4H Barcelona – First pole of the season for United Autosports

The first qualifying session of the 2024 European season Le Mans Series took place this Saturday afternoon on the Barcelona circuit.

In an extremely tough session, it was Ben Hanley who stood out by taking the first pole position of this exercise. Driving the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca, the Briton set a benchmark time of 1:28.071.

Reshad de Gerus placed IDEC Sport in second position, just 0.153 seconds behind first place. Cadillac driver in WEC, Alex Lynn completed the podium at 0.310 for defending champions Algarve Pro Racing.

Frederik Vesti, reservist Mercedes F1, and Ritomo Miyata, reservist Toyota in WEC, placed COOL Racing in 4th and 5th place, ahead of the two Inter Europol Competition. Symbol of this extremely tough field, Louis Delétraz only set the 10th time for AO by TF, sandwiched between Arthur Leclerc (Panis Racing) and Will Stevens (Nielsen Racing).

Felipe Drugovich brings up the rear in LM P2 with the 14th fastest time for Vector Sport.

Giorgo Roda was the fastest Bronze driver to set the best time in the LM P2 Pro-Am with the #77 Proton. He beat Anthony Wells (Team Virage) and John Falb (Nielsen Racing).

COOL Racing ahead of Team Virage

In LM P3, Manuel Espirito Santo played a bad trick on his former team since the Portuguese, now a resident of COOL Racing, deprived Gillian Henrion and Team Virage of pole in the very last moments of the session.

Gaël Julien completed the podium for RLR M Sport, securing a Ligier hat-trick. The first Duqueine is that of DKR Engineering in fourth position.

The Iron Dames on pole in GT3

Sarah Bovy dominated the GT3 category to take pole position at the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 R n°85 of the Iron Dames which she shares with Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting. With a lap in 1:41.850, the Belgian beat the Lamborghini Iron Lynx driven by Japanese Hiroshi Hamaguchi by 0.317 seconds. Johnny Laursen completed the podium with the Ferrari 296 No. 50 from Formula Racing.

See you at 11:30 a.m. this Sunday for the start of the 4 Hours of Barcelona, ​​opening round of the 2024 season of theELMS.