Nathanaël Berthon snatched pole position for this afternoon’s Paul Ricard four hour race, the penultimate round of the 2014 European Le Mans Series.
It was an intense twenty minute session which saw the Murphy Prototype Oreca-Nissan head the field by just over two-tenths of a second and his scorching 1m47.837 lap was 0.566s quicker than last year’s pole (set by Oliver Turvey, Jota).
Berthon, who also set the fastest lap at Ricard in pre-season testing back in early April, was delighted to register Murphy’s first pole since Hungaroring 2013, which is also the last time anything other than a Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan started from the very front.
“It was good and I am really happy for the team,” said a beaming Berthon afterwards. “We worked really hard to perfect the car in the free practice sessions and it worked nicely. The race is long of course but we have all done a great job here this morning.”
‘Pipo’ Derani who has embedded himself in the Murphy Prototypes team so well here at Ricard, will start his first ever endurance race from the pole. DSC believes that Berthon used a mix of medium and hard compound of Dunlop’s for his qualifying run, of which three tyres they will of course have to start the race on. Murphy will be hoping that history will repeat itself and they can revisit their 2013 race success later today.
Joining Murphy Prototypes on the front row will be Jota Sport, with Harry Tincknell having set a 1m48.126s lap on hard rubber all-round. With Signatech Alpine back in fifth position, the team although sorry to see their run of poles broken took some solace in their title rivals having three cars between them on the grid. Tincknell will start the race.
Christian Klien was three tenths behind Tincknell in third place in the New Blood by Morand Morgan-Judd. The Austrian was reasonably happy with his lap after a difficult first free practice session with the Morgan-Judd.
LMGTE saw a third pole position of the season fall to Andrea Bertolini in the 72 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia. A best of 1m55.691s was good enough for Bertolini to seal both the pole and a point for fastest lap which reduces the gap from Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron to just one point.
“Another good job from the #72 SMP crew today and nice to get a point to reduce the gap a little,” said Bertolini. “You know, I really love this track. The surface is so good and always in good condition. It is one of my favourites. We need to score good points today for the championship because at Red Bull Ring we had that technical problem.”
It was an all-Italian driver front row as Giacomo Piccini was second just two tenths further back in the #80 Kessel Racing Ferrari 458. Third on the grid will be the #55 points leading with Matt Griffin setting the early pace before Bertolini and Piccini pipped him.
An excellent and encouraging fourth in LMGTE was the all-new Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR. Adam Carroll turned in a 1m56.010 to give the Milton Keynes team a boost after hard graft getting the car ready for this event.
At the other side of the garage there was more elbow grease in evidence as the #85 Gulf Aston Martin had an engine change yesterday. The team started to bed in the new unit in the 20-mins session but problems curtailed it to just a single lap. To rub some salt in to the wound from yesterday the stewards handed out a two-minute stop-go penalty for the engine change. Surely their luck will change soon.
In the GTC class it was another pole position for Luca Persiani and the #71 SMP Racing crew. The Italian hooked up a near perfect lap and was delighted to secure a second pole of the season.
“I just hope we can start from pole this time,” said Persiani. “At Silverstone we had a problem which meant we could not start. It was heartbreaking. The SMP team did a fantastic job with the car this weekend and we are in a good position in the title with 1-2 for the team. I think it will be a really hard race but we have started race day well.”
An inspired second in GTC was the #98 ART McLaren MP4-12C driven by the impressive Kevin Korjus. The Estonian was happy with his lap despite hitting some traffic toward the end of it. The second ART McLaren driven by Alex Brundle will start 9th in class after having one of its laps struck off for a track limit violation.
The second row of the GTC grid will feature the #95 AF Corse Ferrari, which Cedric Sbirrazzuouli set a best of 1m57.745s. Fourth was Jonny Cocker, whose 1m57.891s in the Team Russia by Barwell was an impressive effort and puts the team in a solid position for what should be a strong race.
Conditions are set to ideal and with close fights going on throughout the 37 car field this is another ELMS race not to be missed this afternoon.
The race this afternoon starts at 13.00cet. You can follow live coverage of everything happening at the track via www.twitter.com/dscracelive and by listening to www.radiolemans.com
Sam Smith
