Iron Lynx on pole for ELMS finale in Portimão
- Aaron Carroll
- Oct 17
- 6 min read
Matteo Cairoli has given the No.9 Iron Lynx-Proton car pole position for the ELMS finale in Portugal. The No.77 Proton is on pole for LMP2 Pro-Am, with the No.15 RLR M Sport at the front in LMP3, while the No.82 TF Sport Corvette took honours in LMGT3.
The final qualifying session of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) season got underway at 16:15 local time (14:15 GMT) with the LMGT3 class taking to the track in the first of four qualifying sessions, followed by LMP3, LMP2 Pro-Am and LMP2.
LMGT3
The 13 LMGT3 entries took to the track right on queue at quarter past the hour for 15 minutes of flat out driving. In this session it is mandated that the teams use their bronze drivers.
Clement Mateu in the No.59 Aston Martin went to the top early on, but was quickly beaten out by the No.63 Mercedes of Martin Berry by just under a tenth and a half. Mateu came back around on his next lap with warmer tyres though and went a second quicker, Berry could only manage being a tenth back. Racing Spirit of Leman and Iron Lynx battling for the top spot early on.
Hiroshi Koizumi was going well in the first two sectors in the No.82 TF Sport Corvette, and he kept it going in the final sector to take provisional pole by just 0.006 seconds. Celia Martin in the No.85 Iron Dames Porsche joined the battle too, in fourth just under half a second away.
With five minutes to go a lot of drivers were getting their laps cancelled due to track limits, hampering the amount of improvement that came from everyone. Notably, the No.82, No.63 and No.85 all were among a handful of pitters in the middle of the session, taking a fresh set of tyres.
Takeshi Kimura in the No.57 Ferrari was the next to improve, going to fourth 0.374 seconds off the top time, still held by Koizumi. The No.23 McLaren of Michael Birch jumped to third, just half a tenth off the top.
Just seconds later, the No.51 AF Corse of Charles-Henri Samani spun off the track and got stuck in the gravel. This brought out the red flag, and with only a minute and a half to go that was the end of the session.
That really hurt Martin and the Iron Dames, as she had set two good sector times and was on for a time good enough for pole, but was interrupted by the red flag.
So it was the No.82 Corvette on pole position, ahead of the No.59 Aston Martin by just 0.006 seconds and the No.23 McLaren under half a tenth back. Then came the No.63, No.57, No.85, No.50, No.55, No.66, No.74, No.51, No.86 and the No.60 rounded off the grid.
LMP3
It was another 15 minutes for 10 LMP3 cars, eight Ligiers, one Duqiene and a Ginetta. The championship in this class has already been sealed by the No.17 CLX Motorsports car, but it was anyone's game for second.
Before we even got laps underway, the No.88 InterEuropol car and the No.31 Racing Spirit of Leman were going side-by-side fighting over track position. Douwe Dedecker in the No.88 eventually yielded to Marius Fossard.
Fossard was the quickest early on, leading the No.68 M Racing car by just 0.004 seconds. Dedecker in the No.88 was a further 0.035 back in third.
But the lap times came tumbling down, with Gillian Henrion went eighth tenths quicker in the No.15, before losing that to Ian Aguilera in the No.11 EuroInternational car by 0.012 seconds. Henrion went a massive seven tenths quicker than that on his next lap, before Adrien Closmenil in the No.17 halved that gap and went to second.
Henrion couldn't improve on his next go, but Closmenil halved the gap once again, now sitting under two and a half tenths. Henrion then extended the gap back out by another two and a half tenths with three purple sectors. There was an answer from Closmenil, but not good enough, still 3 tenths back.
Griffin Peebles in the No.12 WTM by Rinaldi car went third, but the top two were a class above the rest, seven tenths was the gap from first to third.
Closmenil was improving right at the end of the session, but so did Henrion by half a tenth. The No.17 CLX stayed in second, 0.171 off, but it was deleted for track limits. He did however manage to get another lap, throwing the car into turn one, but he possibly pushed too hard and couldn't improve.
So the No.15 took pole position ahead of the No.17, with the No.12 in third. Then came the No.88, No.11, No.4, No.8, No.31, No.35 and the No.68 rounding out the grid.
LMP2 Pro-Am
Eight Oreca 07s and another 15 minutes for the penultimate qualifying session. Being a Pro-Am class, this session was also competed solely by bronze drivers. They were however the same cars as the main LMP2 class, the only difference being the driver gradings.
The championship fight here was between the No.20 Algarve Pro Racing (APR) car and the No.99 AO by TF 'Spike the Dragon' machine. The former led the latter by nine points heading into the weekend.
The No.29 TDS Racing car of Rodrigo Sales went to the top early on, but the times weren't going to stand for very long. Giorgio Roda in the No.77 went two seconds quicker, but PJ Hyett in the No.99 went a quarter of a second quicker than that. Sales could only manage a time nine tenths slower than the top time.
Hyett was absolutely flying, going half a second quicker on his next lap, miles clear of anyone at that time. But Roda went purple in sector one on his next lap, by just half a tenth. He was a tenth down in the middle sector, but time to find in the final sector as he had a massive armful of oversteer in the penultimate corner. That mistake cost him seven tenths, so he did not improve.
Even still, Hyett found two tenths in the first sector and another half a tenth in the second. He just lost it in the final sector and didn't improve. An improvement did come from Sales in the No.29 though, coming in half a second behind Hyett, moving into P2.
In the dying moments of the session, all three cars in the top three were purple in sector one, Roda the quickest of the three. Roda went pole by 0.044 seconds with 30 seconds left in the session, as Hyett didn't improve. Sales did, but not enough to change the order.
It stayed like that then in a scintillating LMP2 Pro-Am qualifying session. The No.77 took pole position ahead of the No.99 and the No.29. Then came the No.27, No.3, No.83, No.21 and finally the No.20.
That order could be massive for the championship come tomorrow, with the second placed car in second on the grid, and the championship leader at the back, two and a half seconds off the pace.
LMP2
Finally it was the turn of the 12 fully pro LMP2 cars, they too had 15 minutes, with no driver restrictions to contend with. The No.48, No.18 and No.43 were the three cars still in the fight for the championship.
Right out of the gates, the No.25 APR car came into the pits after the out lap. They were likely scrubbing a set of tyres in preparation for tomorrows race. They were joined by the No.9, No.34 and the No.43.
The No.28 IDEC Sport car were the quickest out of the gate by half a second, but better times were to come. That was until the red flag came out, the No.25 in the hands of Theo Pourchaire found itself lodged into the barrier at turn 10.
Pourchaire himself was okay, but the barriers did need some repairs so the session was delayed awhile. When it went green again there was 10 minutes left, of which you could imagine at least half would be spent getting the tyres into the performance window.
Pedro Perino in the No.34 went to the top with the first representative time after the red flag, but most of the field were still on preparation laps.
The session then exploded into life, with the No.18 of Mathys Jaubert going to the top, but he was quickly replaced by the No.34, then the No.9. The time from Matteo Cairoli in the No.9 was the first properly quick lap, three seconds quicker than anyone at the time it was set.
That time was bested by Gregoire Saucy in the No.22 United car, then Jaubert again and Nick Yelloly in the No.43 was the next to take his turn at the top. Cairoli then bested that again by almost two tenths of a second, with the No.48 VDS Panis car of Esteban Masson slotting into third.
Jaubert jumped to second again, 0.043 off Cairoli's session best time. Job van Uitert took his No.28 up to fourth, the top 5 split by just two tenths of a second. Yelloly couldn't improve, and came into the pits with 90 seconds to go.
Jaubert was slightly improving, but backed off in the final sector and joined Yelloly in the pits as the chequered flag flew. Cairoli also pit, with Uitert not being able to improve on his time.
That was the end of it then, with the No.9 Iron Lynx-Proton on pole position. The No.18 was second with the No.43 in third. Then came the No.28, No.48, No.10, No.24, No.47, No.22, No.34, No.30 and finally the No.25.
The race will get underway at 15:00 tomorrow (14:00 GMT), with four hours of thrilling racing ahead of the grid.
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