A pair of exciting 20 minute qualifying sessions saw Ferraris dominate the GT proceedings and Nissan power to the fore in LMP2 (and of course in LMP3!)
The GTs were first up and no fewer than six of the eight cars led the GTE session at some point, Matt Griffin would take the pole position in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari but it was far from straightforward for the Irishman who lost two quick lap times to track limits violations, the circuit proving rather trickily ‘green’ after a big overnight thunderstorm.
A stop for new rubber (together with several other top runners) saw a rejuvenated Griff out and grabbing the top slot with a 1:29.692 from an almost equally rapid Raffaele Giammaria in the sister #51 458, the gap just 22 thousandths of a second, the pair leading a Ferrari 1,2,3,4,5.
Griffin was very complementary post session about progress made with the Dunlop rubber. “It was quick and very consistent, a very impressive job by them to be very close to the pole pace from the Michelins we had last year who have years and years of GTE experience.”
Mickel Mac in the #60 Formula Racing Ferrari had led the session, as too had Alessandro Pier Guidi (#56 AF Corse) and Sam Tordoff (#66 JMW).
The early session leader, Richard Lietz (#88 Proton Porsche) had to settle for 6th fastest, best of the rest ahead of Andy Priaulx in a rejuvenated Marc VDS BMW that was simply short on track time after its fly by wire throttle woes yesterday.
Adam Carroll propped up the times with the #86 Porsche never getting a clean run.
In GTC it was again a Ferrari dominated affair with Marco Cioci looking to have seciured pole until the dying minutes in the #63 AF Corse Ferrari. Francesco Castelacci though had other plans and as Cioci pitted his fellow Italian pushed again, found track space and popped in a 1:31.101, good enough for a 2 tenths gap at the flag.
Franck Perrera managed third fastest in the TDS BMW.
Next up were the LMPs and again it was a 20 minute session with no shortage of changes in leader.
With several of the top runners waiting before they ran the early minutes saw Julien Schell battling away with the SMP Racing pair. Maurizio Mediani in the #27 BR01 and Mikhail Aleshin in the #37.
Nic Jonsson was next to top the times in the #40 Krohn Ligier Judd but by now the big hitters were winding up to their first assaults on the order.
Harry Tincknell was instantly on the pace and took a full second out of the earlier provisional pole in just two flying laps, down to 1:23.0
Tristan Gommendy was looking pacey but never really got his ultimate lap together, he would end the session fourth behind an impressive Aleshin.
That left the pole battle to Tincknell fending off Nathaniel Berthon, charging as ever in the #48 Murphy Oreca, it was hotting up nicely with the Frenchman looking to improve when a red flag interrupted proceedings after Gary Hirsch stumbled at T1, the #41 Greaves Gibson into the tyre wall on the exit of the corner after a very odd looking moment after the apex for the Swiss. Front end damage for the #41 (but Hirsch unharmed) was the result.
That saw the clock stop with 5 minutes to go and when green flag running resumed Tincknell responded to the obvious threat from Berthon and was back out immediately – Berthon waited, and seemed to block Tincknell, by now on a flying lap on his own out lap. Both were lucky to avoid James Winslow who had a moment ahead of them in the #25 Algarve Pro Ligier with Tincknell backing off, giving himself some room and putting in another flier, a further improvement to a 1:22.983 that the Oreca man couldn’t match.
“We’re in good shape here I think,” said Tincknell post session. “All three of us are quick, Simon is feeling comfortable in the car and was in the top ten times overall yesterday. We’re hoping for a good, fast and clean race.”
In LMP3 there was good news as the #5 Villorba Corse car was wheeled out to take part in the session after yesterday’s shunt. It wouldn’t feature in the pole battle, short on set-up time, with the pole going again to young Charlie Robertson in the #3 Team LNT Ginetta Nissan. An early lap in the 1:30s looked good enough but a late session push saw the young Scot into the 1:29s – 1:29.851, a further welcome edge as Konstantin Calko improved in the #15 SVK by Speed Factory Ginetta late in the session to leapfrog the best effort of Mark Shulzhitskiy in the #2 LNT car.
Charlie Robertson: “It’s great to come to a track where Chris (Hoy) has plenty of track knowledge, (Hoy finished on the podium here last weekend in the Radical Euro Masters). It was a first for me on Thursday when we did a track walk and he was showing me the lines! We’re confident for the race but this is a track where traffic will be particularly tricky, long straights and slow corners will make dealing with the GTEs potentially difficult. We need to be 100% clean.”
GG
