TDS Racing’s strong run of European Le Mans Series form continued in qualifying for the Paul Ricard round on Saturday, as Mathias Beche put the Oreca-Nissan that’s won the last two rounds on pole for Sunday’s four-hour event. It thus becomes the first entry to start from P1 in the ELMS on more than one occasion in 2016.
The Swiss driver’s 1:47.033 was nearly half a second quicker than the next-best effort, produced by Nicolas Lapierre in the #21 Dragonspeed Oreca (above). Third in qualifying was Nathanael Berthon for Greaves Motorsport, ahead of Stefano Coletti in the sole SMP BR01.
Andrea Pizzitola in the Algarve Pro Ligier and Kevin Ceccon in the Murphy Prototypes Oreca make up the third row of the grid, while the championship-leading G-Drive Gibson (above) had an uncharacteristically quiet session to wind up ninth-fastest at the flag.
LMP3: Tockwith starts strong
Having moved up from running an Audi in the GT3 Le Mans Cup, Tockwith Motorsport’s debut in the ELMS LMP3 class has got off to a very positive start, with Nigel Moore taking pole for Sunday in the #26 car he shares with Philip Hanson.
Moore was nearly eight tenths clear of his closest competitor, Enzo Guibbert in the #9 Graff Racing Ligier, while Simon Gachet was third-fastest in the class in the #16 Panis-Barthez car.
Alex Brundle completed the top four in the championship-leading #2 United Autosports machine, but the Leeds-based team’s other car (the #3 driven by Mark Patterson) didn’t take part in qualifying, as it needed an engine change after FP2. Ross Kaiser meanwhile qualified fifth for 360 Racing.
GTE: Turner powers to pole
Darren Turner broke the Ferrari free-practice stranglehold by putting the Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin on pole in the GTE class.
An extremely tight session saw the seven of the class’ eight cars that put in a lap covered by a hair over a second, with a yet-to-be-confirmed issue keeping the #88 Proton Porsche of Gianluca Roda in the garage for the duration.
Ferraris locked out positions two to six, with Alessandro Pier Guidi in the championship-leading #56 AT Racing machine booking the other spot on the front row. Matt Griffin (#55 AF Corse) was third, ahead of Andrea Bertolini in the JMW 458.
Behind him it was Marco Cioci in the #51 AF Corse car and Mikkel Mac in the #60 Formula Racing entry. Seventh was Wolf Henzler in the #77 Proton Porsche, which unlike its sister car did manage to get out during the session.
