19-year-old Phil Hanson stormed to pole position for tomorrow’s Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Fuji today, with a stunning 1:31.685 in the #22 United Autosports Ligier JS P2.
Hanson bettered the rest of the LMP2 field by over three tenths with his late lap, which dethroned provisional pole man Pipo Derani, who eventually fell to third.
“The track temperature helped the lap time when it’s colder the car has gone quicker,” said Hanson, after the session. “We’re really optimistic for tomorrow, we have a good race car as well as a good qualifying car.”
Andrea Pizzitola eventually took second in the #24 Algarve Pro Ligier, with a 1:32.020, which wasn’t quite enough for pole, but it did put the Portuguese-flagged outfit on the front row.
“I can say now it was a good run,” Pizzitola explained. “Early on I had to overtake a lot of LMP3s before I could start. But the car was a good, we did a good job in free practice with the set up, front row is what we aimed for, and that’s what we got.”
That left the Shanghai winners in the #8 Spirit of Race Ligier with third, Derani’s best effort a 1:32.154.
Completing the second row was the second United JS P2, of Guy Cosmo, who pushed Anders Fjordbach in the #25 Algarve Pro Ligier to fifth.
The battle for LMP3 top honours was also decided in the final moments. The #65 Vipa Niza Racing Ligier eventually took pole, Nigel Moore setting a time late on which initially was only good enough for second before he improved to a 1:35.467 on his final flying lap.
“It was a good lap, we didn’t get the best out of the car on the first set, so we came in a changed tyres,” Moore said. “We know we’ve got really good race pace too, so bring on the race!”
Colin Noble in the #79 Ecurie Ecosse / Nielsen Racing Ligier looked set for pole until the very end, though his best lap was deleted for track limits when the flag fell, dropping him to third in LMP3 behind Garrett Grist in the #2 United Autosports JS P3. (Update – The #79 would later have all times deleted after failing post-session scrutineering – the splitter higher than permitted – possibly following the airborne antics yesterday! #79 will start from the back of the grid)
Completing the top five in the class was the #3 United Autosports Ligier, and the #36 Eurasia example.
Notably, Shanghai pole-sitter and race winner Jakub Smiechowski was unable to put Inter Europol’s Ligier in the mix. The Pole ended up a lowly seventh in class, leaving the team with a lot of work to do early in the race tomorrow.
In the GT ranks, James Calado stole the show for the local team Car Guy.
His #11 Ferrari ended up taking pole late in the 15-minute GT-only session with a 1:37.852, the reigning WEC GTE Pro World Champion the only man to break the 1:38 barrier in pursuit of pole. This scored the Japanese outhe an another point as a result, continuing its strong start to the season.
“I had a big spin, it’s rare for me to make mistakes, the car was slippy in cold conditions,” Calado said. “The car was fantastic on new tyres though, it couldn’t have been better. For Car Guy it’s great, it’s so important to get them pole here for their home race.”
To take pole, Calado beat out his WEC teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari, by almost four tenths, the Italian also setting his best lap time late in the session to leapfrog the two TSRT Audi R8s.
The #88 TSRT Audi ended up third, Dries Vanthoor’s best effort a 1:38.774, which got the better of Max Wiser in the sister #66 R8, who held provisional pole in the opening minutes of the session.
The Italian improved his best time multiple times, but it wasn’t enough and his best lap was 1.8 seconds off pole by the end.
The TF Sport Aston Martin, which ran with Am driver Ivor Dunbar at the wheel in the session, completed the order in GT.
Tomorrow’s 4 Hours of Fuji is set to start at 12:00 local time in Japan.
