Felipe Albuquerque sealed pole position during a thrilling qualifying session at Imola this morning. The Portuguese works Audi driver scorched to a brilliant pole position by a clear 0.684s. It sealed the second pole for Jota Sport in as many races and also followed up their qualifying success from 2013, when then driver Oliver Turvey also started from the top-spot.
Albuquerque’s 1m33.974s lap with just four minutes of the twenty minute session left was simply a work of art and left the rest of the LMP2 field gasping. Initially it seemed to be a three-way battle as Signatech (Panciatici) and Thiriet by TDS (Gommendy) traded best times but Albuquerque had the final decisive say with his sublime lap to sound a clear warning to his challengers in the Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan.
“It is always nice to be on pole and especially here it will be important because it is a long race because the traffic here is quite heavy,” said the Portuguese after the session. “Harry (Tincknell) will start the race and I think we are in a strong position for this afternoon.”
And what about the traffic and how to manage the phalanx of Ferrari 458 Italia LMGTE cars?
“It will not be easy. They (the Ferrari’s in particular) actually pull away from us on the straights. There will be no chance in to Tamburello which is usually the best opportunity,” said the Portuguese. “So, it will be exciting for the spectators for sure because there will be some close calls I am sure. They have their own races to consider so it will be a tough prospect for all the LMP2 cars.”
Lining up alongside the Jota Sport are last year’s victors – Thiriet by TDS Racing, after Tristan Gommendy peaked with a 1m34.685s lap. The Frenchman though is happy with the condition of his tyres as the team look to protect and enhance their 2014 championship lead after the success at the Silverstone 4 Hours last month. Gommendy was in line to improve slightly on his time during his third qualifying lap but had to abort it after he slightly outbraked himself at Variante Alta.
On the face of it third place for the Signatech Alpine squad is nothing remarkable but put in to the context of what they experienced in the opening round at Silverstone the team are more than happy to be lining up in 3rd place this afternoon. Panciatici improved on each of his two ‘quickies’ this morning and despite encountering some traffic the Frenchman is confident ahead of the race this afternoon.
On the outside of row two is the Murphy Prototype Oreca-Nissan which was qualified by Nathanael Berthon. The Frenchman set a best of 1m34.882s in his first ever qualifying run and put the team in a reasonable position for the race this afternoon.
Christian Klien was slightly disappointed to end the qualifying session in 5th and the New Blood by Morand Morgan-Judd shares the third row with another Judd powered car, the Race Performance Oreca which was qualified by Franck Mailleux but never really threatened the front runners.
Like the LMP2 class the hotly contested LMGTE division saw a clear pace setter in the shape of Matteo Cressoni in the #81 Kessel Racing Ferrari. Cressoni set a series of blistering laps early on in the GT session to lead Andrea Bertolini’s SMP Racing 458 Italia by three tenths of a second.
“I am a little surprised because yesterday was not perfect and we had some issues meaning we missed one session,” said the impressive Kessel Racing driver. “I am really happy with the Kessel team because they did a fantastic job to get the car ready.”
Third place in the LMGTE category was the first AF Corse run Ferrari, the #54 entry driven by Marco Cioci. The burly Italian muscled the 458 around the Imola track, using every available kerb and patch of grass in an entertaining effort.
The session was stopped to recover Pierre Kaffer’s spun AT Racing Ferrari at Acque Minerale after eight minutes of running. There were also offs for Daniel Zampieiri’s JMW Ferrari and Giacomo Piccini’s Kessel car. While the latter recovered to place 4th at the chequered flag, Zampieiri’s session was ended although with minimal damage to the car after an almighty lock up and subsequent kerb abuse at Variante Alta.
In the GTC class there was a pleasant surprise as young Dane Mikkel Mac ripped up the formbook to capture pole position. The Formula Racing driver hooked up an impressive lap to set a 1m42.082s best. Again the margin to the next best car – the #95 AF Corse of Adrien De Leener and Cedric Sbirrazzouli was wide, 0.35 seconds.
“I had my first test in a GT3 car earlier this year at this circuit but only 20-laps,” said Mac. “I enjoyed my laps yesterday just learning the circuit more and more. Then I got a clear lap and we have pole position so I am very happy indeed.”
The second round of the 2014 ELMS season kicks-off at 14.00cet and you can follow all the action live by following www.twitter.com/dscracelive
