The LMGTE class was the first to qualify for the 4-hour ELMS race on Sunday with nine cars taking to the track in scorching conditions. And with just ten minutes of qualifying scheduled most drivers opted to split the session into two runs.
Alessio Rovera made the early running in the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE before being bested by Alessandro Pier Guidi, the Italian being a late replacement for Matt Griffin. Pier Guidi opted not to pit after his first run while most of the field came in for a breather and a fresh set of rubber and managed to bang in a 1:46.608 impressively no one could subsequently beat Pier Guidi’s time as Rovera in the AF Corse Ferrari came closest but was still almost half a tenth shy of Pier Guidi’s effort with Ross Gunn in the TF Sport Aston Martin third.
“I would like to dedicate my qualifying to Matt and his family. It is a sad reason why I got the call up but family always comes first. The lap was great and it is great to be on pole at Monza in a Ferrari”, commented Pier Guidi who became the fourth different pole-position holder in four races.
DKR Engineering and Laurents Hörr continued their dominance on single-lap pace with the teams newly liveried Duqueine just edging out Ugo de Wilde in Inter Europol’s lead car by 53-thousands of a second. Garrett Grist lined up the Team Virage car third, coming within a tenth of the fastest time in a clean and extremely competitive session that saw David Droux and Wayne Boyd finish in fourth and fifth within half a second of the DKR Car.
Hörr was reasonably pleased with his effort. “It was very close. I didn’t get the 1:42 that I wanted but I am happy with the best time and the point that goes with it.”
A slew of deleted times lit up the timing screens during the LMP2 segment of qualifying as track limits were strictly enforced. One of the few dodging the immediate penalty was Louis Deletraz who set a 1:38.002 before he came in for a fresh set of Goodyear rubber.
As the second part of the session gathered pace it was Franco Colapinto who broke the 38-barrier, banging in a 1:37.646 for G-Drive Racing.
This set off a whole set of challenges with Jonathan Aberdein giving United Autosports something to smile about with a strong 1:37.893 that placed him second. Louis Deletraz failed to make the most of a strong run and ended up in third for Team WRT, the Belgian team also facing a trip to Race Control to discuss blue flag behaviours, while Ben Hanley placed the Dragonspeed Oreca in fourth overall and first in the Pro-Am class, narrowly beating Logan Sargeant in the Racing Team Turkey entry by just about two-thousands of a second.
“It was quite difficult to replace Nyck de Vries for qualifying duty as he is super quick. I am very happy with our performance and I know our race-pace will be strong”, smiled Franco Colapinto following his eye-opening run. It is the 18-year old’s first pole position in the ELMS in his debut season in the class.
The 4 hours of Monza will run on Sunday and will start at 11:00 CET.
AURUS pic courtesy of Oreca
