A six-car GT3 entry took to the track for Michelin Le Mans Cup qualifying and what resulted was probably one of the most competitive sessions seen in a while. No fewer than four drivers fought over pole position with the best lap set in the dying seconds of the session.
Initially, the fight for pole-position was between Nicki Leutwiler in his Porsche and Ben Keating, the American making his championship debut in the TF Sport Aston Martin as preparation for next week’s FIA WEC race at the same venue.
As the session progressed both Iron Lynx Ferraris entered the fray with Gabriele Lancieri and Sarah Bovy both edging out Keating.
As the intense heat and abrasive nature of the Monza tarmac took its toll on the Michelin rubber, all four drivers managed to find improvements on individual sectors but struggled to string it together as Keating missed out on pole thanks to a relatively sluggish final sector.
Bovy was the final driver to attempt a quick lap and did improve her time but remained just 0.06s off her teammate’s best time.
This means Gabriele Lancieri topped a highly entertaining session with his 1:49.292 in an Iron Lynx 1-2.
Keating and Leutwiler will line up on the second row for the two-hour race while AF Corse duo Andrea Montermini and Ken Abe qualified fifth and sixth.
In the LMP3 series debutant, Freddie Hunt made an immediate impression as he dominated the early proceedings on board the #21 Muelhner Motorsport Duqueine with his initial effort almost 2 seconds clear of the competition.
Halfway through the session, however, Hunt’s time was eclipsed by Phoenix Racing duo Finn Gehrsitz and Thorsten Kratz. The former setting a 1:44.785 just before a Red Flag came out, Matthias Lüthen in the #16 Team Virage Ligier grinding to a halt in the pit entry after struggling back to the pits with an apparent electrical issue.
Red flag – The #16 @groupvirage stopped at the pit entry but then managed to go back onto the racetrack.
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/W79KK5UhQ2#LMC #MonzaRound pic.twitter.com/1OenjIzFhn
— Le Mans Cup (@LeMansCup) July 10, 2021
He would rejoin though just after the Red Flag was shown, a move that did not go down well with Race Control – and their humour would not improve after the restart (with less than six minutes remaining), the session almost immediately halted again with the same car stopping on track twice. Ironically, the Polish-flagged car was able to get going again just as the red flag was called – A chat with Eduardo Freitas loomed in the near future for the Virage Team Manager.
This left the drivers with a single lap shoot-out to try and beat Gehrsitz’s time. Improvements were few and far between with the only significant improvement coming from Antoine Doquin in the COOL Racing Ligier, moving up to third behind the Phoenix pairing but ahead of Freddie Hunt and Alexander Mattschull in the Rinaldi Duqueine.
The Michelin Le Mans Cup race is scheduled to start at 17:00 on Saturday afternoon.
