Charles Milesi will start from the top spot of the grid in the #37 Cool Racing Oreca 07 Gibson (1.30.812) on Sunday.
“I did quite a few mistakes with my first set of tires. It was not optimum for me. The car improved with my second set and in the end, we are on pole. The team did an amazing job to make the car competitive on this track. Let’s see what happens tomorrow. The first and second corners will be tricky for sure !”
The Frenchman took his second consecutive pole this season for his second ELMS race. He fought hard throughout the session with the two cars managed by the local Algarve Pro Racing team: the #24 Oreca 07 Gibson (1.30.989) driven by Ferdinand Habsburg and Nyck De Vries in the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Racing (1.31.105). The latter will be in contention on Sunday with the #22 United Autosport Oreca 07 Gibson (sixth in qualifying, 1.31.466), the #65 Panis Racing Oreca 07 Gibson (seventh, 1.31.713) and the #30 Duqueine Team Oreca 07 Gibson (eleventh, 1.32.751) for a 2022 Le Mans invite.
The #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07 Gibson did not take part in today’s qualifying session as the car was being repaired after damages were incurred in this morning’s Free Practice session. The car is now confirmed as a withdrawal with tub damage.
Meanwhile in LMP3, Wayne Boyd snatched his first pole position of the season in the #2 United Autosport Ligier JSP320 Nissan (1.36.372). “The field is so competitive this year.” said Boyd There are few teams that have raised their game massively. We have been pushing throughout the year. I have done my best today”.
Boyd led the session after clocking 1.36.803 in his first flying out lap.
As expected, Laurents Hörr in the #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine M30 D08 Nissan retaliated and took the lead of the LMP3 category (1.36.488) but only temporarily as he first lost his position to Ugo De Wilde in the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier JSP320 Nissan (1.36.431) and then finally to Boyd (1.36.372). Further back in the ranks, the #19 Cool Racing Ligier JSP320 Nissan (who is in contention with the #4 for the 2021 LMP3 title this weekend) ended at a disappointing eleventh position (1.37.517).
Finally, in LMGTE, TF Sport took their second pole of the season with a dominant Ross Gunn in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage AMR.
“We are very happy with today’s qualifying session,” said Gunn. “We fine-tuned the car before qualifying. TF Sport guys nailed the set up and I managed to put some very good laps together”
The Brit was actually at the top of the time sheets right after clocking his first flying lap (1.39.375) but it was cancelled as track limits weren’t respected. Rahel Frey then took over the lead of the category but within minutes, Gunn responded with his fastest lap (1.39.209), ahead of Gianmaria Bruni in the #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR 19 (1.39.689). The #88 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo took third position (1.39.751) while the LMGTE Team Championship leader, the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo ended in fourth position (1.39.801) (Update – the #80 drops to seventh in the order after using a lap time post-session).
