DrgaonSpeed Oreca takes Le Mans Series pole at Silverstone

Track action (Photo by Melissa Warren)

Track action (Photo by Melissa Warren)The sun was shining at Silverstone for qualifying for Round 4 of the 2019 European Le Mans Series. Each of the three classes had 10 minutes to set their fastest lap to form the grid for the 4 Hours of Silverstone.

 

The No. 21 DragonSpeed Oreca of Ben Hanley took the front spot for the 39-car grid after the 10 minute LMP2 session. The British driver took pole at the chequered flag to move ahead of the No. 22 Oreca. Albuquerque had been unsighted on his penultimate lap by the spinning no27 IDEC Sport Oreca driven by William Cavailhes. The Portuguese driver had one more lap but also spun at Club and starts on the front row alongside Hanley.

Hanley’s time of 1m41.795 was 0.395s ahead of Albuquerque, with Paul Loup Chatin in the No. 28 IDEC Sport Oreca in third on 1m42.460, with Nico Lapierre in the No. 37 Cool Racing Oreca in 4th 0.1 seconds behind Chatin.

Yann Ehrlacher took the LMP3 pole after a titanic battle between several contenders for the top spot on the class grid in the No. 19 M Racing Norma. The French driver posted a 1m53.468 on his penultimate flying lap to beat the rest of the field by 0.262 seconds.

However, it was extremely close with the top five cars split by less than four tenths of a second. The second placed car was the No. 17 Ultimate Norma M30-Nissan of Matthieu Lahaye, with the No. 10 Oregon Team Norma third fastest, Damiano Fioravanti finishing the ten minute qualifying session just 0.014s behind Lahaye.

Thomas Preining dominated the LMGTE qualifying session in the no88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR, the Austrian posted a 1m55.322 lap at the chequered flag, 0.856 seconds ahead of the nearest rival, the No. 60 Kessel Racing Ferrari F488 GTE EVO of Giacomo Piccini.

The No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Matt Griffin will start from the second row of the LMGTE grid, the Irish driver posting a 1m56.335 lap. By Melissa Warren

Melissa Warren Track action (Photo by Melissa Warren) Track action (Photo by Melissa Warren)

 

 

 

LMP 2
1 DragonSpeed 21 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:41.798 208.7
2 United Autosports 22 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:42.127 208.0
3 Idec Sport 28 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:42.460 207.3
4 Cool Racing 37 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 6 1:42.557 207.1
5 Panis Barthez Competition 23 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 6 1:42.716 206.8
6 G-Drive Racing 26 Aurus 01 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:42.993 206.3
7 Duqueine Engineering 30 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:43.089 206.1
8 Graff 39 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:43.240 205.8
9 RLR MSport 43 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:43.299 205.7
10 United Autosports 32 Ligier JSP217 – Gibson LMP2 6 1:43.323 205.6
11 Algarve Pro Racing 25 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:43.549 205.2
12 High Class Racing 20 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:43.644 205.0
13 BHK Motorsport 35 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:44.360 203.6
14 Inter Europol Competition 34 Ligier JSP217 – Gibson LMP2 6 1:44.936 202.4
15 Panis Barthez Competition 24 Ligier JSP217 – Gibson LMP2 6 1:45.207 201.9
16 Algarve Pro Racing 31 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 6 1:45.570 201.2
17 Carlin 45 Dallara P217 – Gibson LMP2 5 1:46.245 199.9
18 Idec Sport 27 Ligier JSP217 – Gibson LMP2 6 1:47.630 197.4
LMP 3
1 M Racing 19 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:53.468 187.2
2 Ultimate 17 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 5 1:53.730 186.8
3 Oregon Team 10 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:53.744 186.8
4 Eurointernational 11 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:53.781 186.7
5 360 Racing 6 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:53.847 186.6
6 Nielsen Racing 7 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:54.103 186.2
7 Realteam Racing 9 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:54.372 185.7
8 United Autosports 2 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:54.605 185.4
9 United Autosports 3 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:54.615 185.3
10 RLR MSport 15 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:54.968 184.8
11 Nielsen Racing 8 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 5 1:55.062 184.6
12 Inter Europol Competition 14 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:55.483 184.0
13 360 Racing 5 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 6 1:55.649 183.7
14 Inter Europol Competition 13 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 5 1:55.772 183.5
LM GTE
1 Proton Competition 88 Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE 5 1:55.322 184.2
2 Kessel Racing 60 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 4 1:56.178 182.9
3 Spirit of Race 55 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 5 1:56.335 182.6
4 Dempsey – Proton Racing 77 Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE 5 1:56.619 182.2
5 Luzich Racing 51 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 5 1:56.783 181.9
6 Kessel Racing 83 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 6 1:57.137 181.4
7 JMW Motorsport 66 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 4 1:57.204 181.3

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