Inter Europol Competition’s Reshad De Gérus made a dream start at his new team this afternoon, as the Frenchman scored pole position for the European Le Mans Series season opener at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya aboard the #34 ORECA 07 – Gibson LMP2.
At the high-degradation venue, the LMP2 runners elected to split their 15-minute sessions into two runs. A 1:28.592 meant that De Gérus led Forestier Racing by Panis’ Esteban Masson by 0.024 seconds after the opening attempts, only for the defending drivers’ champion to appear to snatch pole back in the closing moments.
The #29 ORECA driver set a 1:28.557 with the chequered flag waving, briefly claiming the top spot, only for De Gérus to reclaim pole position moments later with a 1:28.368.
It is De Gérus’ second consecutive pole at Barcelona, after he achieved the same feat last year with Duqueine Team.
Tom Dillmann qualified third in the #43 Inter Europol ORECA, ahead of the #18 IDEC Sport entry of Laurents Hörr.
Fifth went to Jake Hughes’ #25 Algarve Pro Racing entry, with Ben Hanley’s #22 United Autosports ORECA sixth.
ELMS rookie Jack Doohan qualified eighth aboard the #24 Nielsen Racing ORECA, whilst Mike Rockenfeller placed the Ford Racing-supported #9 Proton Competition entry 11th on the grid.
Duqueine Team’s new partnership with R-ace GP has gotten off to a strong start, as new signing Giorgio Roda stormed to a dominant LMP2 Pro/Am pole in the #30 ORECA.
After scrubbing a set of tyres, the Italian was running out of sequence compared to the majority of his rivals, but vaulted to the front by over one second once he completed his first flying lap, a 1:30.629, with just over six minutes to go.
Next time around, Roda improved further to a 1:30.332, which was more than enough for his third consecutive Barcelona pole.
Defending champion PJ Hyett set a 1:31.272 to qualify second in the #99 AO by TF ORECA, with John Falb third in the #19 Rossa Racing by Virage entry, ahead of Jens Reno Møller’s #7 Vector Sport and Georgios Kolovos’ #47 CLX Motorsport machines.
Steven Thomas was seventh aboard the #14 TDS Racing ORECA, but his maiden ELMS qualifying could’ve gone so much worse. The American spun on the exit of Turn 7 on his out lap, with both ends of the car hitting the barrier. Thankfully, the damage was minimal enough that, after a quick trip to the pits, he could resume his qualifying effort.
An entertaining LMP3 session saw six different cars enjoy time at the top of the timesheets, but in the end, it was Hugo Schwarze who claimed pole position the #85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 – Toyota.
Schwarze set a 1:37.171 with five minutes to go to move to the front, and then followed it up with a 1:36.524 which secured the French outfit pole position on its ELMS debut.
“First qualifying in the ELMS, first race weekend, so over the moon to put it on pole,” Schwarze told ELMS TV.
“Obviously in testing you don’t really know where you are, I think we had an idea that we might have a good car, and we worked very well together in pre-season testing…happy to put it on pole position.”
Second went to Henry Cubides Olarte in the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier JS P325, 0.507 seconds behind Schwarze, with Daniel Nogales third in the #8 Team Virage Ligier. Fourth went to the #31 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier of Lenny Ried, with the #5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier completing the top five.
And in LMGT3, Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi scored pole position on his ELMS debut, after recording on a 1:42.289 on his final flying lap aboard the #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 to snatch the top spot from TF Sport’s Blake McDonald.
Iron Lynx elected to utilise two sets of the Goodyear Eagle Hard tyre, giving Al-Khelaifi less timed laps, but more grip at the end of the session. The Qatari racer proved up to the task, surpassing the #33 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R of McDonald by 0.063 seconds.
Matt Kurzejewski made it three rookies in the top three aboard the #75 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) LMGT3, whilst Clément Mateu’s #59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 and Andrew Gilbert’s #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo made it five different manufacturers in the top five.
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari, meanwhile, did not participate in qualifying due to the damage sustained during its accident in this morning’s Free Practice 2.
The 2026 4 Hours of Barcelona, the opening round of this year’s European Le Mans Series, will begin at 12:00 CEST tomorrow.
