Nielsen Racing’s #7 Ligier JS P320 will start this afternoon’s Le Mans Cup race at Spa-Francorchamps from pole position, after a series of fast laps in Qualifying from Tony Wells.
His best time in the LMP3 session, which was red flagged twice, came on his final flying lap, a 2:13.178 that ended. up 0.035 faster than his nearest challenger.
“I have been P2 a lot, at Spa, Monza. So to get pole was amazing,” Wells said, after earning his first pole position since the Le Mans Cup finale at Portimao in 2018.
“I had to do it at Spa, it’s ‘the’ track. The car was amazing, hadn’t even been in the 14s in practice, but it was nailed in. It was a particularly good last run through the Bus Stop chicane on my flying lap. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to drive the car today.”
Pieder Decurtins came closest to challenging Wells for pole, with a 2:13.213 at the death of the session in the #67 Haegeli by T2 Racing Duqueine. It wasn’t enough for the top spot but it did secure a place on the front row of the grid for the Swiss-flagged team.
The #97 COOL Racing Ligier ended up third, half a second off after Luis Sanjuan’s efforts. The #68 M Racing and #16 Team Virage Ligiers meanwhile, will start fourth and fifth.
The two red flags were caused by offs for Inter Europol-entered Ligiers. The first came before the first set of flying laps, when Andreas Latorre Canon in the #14 found himself beached on the grass at Les Combes. The second was called with seven minutes remaining after the restart when the Christian Short had an off into the Gravel at Les Fagnes.
The GT3 category saw the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, on its return to the series after missing the race at Aragon, take pole position. Hiroshi Hamaguchi made multiple improvements during the session to consolidate his position, before setting his fastest time with two minutes to go: a 2:18.160. Impressively, Hamaguchi was the only driver to set a sub-2:19 lap.
Alex Martin in the #64 Team Parker Racing Porsche will start alongside the #63 Huracan GT3 EVO 2 on the front row of the grid, after a 2:19.157 that put him within a second of Hamaguchi.
The rest of the field ended up over two seconds off. The #55 GMB Motorsport Honda ended up third with a 2:20.574 and will share row two with the #19 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini.
It was a disastrous session for the two GT3 championship protagonists, as both the points-leading Racing Spirit of Le Mans Aston Martin and HCR With CaffeineSix Porsche which sits second in the standings, failed to set a competitive time.
Tim Creswick in the HCR Porsche stopped on the entry to Pouhon after the 911’s splitter became detached. That brought out red flags before anyone had set a time.
When the session went green again the Aston Martin, driven by Arnold Robin, stopped at pit out. The team’s mechanics didn’t manage to get the car fired up until the dying moments of the session, leaving him with no time to set a flying lap.
“The grip was there, the track was very fast,” said pole-sitter Hamaguchi after the session. “I wish I could have had a fight for pole with (Arnold) Robin. I know he will be strong in the race though.”
The Le Mans Cup race later today is set to get underway at 16:05 local time.
Image courtesy of Nielsen Racing
