The #31 TDS Racing x Vaillant Oreca-Gibson secured the first pole position and the first championship point, of the 2022 European Le Mans Series in dramatic fashion when the red flag was shown right at the end of the 10-minute qualifying session.
Mathias Beche had gone to the top of the timing screens with less than four minutes left on the clock, the Swiss driver posting a lap in 1:43.038.
The provisional pole position had been claimed by no less than three other cars, with Louis Deletraz (#9 Prema Racing), Yifei Ye (#37 Cool Racing) and Tom Gamble (#22 United Autosports) all making a bid for the top spot-on tomorrow’s grid for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet.
Beche’s time looked under threat as purple and blue sector times appeared on the screen from several rivals, in particular, racing team Turkey’s new signing Jack Aitken, but then the #40 Graff Oreca, driven by David Droux, stopped on track and Race Control had no option but to halt the session.
Mathias Beche had already pulled into the pitlane and celebrated the pole position with the rest of the TDS Racing team members.
The #22 United Autosports Oreca will start on the front row after Tom Gamble’s best lap of 1m43.191.
Row two will consist of the #9 Prema Racing Oreca and the #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca.
In LMP3 Malthe Jakobsen continued to demonstrate why he is a young driver to watch, the Dane coming out late in the session and posting two rapid laps to secure the class pole for the first time. The #17 Cool Racing Ligier’s best time of 1:49.008 was three tenths ahead of the rest of the field.
It looked like it was going to be a Cool Racing all front row, with Antoine Doquin holding the provisional pole and then the second place with a 1:49.622 lap in the #27 Ligier. However, Alex Kapadia in the #5 RLR MSport Ligier had other ideas and put in a last gasp challenge for pole. The British driver crossed the line in 1m49.347 to claim second place on the LMP3 grid, 0.339s behind Jakobsen’s time.
The #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine-Nissan will join the #27 Cool Racing Ligier on the second row after Sebastien Alvarez posted a 1:49.700 lap to keep the reigning champions in touch for tomorrow’s 4 Hours of Le Castellet.
The LMGTE pole was claimed by the #32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Memo Gidley, the American claiming the top spot in the first all bronze ELMS qualifying session.
Gidley was challenged for the pole position by several cars, with Sarah Bovey (#83 Iron Lynx Ferrari), Christian Ried (#77 Proton Competition Porsche) and Ahmad Al Harthy (#69 Oman Racing by TF Sport Aston Martin) all holding the provisional pole position during the ten-minute session.
At the chequered flag, it was the #32 Ferrari on pole with a 1:54.755 lap, 0.154s ahead of the #69 Aston Martin.
Row 2 will be headed by the #83 Iron Dames Ferrari after Sarah Bovy put in a 1:55.020 on her last lap, pushing the #77 Porsche into 4th by 0.174s.
The 4 Hours of Le Castellet is due to start at 11h00 tomorrow morning.
