Inter Europol Competition’s Tom Dillmann scored his maiden European Le Mans Series pole position at Silverstone this afternoon, in qualifying for tomorrow’s four-hour race.
The Frenchman set a 1:43.279 aboard the #43 ORECA 07 – Gibson LMP2, as the Polish squad looks well-placed to build on its victory in last month’s 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
“We have really good momentum,” Dillmann said. “It’s my first one with the team, so I’m really happy with that. I was fast three times out of four sessions this week, but you still need to execute when it matters, and I’m glad we did. I basically only did one lap because I caught the #22 too quickly at the end of my first [flying] lap, and I had to abort the next one, but then on the third lap the tyres were gone.
“So I think I could have improved on that second lap, but it was enough. It’s for sure easier [to start on pole] to keep the nose clean in the first corners. We saw in Spa that it was a bit messy, so it’s definitely better to start there. But I don’t think it influences the race too much.”
Adrien Closmenil was an impressive second in the #37 CLX Motorsport ORECA, 0.101 seconds back, whilst Oliver Gray was third in his maiden ELMS qualifying session aboard the #29 Forestier Racing by Panis.
Reshad De Gérus briefly made it an Inter Europol 1-2 but had to settle for fourth aboard the #34 ORECA, ahead of the #18 IDEC Sport, #25 Algarve Pro Racing, #28 IDEC Sport and #10 Vector Sport entries.
The #24 Nielsen Racing ORECA was ninth, with the #22 United Autosports ORECA which sits tied for the LMP2 championship lead a disappointing 10th. The #9 Proton Competition ORECA rounded out the LMP2 field.
In a thrilling LMP2 Pro/Am session, Steven Thomas scored his maiden ELMS pole position aboard the #14 TDS Racing ORECA.
“It’s my first time ever at Silverstone, so it’s been really something as a track getting through the esses in an LMP2 car for a gentleman driver,” Thomas said. “I mean, that’s a lot of fun. That was a good lap time. I would say Scott Huffaker and Sami [Meguetounif], my pros, they really coached me up to get to that place and Jacques [Morello] and Arthur [Trouttet] gave us a great car, and we have a great crew.
“I think the opportunity to start on pole at a place like Silverstone for someone like me who’s 59 years old, and I started racing when I was 51, this is a pretty big deal for me.”
The 15-minute affair had been developing into a battle between the #47 CLX Motorsport ORECA of Georgios Kolovos and #30 Duqueine Team ORECA of Giorgio Roda, before Thomas recorded a 1:45.611 to vault to the top of the timesheets.
Kolovos, Roda and AO by TF’s PJ Hyett then all exceeded track limits on their following lap, as Thomas held on for pole position, the first for someone other than Roda or Hyett in LMP2 Pro/Am since Rodrigo Sales at Spa 2024.
Kolovos, Roda and Hyett’s #99 ORECA completed the top four, with Michael Jensen fifth aboard the championship-leading #20 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA.
LMP3 pole position, for the second time in three races, went to the #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 – Toyota of Louis Iglesias.
Iglesias came out on top in an entertaining duel with the #85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 – Toyota of Hugo Schwarze, with the pair both improving throughout the session.
Iglesias held the advantage for the majority of qualifying, extending his margin each time Schwarze closed in, until the Duqueine driver set a 1:53.213 in the final minute to briefly snatch the top spot. Running behind Schwarze on the road, however, Iglesias was quickly able to respond with a 1:53.144 to secure pole position and extend CLX Motorsport’s championship lead to 16 points.
The #8 Team Virage, #5 Rinaldi Racing and #11 Eurointernational Ligiers completed the top five.
And in LMGT3, Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi claimed his third pole position of the season aboard the #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3.
Al-Khelaifi initially went to the top of the timesheets with a 2:00.643, before improving with a 2:00.011 on his next lap which proved strong enough for pole position.
“It was long-awaited on the bucket list [to visit Silverstone],” Al-Khelaifi revealed. “And I’m happy that I was able to put it on pole in these windy conditions. We had the chance to experiment with [the setup] in the paid tests, so we had a good chance to have that right balance between our compromise to not get affected by the winds, and it worked out at the end.”
Blake McDonald maintained his streak of front row starts with second aboard the #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R, with the American having set a 2:00.262 as the chequered flag waved.
Francois Heriau was third on his ELMS LMGT3 debut aboard the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3, ahead of Duncan Cameron’s #55 Spirit of Race and Takeshi Kimura’s #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evos.
Heriau has, however, received a three-place grid penalty for impeding the #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) LMGT3 of Martin Berry.
Matthew Kurzejewski was seventh aboard the #75 Proton Competition Porsche, as the LMGT3 title battle closed up again further with the point for pole position reducing the #62 Mercedes-AMG’s deficit to just five points.
The 2026 4 Hours of Silverstone, the penultimate round of the European Le Mans Series, will begin at 12:00 BST tomorrow.
Image courtesy of David Lord
