Charles Milesi continued his rapid run through Saturday this afternoon in ELMS Qualifying, putting Panis Racing’s #65 ORECA on pole for the 4 Hours of Imola tomorrow.
The Frenchman, who topped Free Practice 2 earlier in the day, stole pole from Algarve Pro’s Alex Lynn at the very end of the session with a 1:30.829.
“It’s amazing, we knew we had good pace on Thursday during the test. We were confident and Charles did a really good job to take pole. It’s a good starting point for the weekend,” said Arthur Leclerc, who shares the #65 with Milesi.
“Qualifying is so important here because it’s hard to overtake.”
Prior to Milesi’s late flyer, Alex Lynn looked poised to take pole in the #25 APR ORECA. His best lap was a 1:30.961, but it wasn’t quite enough to secure the best starting position for the race. Instead, Milesi edged it and scored Panis Racing its first pole of the 2024 season, and first since Barcelona 2022.
Those fast laps came after a red flag mid-way through the session, caused by an off for James Allen at Acque Minerali which left his Duqueine ORECA stranded in the gravel.
Vector Sport ended up third after Felipe Drugovich set a 1:30.988 making him the third and final driver to set a sub 1:31 lap time. Alongside Vector on the second row will be the faster of the two COOL Racing ORECAs.
The #47 of Frederik Vesti and #37 of fellow Dane Malthe Jakobsen set times within a tenth of each other to take fourth and fifth.
Inter Europol’s #34 ORECA will start sixth, with the #14 AO by TF example seventh, their times three and a half and four tenths off pole respectively.
LMP2 Pro/Am was dominated by Giorgio Roda, who leapt to the top of the timing screens early and set multiple improvements (at one point sitting 1.7 seconds up) to ensure he would take class pole untouched.
Roda’s best time was 1:33.093, so quick he felt confident enough to park the car in the final minutes in pit lane. It would seal the position by half a second.
“Three pole positions in three attempts is good. The car is getting better every race and the team is improving every time. We are getting close to perfection,” a jubilant Roda said.
“I had to work to avoid track limits and gravel on the track, but it was a good final lap in the end.”
Rodrigo Sales in the #29 TDS Racing ORECA eventually claimed second after a duel with Francois Perrodo, his final time a 1:33.625 to put half a second on Perrodo’s final time.
It pushed Perrodo and the #83 AF Corse crew to third. Tony Wells made a late improvement to put the #19 Team Virage 07 fourth.
LMP3 Qualifying produced a Duqueine front-row lockout, with DKR Engineering’s #4 M30 topping the times with a late 1:37.776.
It was a real fight for pole, with Wyatt Brichacek coming out on top after trading fast laps with WTM by Rinaldi’s Oscar Tunjo.
As the times improved in the final minutes, Brichacek held the advantage after a 1:38.019 with two minutes remaining.
Then, remarkably, Tunjo matched that time exactly, setting a 1:38.019 of his own a minute later. But that push wasn’t quite enough as Brichacek would go faster again to seal the deal.
“It’s a great start, an unbelievable lap,” Brichacek’s teammate Alexander Matschull said.
The best of the eight-car Ligier field was the #15 RLR Msport example which currently leads the championship. It will start third after Gael Julien’s efforts which placed the car almost eight-tenths off.
The #88 JS P320 from Inter Europol will start fourth, with the #17 from COOL Racing fifth.
In LMGT3 it was Sarah Bovy who starred, putting the Iron Dames Porsche on pole for the third consecutive race with a 1:43.349 at the death of the session.
Her lap featured a rapid run through the final sector, which ultimately secured her a slim margin of just over a tenth on Derek Deboer in the Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin.
“It was not easy, I was not happy with my performance early. But I am happy I managed to refocus and deliver pole position,” Bovy said.
Deboer – who sat atop the times up until Bovy finished her lap in the final seconds – missed out on pole but did manage to place Racing Spirit of Leman on the front row with his 1:43.476.
That time pushed the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini down to third. Hiroshi Hamguchi will start tomorrow’s race alongside Takeshi Kimura whose time was within half a second of Bovy for Kessel Racing.
Further down the order, the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari which leads the championship and is carrying the most success ballast this weekend will start ninth, behind the newly-rebuilt GR Racing Ferrari which qualified eighth.
The 2024 4 Hours of Imola is set to start tomorrow at 11:30 local time.
Images courtesy of ELMS & Panis Racing
