One week after being fastest at Spa in the World Endurance Championship LMP2 qualifying sessions, Alessio Rovera took pole in the #88 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson (1:32.269). “Taking pole in your home race is a fantastic feeling” he said “Imola is a fantastic track and our car today was amazing. I had two clear laps. On the first one, I was very quick in the first and second sectors yet I did a little mistake in the third one. So I pitted, changed tires, went back out and improved the last sector. That was enough for pole position”.
Rovera will share the front row of the grid with yet another ProAm car: the #31 TDS Racing X Vaillante Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Mathias Beche, Philippe Cimadomo and Tijmen Van Der Helm (1.32.613). The LMP2 category championship leader, the #9 Prema Racing Oreca 07 Gibson shared by Ferdinand Habsburg, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo finished third, half a second behind the pole sitting car (1:32.701).
Further down in the ranks, Ben Hanley retired the #24 Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 Gibson on track after losing a wheel on its first out lap.
Meanwhile, in LMP3, the championship leader, the #17 Cool Racing Ligier PS P320 Nissan driven by Malthe Jakobsen dominated the category with a fastest lap of 1:37.182. The Dane finished half a second ahead of Sebastian Alvarez in the #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine M30 D08 Nissan and nearly six tenths ahead of Noam Abramczyck in the #14 Inter Europol Competition Ligier PS P320 Nissan.
In LMGTE, Ahmad Al Harty snatched pole in the #69 Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR (1:41.974). The car was dominant throughout the session and fastest in the track’s three timing sectors. “It’s my first time here” said Al Harty. “I love the flow of this track. It has clicked with me (…) You need to respect it if you want to perform well here”
Sarah Bovy in the #83 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (1:42.357) took second position, some six tenths ahead of the #18 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 driven by Andrew Haryanto (1:42.926). The LMGTE Category championship leader, the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo shared by Christian Hook, Oscar Tunjo and Fabrizio Crestani finished tenth (1:44:560).
