Inter Europol Competition’s #43 ORECA will start tomorrow’s ELMS 4 Hours of Le Castellet from pole position after a stunning performance from Nick Yelloly in LMP2 Qualifying this afternoon.
The Acura MSR IMSA GTP racer emerged fastest in a four-way fight for the top spot with a 1:48.741 on his final tour of the circuit, delivering the Polish team its first ever overall pole in the series.
Charles Milesi for VDS Panis Racing ended up jumping up the timing screens on his final push lap too, but the Alpine Hypercar ace would have to settle for second with a 1:48.876.
Matteo Carioli held onto provisional pole briefly in the #9 Iron Lynx ORECA. But the Italian, who ran fastest in both practice sessions, would drop to third at the end. Mathys Jaubert was also in the mix and pushed hard for the Genesis-backed IDEC Sport crew, en route to fourth in the times with a 1:49.206.
Inter Europol’s other ORECA, the #34, ended up fifth fastest.
LMP2 Pro/Am came down to the wire, with AO by TF’s PJ Hyett snatching pole from Giorgio Roda’s grasp with an astonishing 1:51.442 at the death. It was just 0.144 faster than Roda’s 1:51.586 for Proton Competition.
That time looked good enough for pole after TV cameras showed Hyett making a small error in the final sector on his final tour, but it ultimately didn’t prevent an improvement.
“It was pretty exciting from my perspective. It was my fastest lap of the weekend and I was able to put it together,” Hyett said. “And I think there was still time left in the car, I hear my slide made it onto television. I got a little too excited as the engineers told me what the target time was, but I was able to gather it up and finish the lap.”
Rodrigo Sales was also fast, taking third with a 1:52.353 for TDS Racing. DKR’s ORECA will start fourth.
Elsewhere in the class the Barcelona-winning #83 AF Corse ORECA was a no-show. Francois Perrodo was unable to qualify the car as he has had to leave the circuit to attend to business matters. He is however set to return to Paul Ricard overnight in time for the race tomorrow.
Adrien Closmenil was utterly dominant in the LMP3 session, scoring his second consecutive class pole. After multiple improvements the Frenchman put up a sizzling 1:57.194 in the Barcelona-winning #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 to go almost a second clear of everyone else.
“It’s so good to take pole, it gives us a good opportunity for tomorrow,” he said.
Rik Koen secured second for Team Virage in its Ligier, pushing the WTM by Rinaldi Duqueine down to third with a late flyer.
Further down the list Eurointernational took fourth, RLR M Sport will start fifth and the sole Ginetta in the field from DKR Engineering ended up eighth and 1.6 seconds off the pole time.
In LMGT3 it was Aston Martin that came out on top after Ferraris ran fastest throughout practice. Clement Mateu starred on home soil, putting Racing Spirit of Leman’s Vantage fastest with a 2:04.641 after multiple improvements.
“The car has been working well all weekend. We know this track very well. It’s tough but we did the job today,” Mateu said.
Martin Berry for Iron Lynx was also quick and briefly looked like scoring a second pole in a row to start the season. But the Australian’s initial flyer – a 2:04.999 – was deleted for a track limits violation.
This forced him to regroup and try again in the dying minutes. His recovery was strong, a 2:05.417 to claim third spot for the the only Mercedes-AMG crew in the field.
Joining Mateu on the front row tomorrow will be Duncan Cameron, whose 2:05.364 for Spirit of Race made him the fastest Ferrari driver.
The top five was completed by the Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari and #74 Kesse Racing Ferrari.
The 2025 4 Hours of Le Castellet is set to get underway at 12:00 local time.
