Masson gives Forestier Racing pole for ELMS 4 Hours of Le Castellet
- Aaron Carroll
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
Esteban Masson has given the No.29 Forestier Racing by Panis car pole position for tomorrows European Le Mans Series (ELMS) 4 Hours of Le Castellet, narrowly beating out the No.22 United Autosports car of Gregiore Saucy by 0.021 seconds.
LMP2 Pro/Am gave us a thrilling session with the No.30 Duqiene car of Giorgio Roda coming out on top. Meanwhile Romain Favre gave DKR Engineering pole in LMP3, and Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi went back-to-back with poles in Barcelona and Paul Ricard in the No.82 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes.
How it happened
LMGT3
Straight out of the pits for all 14 LMGT3 cars on the ELMS grid. Only the bronze drivers were allowed in for this session, so times were expected to tumble all the way to the checkered flag at the end of the 15 minute session.
The first lap time came from Charles-Henri Samani in the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari, but the times quickly came in thereafter. As per usual, we would have to wait a few minutes for the representative lap times to be put in with both the drivers and the tyres getting into their peak operating window.
A 2:04.6 was the pole time last year, but with about eight and a half minutes left Blake McDonald in the No.33 TF Sport Corvette set a 2:03.8, straight on the pace. He was three and a quarter tenths quicker than Al-Khelaifi in the No.62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes. He came into the pits halfway through for a fresh set of rubber.
Takeshi Kimura in the No.57 Kessel Ferrari was sixth tenths further adrift, but it looked like no one could get any closer to the top two.
Andrew Gilbert cut the gap to five tenths in the No.74 Kessel car, before the No.55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron went within two tenths of the Mercedes, and half a second of the provisional pole sitter.
Winners in the season opener in Barcelona, the No.75 Proton Porsche crew slotted into fourth three quarters of a second back at the hands of Matt Kurzejewski.
With under a minute to go Al-Khelaifi closed the gap to just over a tenth and a half at the top with his fresh tyres helping him to a purple final sector.
Cameron and McDonald couldn't improve on their final laps, neither could many others. The only one going quicker was Al-Khelaifi in the Mercedes. The Qatari driver just pipped the Corvette by 0.071 seconds on the very last lap of the session.
LMGT3 Qualifying Results - Top 5
1st No.62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes - Al-Khelaifi - 2:03.8
2nd No.33 TF Sport Corvette - McDonald - +0.0
3rd No.55 Spirit of Race Ferrari - Cameron - +0.5
4th No.75 Proton Porsche - Kurzejewski - +0.8
5th No.59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin - Mateu - +0.8
LMP3
The 10 LMP3 cars followed the GTs very quickly - nine Ligiers and one Duqiene all out of the pits. There are no mandatory driver requirements for this session, so it was up to the teams to pick their quickest driver.
The No.85 R-ACE GP Duqiene took pole in Barcelona with Hugo Schwarze putting the lap in, but this time interestingly it was Pierre-Alexandre Provost in the car.
The pole time last year was a 1:57.1 from the dominant No.17 CLX car, so that's the time teams were aiming for. The first handful of laps came in over 2:05, so once again just going through the warm-up phase.
A 2:02 from Thomas Imbourg in the No.68 M Racing Ligier was the first time under that 2:05 barrier, and the first somewhat representative time. It was quickly beaten by a 2:01.5 from Max van der Snel in the No.11 EuroInternational, before the No.5 Rinaldi of Alvise Rodella went a tenth quicker.
Imbourg went back to the top with a 2:00.2, before Henry Cubides Olarte went marignally quicker, Provost in the No.85 though went a second quicker, a 1:59.2 the first under two minutes.
Imbourg and Olarte dropped into the 59's next time around, still a handful of tenths behind Provost who went quicker again with a 1:58.9.
Imbourg did a 59.1 with three minutes to go, just two tenths behind the provisional pole sitter. Favre in the No.4 DKR Engineering entry was in third now too, less than half a tenth behind the second placed No.68.
Provost backed off for a lap, before pushing hard again, setting a purple sector one, and matching his sector 2 time. However, he lost his improvement in the final sector of the lap.
Imbourg improved marginally, but Favre went six hundreths quicker than him to move into second place. Cubides Olarte jumped Imbourg too on his final lap.
Provost improved on his final lap, but it wasn't enough to stop Favre in the No.4 taking pole position on the final lap of qualifying by a tenth of a second.
LMP3 Qualifying Results - Top 5
1st No.4 DKR Engineering Ligier - Favre - 1:58.7
2nd No.85 R-ACE GP Duqiene - Provost - +0.1
3rd No.13 Inter Europol Ligier - Cubides Olarte - +0.3
4th No.68 M Racing Ligier - Imbourg - +0.3
5th No.35 Ultimate Ligier - Gravlund - +0.9
LMP2 Pro/Am
The first of two LMP2 qualifying sessions today, the 12 car Pro/Am field was next up. Like the LMGT3 session, it was a bronze driver only session.
Pole here last year was a 1:51.4 from PJ Hyett in the No.99 AO Racing car, he was back again to try and emulate that.
John Falb in the No.19 Rossa by Virage car was top early, but it was quickly beaten by François Perrodo in the No.83 AF Corse car. That was a 1:53.3, so still another bit of time to find but we were almost where the ultimate pace of these cars and driver are.
Jean Glorieux in the No.3 DKR car went top with the first proper time of the session - a 1:52.5. That was quickly shuffled down to third. Roda beat everyone else by miles though, a 1:51.6 in the No.30 Duqiene.
Almost the entire field was improving big time though. Falb went second, three tenths off, with Steven Thomas in the No.14 TDS Racing car slotting in behind.
Roda found more than half a second on himself the next time around, 1.1 seconds ahead of second with a 1:51.0. Glorieux went seven tenths behind Roda. Hyett went quicker though, exactly four tenths behind Roda.
Roda was going even quicker though, purple sector 1, green sector 2 but he made a mistake in the final sector, losing the four tenths he gained in the first two thirds of the lap.
Hyett was improving on the pole time in Spike the Dragon, but he too made a mistake in the final sector. Roda found the time again though, 1:50.7 was the time with 20 seconds on the clock.
Thomas in the No.14 was going very quickly though, as was Falb and Roda. Falb missed out, with Thomas going third just three tenths off the top. Hyett was second two tenths off.
None of that mattered though, Roda went quicker one again. A 1:50.3 extended his gap at the top, he gave the No.30 pole position after a thrilling session.
LMP2 Pro/Am Qualifying Result - Top 5
1st No.30 Duqiene - Roda - 1:50.3
2nd No.99 AO Racing - Hyett - +0.5
3rd No.14 TDS Racing - Thomas - +0.6
4th No.3 DKR Engineering - Glorieux - +1.3
5th No.19 Rossa by Virage - Falb - +1.5
LMP2
One final 15 minutes then for LMP2 qualifying, all pro drivers in the cars for this session. This is where we would most likely see the quickest lap times of the entire weekend.
There was a bit of jostling of position on the out lap for some, with both Inter Europol cars going slightly slower than the pack behind. Most of them however returned to the pits to change tyres after scrubbing a set for the race tomorrow.
A 1:48.7 was the pole time last year from the No.43 Inter Europol.
Jack Hughes was at the top early on in the No.25 Algarve Pro Racing (APR) machine with a 1:51.4, but he and others were quickly improving on that. Job van Uitert went half a second quicker in the No.28 IDEC Sport car, before Sebastian Priaulx went seven tenths quicker.
The Full-Course Yellow (FCY) came out with seven minutes to go because of a pair of cones that had made their way onto the track. That was quickly taken away and the drivers got back onto the pace.
Adrien Closmenil did a 49.2 to put the No.37 CLX car to the top, but he was beaten by Masson in the No.29 Forestier Racing by two tenths. Valerio Rincella went top by less than a tenth in the No.18 IDEC car, before the two Inter Europol cars came around to put themselves first and second.
Tom Dillmann in the No.43 was first, but he was beaten by Reshad De Gerus in the No.34. Masson went four tenths quicker than that next time around though, before Saucy in the No.22 United Autosports car went two tenths behind him for second. Rincella went third again in the No.18.
De Gerus went second again in the No.34, also two tenths off Masson with the time just about running out on the clock. That means everyone on the track would have one more lap.
Masson couldn't improve, but Saucy could. He would go 0.021 slower than Masson in second. Rincella was going quicker in sectors 1 and 2, but lost time in the final sector. Neither of the Inter Europols could do better either, so it was Masson on pole for the race tomorrow.
LMP2 Qualifying Results - Top 5
1st No.29 Forestier Racing by Panis - Masson - 1:48.3
2nd No.22 United Autosports - Saucy - +0.0
3rd No.34 Inter Europol - De Gerus - +0.2
4th No.18 IDEC Sport - Rincella - +0.2
5th No.24 Nielsen Racing - Doohan - +0.3
View the full session results here.
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