ELMS – Lapierre again on pole with Dragonspeed

As in Spa (Belgium) last September, Nicolas lapierre won pole at the end of the 4 Hours of Estoril (Portugal) by completing a lap of the Portuguese circuit in 1’44”146 on a wet track. Paul-Loup Chatin was the closest by placing four tenths behind the Ligier JS P2 of the Panis Barthez Competition, but the No. 23 will have a hard time winning since it will receive a 2-minute penalty. observe during the race following an engine change.

“Dragonspeed made a good strategy by starting me on intermediate tires, explained Nicolas Lapierre at a press conference. It took us a few rounds to get them working, but it paid off in the end. »

In the fight for the title, it was G-Drive Racing who had the best session with third place taken by Giedo van der Garde on the Gibson 015 who finished six tenths from pole. Mathias Beche, in difficulty on the Oreca 05 of Thiriet by TDS Racing, only obtained 7th position after spinning at the start of the session.

United Autosports achieved yet another success by monopolizing the first row of the LMP3 grid ahead of Duqueine Engineering. Alex Brundle established pole in the category with a time of 1'50''355 where he preceded his teammate Wayne Boyd by almost two tenths. Dino Lunardi followed almost seven tenths from the benchmark just ahead of his teammate Antonin Borga. Simon Gachet completed the top five for the Panis Barthez Competition Giorgio Sernagiotto completed the 3rd row for Villorba Corse even though the Italian was one of the many drivers to spin.

En GTE, c’est Benjamin Barker qui s’est chargé de placer la Porsche n°88 de Proton Compétition en pole en réalisant un temps de 1’54’’754. Aleesandro Pier Guidi a échoué à trois dixièmes sur la Ferrari from AT Racing. Marco Cioci took third place in the #51 AF Corse car ahead of the second F459 from the Italian team led by Matt Griffin. Andrea Bertolini, driver of the class-leading JMW Motorsport Ferrari, only took fifth position. Mikkel Mac (Formula Racing), Wolf Henzler (Proton) and Darren Turner (Aston Martin Racing) complete the list while the crew from the British team is the only one still able to threaten JMW.

The start of the 4 Hours of Estoril will be given tomorrow at 14:30 p.m. French time.