinched pole position with Ho Pin Tung in an average time of 1.47.558.  The #37 Oreca of Will Stevens and David Heinemeier Hansson was 0.650 seconds behind. Nico Lapierre and Andre Negrao secured third spot on the grid with the #36 Signatech Alpine.

The GTE session was red flagged with 7 minutes and 40 seconds to go when Luis Perez-Companc went hard into the barriers at the braking zone of Turn 7.  His #61 Clearw ater Ferrari suddenly broke out to the left under braking, going hard into the barriers and sliding down the track.  Perez Companc got out of the car by himself, but the damage to the car seems severe so it’s unclear whether the Ferrari will be repairable to appear on the grid tomorrow morning.

With 2 minutes to go, the #63 Corvette of Andy Garcia and Jan Magnussen appeared on top of the timetable, but it eventually fell back to fifth place.  Garcia however set the quickest time of all GTE drivers.  Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen secured pole in the #92 Porsche, beating both Ford GT’s.  The #67 of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell will start from seconds position (+ 0.115s), followed by the #66 of Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla.

Matt Campbell and Christian Ried secured pole position in the Am class with their #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche in a combined time of 1.59.790. Egidio Perfetti and Jorg Bergmeister made it a front row lockout for Porsche, a great result for Team Project 1 after their misfortune last Sunday. Another great recovery from the #98 Aston Martin which got fixed by the mechanics after Dalla Lana’s hefty crash at turn 17 and took third place in qualifying.

The final 1 hour practice session yesterday afternoon was run in (very) hot conditions, which are also expected for tomorrow during the 1000 miles of Sebring. Although temperatures drop a little at night, it tends to get very humid after sunset, not really improving driving conditions.

The 1 hour session saw quite some incidents with the Toyota #8 and #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari have a short excursion into the grass and the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca spinning round at the exit of turn 5 halfway the session.  Paul Dalla Lana had a big accident in his #98 Aston Martin, when he was caught by surprise by one of the Ford GT’s and crashed into the barriers in turn 17. Dalla Lana stepped out unharmed but the car’s left side was heavily damaged.  The Aston Martin mechanics however managed to get the car back in order for the evening qualifying session. 

Jose Maria Lopez went quickest in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid in 1.41.448, with Kazuki Nakajima on second place in the #8 sister car.  The gap with the non-hybrid cars was just over 1.5 seconds, Stéphane Sarrazin setting the third fastest time in his #17 SMP Racing BR1. In LMP2 it was Stéphane Richelmi who put the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca back on top again with a time of 1.47.716    Despite their problems in last nights session, Nick de Vries was very quick again in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Dallara, putting it on second place, just 0.119 seconds behind Richelmi. No change in the top 3 compared to yesterday’s night session with Nico Lapierre back in third place on the Signatech Alpine Matmut.

The LMGTE Pro class was very competitive again, all cars setting a fastest time within 0.635 seconds.  Andy Priaulx got quickest in the #67 Ford GT with a fastest time of 1.57.730. Alex Lynn followed closely in the #97 Aston Martin (+ 0.062), with Harry Tincknell in the second Ford GT right on his heels.  Dempsey-Proton Racing dominated the LMGTE Am class with both Porsches; Matt Campbell going quickest in the #77 (1.58.554) with Matteo Cairoli 0.706 seconds behind him in the #88 in second place.  Rounding out the top 3 was Ben Barker in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche.  

The start of the 1000 Miles of Sebring (or maximum 8 hours) will be given this afternoon at 16h local time here in Florida, which is 20h UK time and 21h in Central Europe. You will find coverage on Radio Le Mans globally and the WEC has done a great job in getting race coverage scheduled in most geographies (check local listings) as well as removing geo-blocking to its app in the United States.

Free Practice 3 results

Qualifying results LMP1 & LMP2
Qualifying results GTE

ELMS: Duqueine Engineering on pole for a thrilling season finale in Portimao.

Nicolas Jamin claimed pole position this afternoon in a sunny but rather windy Portimao.  The Frenchman set his best laptime of 1.33.197 in the dying seconds of the session, giving Duqueine Engineering their first pole position in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series.  Will Stevens looked to have set the fastest lap in the #23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier when the chequered flag fell, but ultimately came 0.060 seconds short. 

Filipe Albuquerque will start from the second row tomorrow with the third fastest time, 1.33.362 in the #22 United Autosports Ligier.  He will have Paul Loup Chatin next to him in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca who was quickest in this morning’s practice session.  2018 champions G-Drive Racing will start from fifth place. 

© ELMS/Jakob Ebrey Photorgaphy

Lucas Légeret scored his first pole position in the European Le Mans Series and the second this season for the #19 Norma of M.Racing - YMR.  In another nailbiting session, Légeret’s time of 1.40.715 was just 0.061 seconds quicker than Mathieu Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate Norma.  Légeret set his time just before the #11 Eurointernational of Giorgio Mondini spun off at turn 5, causing a red flag. When the session was restarted, the top times weren’t improved anymore. 

Mikkel Jensen was the quickest of the Ligiers in third place in 1.40.999, almost 0.3 seconds behind pole position. Jensen will have another Norma next to him on the second row of the grid with the #8 of DKR Engineering of Marvin Klein.  All three contenders for the championship struggled for pace this afternoon.  Job Van Uitert in the leading RLR MSport Ligier didn’t get further than 7th place on the grid, almost a second off the pace of Légeret. Their main rivals in the #6 360 Racing Ligier and #3 United Autosport will start even further down the order, on 10th and 15th place. The race to the championship will be very tight and interesting tomorrow.

JMW Motorsport edges one point closer to the leading #88 Proton Porsche in the championship by claiming their second pole position of the season.  Miguel Molina put the #66 Ferrari on the top spot with a laptime of 1.42.765 and closed the gap to the leading Porsche down to 10,5 points.  Dennis Olsen in the #77 Proton Competition Porsche pipped Matteo Cairoli from a front row start with 0.026 seconds.  His time of 1.43.073 was just over three tenths of a second slower than Molina. Matt Griffin in the #55 Ferrari will start from fourth tomorrow.  As in the LMP3 class, anything is possible in the race tomorrow … 

Qualifying Results LMP2
Qualifying Results LMP3
Qualifying Results LMGTE

Free Practice 2

This morning in the second free practice session, Paul Loup Chatin set the pace in his #28 IDEC Sport Oreca 07.  His laptime of 1.33.097 was 0.227 seconds faster than Nico Lapierre in the #21 Dragonspeed. Another Oreca completed the morning session’s top 3, Jean-Eric Vergne setting the third quickest time in 1.33.614. 

Behind the 3 leading Oreca’s were 4 Ligiers, lead by local driver Filipe Albuqerque in the #22 United Autosports. Will Stevens in the #23 Panis Barthez Competition JSP2 and Will Owen in the second United Autosports LMP2 rounded out the top 6.  The leading Dallara was the #49 High Class Racing of Anders Fjordbach in ninth place. 

Lucas Légeret headed the LMP3 category in his #19 M.Racing-YMR Norma.  The Swiss driver posting a laptime of 1.40.145, holding off Mikkel Jensen in the #9 AT Racing Ligier with just over 0.4 seconds.  Third fastest was Giorgio Mondini in the #11 Eurointernational Ligier. 

In LMGTE it was Porsche - Ferrari - Porsche this morning. Matteo Cairoli quickest in his #88 Proton 911 RSR (1.41.786) ahead of Miguel Molina in the #66 JMW Ferrari and Riccardo Pera in the #80 Ebimotors Porsche.  

Apart from 2 short full course yellows - one early in the session when the #18 M.Racing - YMR Ligier went off in turn 3 and a second one mid session after the #47 Cetilar Villorba Corse ended up next to the track.  

The 4 Hours of Portimao will be green flagged tomorrow at 12h30 local time. 

FP2 Results

Kristof Vermeulen

Pictures: Kristof Vermeulen & Jellybaby.Media

FIA WEC: Pole postion for Toyota and Aston Martin in Fuji

After a dramatic qualifying session, Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid claimed pole position for their home race in Fuji tomorrow. 

© Joao Filipe/AdrenalMedia.com

Initially, the #7 Toyota of Jose Maria Lopes and Kamui Kobayashi earned pole position when Sebastian Buemi saw his best time being deleted due to track limits violation. But when Lopes entered the pitlane too fast after his flying lap, his only laptime was deleted, forcing them to the back end of the LMP1 grid. An average laptime of 1.23.648 put the #8 on pole then for tomorrow’s race. 

© Rebellion Racing

Quickest of the non-Hybrids and on front row tomorrow was the #1 Rebellion R13 of André Lotterer and Neel Jani with an average time of 1.24.359, 0.711 seconds shy of the Toyota. The #3 sister car of Thomas Laurent and Gustavo Menezes will be third on the grid and ova the #17 SMP Racing BR1 of Egor Ordhzev and Stephane Sarrazin next to them. Row three will be filled by the #11 SMP Racing and the #4 ByKolles Eens CLM/P1 while Dragonspeed will have the second Toyota next to them on the fourth row of the grid. 

After the free practice sessions, the non-hybrid LMP1’s have been given an extra EoT break in a new attempt to make them more competitive against the Toyota’s. The normally aspirated cars (Rebellion, Dragonspeed) now have an increased fuel weight per stint (55,5 kg vs 54,4 kg), the turbo powered LMP1’s (ByKolles, SMP Racing) also got an increased amount of fuel up to 50,3 kg. Also the maximum amount of petrol energy per lap has been increased for all non hybrid cars. 

© Joao Filipe/AdrenalMedia.com

In the LMP2 class, Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez scored the first pole position in the FIA WEC for Dragonspeed. Their average laptime of 1.28.906 in the #31 Oreca held off both Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca’s; the #38 of Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry and the #37 of Jazeman Jafaar and Nabil Jeffri.  Championship leaders Signatech Alpine were fourth fastest, TDS Racing completing the top 5 for Oreca once again.  Racing Team Nederland (Dallara) and Larbre Competition (Ligier) took sixth and seventh place. 

© Aston Martin Racing

Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen claimed pole position in the LMGTE Pro class with their #95 Aston Martin,  the first pole position for the new Aston Martin Vantage. With an average laptime of 1.36.093, the “Dane train” outpaced the surprising #82 BMW M8 GTE of Tom Blomqvist and Antonio Felix Da Costa (1.36.275). The second Aston Martin (#97) of Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn took the third sport on the grid and will have the #67 Ford GT of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell next to them.  Rounding out the top 5 was the first Ferrari, #71 of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird. The Porsches who had been top runners in all practice sessions had a bit a disappointing session, only managing 8th and 10th place on the grid. Qualifying in the Pro class was very close again with all ten cars in just over a second.   

© Porsche

Dempsey Proton Competition scored its second pole in the Super season with the #88  of Matteo Cairoli and Satoshi Hoshino. Quite a debut for the 57 year old Hoshino in the FIA WEC. Their combined average laptime of  1.38.366 was just 0.064 seconds quicker than Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana in the #98 Aston Martine Vantage. Third fastest was the second Proton Porsche of Matt Campbell and Christian Ried. 

The start for the 6 Hours of Fuji will be given at 11h00 on Sunday morning local time, that’s 4h00 CET so an early morning wake up call if you want to watch the race in Europe (or a short night if you’ve survived Petit Le Mans on Saturday evening/night). 

Friday practice sessions

© Toyota Gazoo Racing

Toyota also set yesterday’s pace with Fernando Alonso (#7) on top of both free practice sessions. Alonso set a best time of 1.23.973 in the afternoon session, just over a second faster than Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 TS050 Hybrid. 

All laptimes in the second session were significantly faster as the morning session was driven on a damp and drying track. Issues with some of the kers disrupted both practice sessions though, both sessions being red flagged for some time to deal with damage to some kerbs which had to be removed. The quickest non-hybrid LMP1 was the #3 Rebellion of Thomas Laurent.  Despite the new BoP which was introduced for the race weekend in Fuji, the gap with the leading Toyota was still just over 1.7 seconds (1.25.697). Jenson Button put his #11 SMP Racing BR1 on fourth place. 

© TDS Racing

In LMP2, Matthieu Vaxiviere set the quickest time over both 90 minute sessions with a 1.30.630.  Vaxiviere’s time was the only one from the first practice session which wasn’t improved in the afternoon session. Freshly crowned Le Mans champions Signatech Alpine Matmut were second fastest, Andre Negrao just 0.050 seconds off the TDS Oreca. Third quickest was Silverstone winner Ho-Pin Tung in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing.  Nyck De Vries in the #29 Racing Team Nederland was the fastest non-Oreca driver in sixth place overall. 

© Aston Martin Racing

Nicki Thiim in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage was the man to beat in LMGTE Pro yesterday. His time of 1.37.659 was 0.162 seconds faster than Harry Tincknell in the #67 Ford GT who held off Davide Rigon in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari.  Both Porsches followed in fourth and fifth. Despite their BoP adjustments, the BMW’s didn’t get any further than 8th and 10th on Friday, although all GTE Pro cars were within a margin of 0.845 seconds. 

© Joao Filipe/AdrenalMedia.com

Dempsey-Proton racing set the pace in the LMGTE Am class, with the #77 of Matteo Cairoli quickest in 1.38.989 ahead of Matt Campbell in the #88 sister car. The #61 Ferrari F488 GTE of Keita Sawa was third fastest in the shadow of Mount Fuji, leading the two other Ferrari’s of Spirit of Race and MR Racing. 

Qualifying results LMP1/LMP2
Qualifying results GTE

Results Free Practice 1
Results Free Practice 2
Results Free Practice 3


Kristof Vermeulen.

ELMS: Vergne takes pole for G-Drive and closes in on the title

After a thrilling final minute in today’s qualifying session, Jean-Eric Vergne scored championship leaders G-Drive’s first pole position this season. 

© Bob Ten Kley

It seemed like Filipe Albuquerque was about to clinch first spot on the grid tomorrow when he drove a 2.00.912 in the final minute of the session.  Vergne responded however and set a stunning 2.00.735 to take pole position for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. An incredible lap, 1.7 seconds faster than last season’s pole time.  The second row of the grid will be filled by the #29 Duqueine Engineering of Nelson Panciatici and the #28 IDEC Sport of Paul Loup Chatin. Rounding out the top 5 is the #31 APR - Rebellion Racing Oreca of Gustavo Menezes. 

© Bob Ten Kley

Pole position gives the G-Drive crew an extra point in the championship, increasing their lead over the #24 Racing Engineering Oreca to 35 points. Roman Rusinov & co will be out for the championship tomorrow and their fourth win in a row this season. 

© Bob Ten Kley

Mathieu Lahaye scored the third pole position for Ultimate in the LMP3 class with the #17 Norma M30. With a laptime of 2.13.699, the Frenchman outpaced  Mattia Drudi in the #11 Eurointernational with only 0.065 seconds. Ross Kaiser put the #6 360 Racing Ligier on third position (2.13.874), followed by Colin Noble in the #7 Ecurie Ecosse Ligier.  Championship leaders RLR Msport will start from fifth place. Once again, the LMP3 qualifying session was very close with the first 10 cars within a second.

Porsche continued to dominate the LMGTE class, with all three Porsches taking the top spots in the session. Once again Matteo Cairoli was the fastest man on track, scoring pole position with a laptime of 2.15.654 in the #88 Proton Competition 911 RSR.  Dennis Olsen took second place in 2.16.354, exactly 0.7 seconds behind Cairoli in the #77 sister car.  Riccardo Pera set the #80 Ebimotors Porsche on third place for tomorrow’s race.  Best of the Ferrari’s was Miguel Molina in the JMW F488 GTE, but already over 2 seconds behind the leading Porsche. 

Free Practice 2

Earlier today the G-Drive crewe took the top spot in the second and final free practice session at Francorchamps. With 2 red flags, a full course yellow and a mid-session splash of rain, it was quite an entertaining 90 minutes.

© Bob Ten Kley

Vergne set a quickest time of 2.02.348, followed by Nicolas Jamin in the #29 Duqueine Engineering Oreca in 2.02.348.  Paul Loup Chatin (#28 IDEC Sport) and Gustavo Menezes (#31 APR Rebellion) followed close to make it a top 4 Oreca finish again. Fifth fastest and first Ligier was Hugo De Sadeleer in the #32 United Autosports. James Allen was the biggest victim of the weather conditions wen he went off at the pif-paf and into the barriers with the #40 Graff run G-Drive Oreca 07. 

© Bob Ten Kley

Job Van Uitert was fastest in the championship leading RLR MSport Ligier JSP3, in a time of 2.14.423. Matthieu Lahaye followed close as his #17 Ultimate Norma came up to pace, just 0.066 seconds behind the Dutchman. Monza winner Mattia Drudi set the third fastest time in his #11 Eurointernational Ligier.  Rounding out the top 5 were the #4 Cool Racing and the #2 United Autosports Ligiers. 

© Bob Ten Kley

In LMGTE the Porsche domination continued Dennis Olsen now quickest in the #77 Proton Competition in 2.19.290. Ricardo Pera in the Ebimotors 911 and Giorgio Roda Jr in the second Proton Porsche rounded out the top three. JMW once again was the quickest Ferrari this morning in 2.20.016 set by Alex MacDowall. 

Today's results: 

Free Practice 2

LMP2 Qualifs 

LMP3 Qualifs

LMGTE Qualifs

RACE UPDATE !! 

Due to the weather forecast and for the safety of all, the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps start will be given at 10:45 tomorrow morning.

Kristof Vermeulen

Pictures: Bob Ten Kley