Masson, Forestier by Panis take pole for ELMS 4 Hours of Imola
- Aaron Carroll
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
Esteban Masson has once again given the No.29 Forestier Racing by Panis entry pole position in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), ahead of the No.37 CLX Motorsport car, qualified by Ian Aguilera.
Giorgio Roda continued his great run of form in qualifying, giving the No.30 Duqiene Engineering car pole position in LMP2 Pro-AM
In LMP3, Louis Iglesias impressed in his first ever European Le Mans Series outing with CLX Motorsport in the No.17 Ligier. The Frenchman had a scintillating battle with Pierre-Alexandre Provost in the No.85 R-ACE GP Duqiene on his way to pole.
The No.33 TF Sport Corvette will start the LMGT3 grid at the front, with Blake MacDonald winning out in a close battle with Clement Mateu in the No.59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin.
As it happened
LMGT3
The first cars on track were the 14 LMGT3s, with the Bronze drivers heading out with 15 minutes on the clock.
Drivers had to contend with track temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius, so tyres would be an absolutely crucial element. Cars pit at the end of their out laps, scrubbing a set for tomorrows race.
Mateu in the No.59 RSL Aston Martin was the one setting pace during the warm-up phase, doing a 1:42.974 five minutes into the session. On his next lap he found another two tenths of a second, almost a second ahead of everyone.
The only man to have sat on LMGT3 pole position so far this year, Abdulla Ali Al-Khelafi put his No.62 Team Qatar Iron Lynx Mercedes up to second place, six tenths off. He had however matched Mateu in the first two sectors, but lost half a second somewhere in the final sector.
MacDonald found pace in the No.33 TF Sport Corvette in the final five minutes after pitting for a fresh set of tyres, going top with a 1:42.6, 0.06 seconds ahead of the Aston Martin. Khelafi improved two, three tenths behind the top two.
MacDonald was going quickly and improved by two tenths on his penultimate lap, but Mateu was in his slipstream and used that advantage to go 0.035 seconds quicker. Khelafi came around as the checkered flag waved, but he couldn't improved so his pole streak was ended.
On the final laps, MacDonald found another tenth to go top, with Mateu narrowly unable to improve.
Fourth place was Custodio Toledo in the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari, but he was 1.4 seconds off the pole time, and only 0.004 seconds ahead of Martin Berry in the No.77 Proton Porsche.
From there it was the No.54 and 75 Porsches, the No.63 Mercedes, No.55, No.74 and No.47 Ferrari's, No.86 Ferrari, No.23 McLaren and the No.51 Ferrari rounding out the grid.
LMP3
15 more minutes were put on the clock for the LMP3 cars, with no driver choice regulations in this session.
The No.8 Team Virage car had an issue early in the session, the engine cutting out and the car slowing on track. Matteo Quintarelli got the car re-fired up again though and pushed on with the session.
He briefly went to the top of the times, before he was displaced by the No.5, No.4 and the No.85 cars. Louis Iglesias in the No.17 CLX Motorsport car went top though, on a 1:40.1, half a second quicker than anyone else.
The order re-shuffled again though when everyone else came back around, with Pierre-Alexandre Provost going top, but Iglesias went a tenth quicker than the No.85 R-ACE GP Duqiene driver.
The times kept coming though, with Provost and Wyatt Brichacek in the No.4 DKR going 1-2 ahead of Iglesias, before the Frenchman found another quarter than a second on those two. Provost went over track limits on his next lap, allowing Brichacek to get ahead by another tenth, but couldn't get closer to the provisional pole sitter.
Iglesias was the first one below a 1:39, on a 1:38.889, three tenths between him and Brichacek. Provost found another tenth though, doing a 38.7, before Iglesias came through to improve, but still 0.075 seconds off the only Duqiene in the field.
Brichacek lost the best of the tyres and didn't improve, and no one else was quick enough so it was down to the top two. Provost did a 38.599, but Iglesias put in a stunning lap to go two tenths quicker. 1:38.367 for the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) debutant.
So the No.17 CLX will start on pole position in LMP3, ahead of the No.85, No.4, No.31, and the No.8 rounding out the top five positions.
LMP2 Pro-Am
It was back to the Bronze drivers for the LMP2 Pro-Am session, who would make up the first half of this afternoon's LMP2 action.
After about five minutes when the times started coming in properly, Steven Thomas in the No.14 TDS Racing car was on top, but was briefly demoted to second by Jean Glorieux in the No.3 DKR Engineering. Giorgios Kolovos in the No.47 CLX and Jens Reno Moller in the No.7 Vector Sport entry went to the top, setting the exact same lap time.
Giorgio Roda decided that tie though, going seven tenths quicker than both in the No.30 Duqiene car. Kolovos then went a further tenth quicker than that.
Roda came past the line again, going half a second quicker than Kolovos, and minimal improvement coming from the rest on their laps at that time. The improvements did come though, with Glorieux briefly going top before Roda beat him by 0.007 seconds behind. Thomas went third, 0.056 seconds off pole position.
In the last minute of the session, Glorieux clipped the gravel on the exit of the final corner, spinning across the track. He managed to just scrape the wall though, avoiding any damage. He did pit though, as did Roda.
Thomas was improving on his final lap, but he couldn't keep it together in the final sector, so Roda took pole by less than a hundreth of a second.
Glorieux in the No.3 finished second, with Thomas in third place. From there it was the No.99 AO Racing car, ahead of the No.7, No.47, No.19, No.88, No.83, No.21, No.20 and No.27.
LMP2
Finally it was time to decide the overall pole position. The pros took to their Oreca 07s for 15 minutes of what was expected to be the quickest session of the weekend.
Gregoire Saucy in the No.22 United Autosports car was the first to the top of the timing pages, with the No.29 Forestier Racing car of Esteban Masson slotting in a tenth behind.
Masson found another half a second though, going ahead of Saucy with Jack Doohan in the No.24 Nielsen Racing entry slotting third. Reshad De Gerus in the No.34 Inter Europol machine went quicker though, into second, three tenths off Masson.
Laurents Horr in the No.18 IDEC Sport car went fourth, narrowly missing out on third, 0.035 seconds behind Hanley. Ian Aguilera in the No.37 CLX Motorsports car found pace in the final few minutes, going second, just 0.032 seconds behind Masson. Saucy went third, nearly two tenths off the top.
De Gerus jumped him again though, with Saucy improving again to go third, also under a tenth off the pole time.
So the defending champions held onto pole in the No.29, ahead of the No.37 CLX and the No.22 United Autosports. The No.34 Inter Europol and No.28 IDEC Sport rounded out the top five.
Then came the No.24, No.18, No.25, No.43, No.10 and the No.9 Proton car closing out the grid
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