European LeMans Series Hot News

DragonSpeed Tops ELMS Qualifying at Silverstone

Ben Hanley puts DragonSpeed on pole
Ben Hanley puts DragonSpeed on pole

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 this afternoon’s 4 Hours of Silverstone.

The no21 DragonSpeed Oreca of Ben Hanley will start at the front of the 39-car grid after the 10 minutes LMP2 session was led by the no22 United Autosports Oreca of Filipe Albuquerque. The British driver took pole at the checkered flag to move ahead of the no22 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 will start on the front row alongside Hanley.

Hanley’s time of 1m41.795 was 0.395s ahead of Albuquerque, with Paul Loup Chatin in the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca in third on 1m42.460, with Nico Lapierre in the no37 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 no19 M Racing Norma. The French driver posted a mighty 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 no17 Ultimate Norma M30-Nissan of Matthieu Lahaye, with the no10 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 posting a 1m55.322 lap at the checkered flag, 0.856 seconds ahead of the nearest rival, the no60 Kessel Racing Ferrari F488 GTE EVO of Giacomo Piccini. The no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Matt Griffin will start this afternoon’s 4 Hours of Silverstone from the second row of the LMGTE grid, the Irish driver posting a 1m56.335 lap.

The 4 Hours of Silverstone will begin later today at 14h30 BST.

Lineup

Pos Team No. Car Class Time
1 DragonSpeed 21 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:41.798
2 United Autosports 22 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:42.127
3 Idec Sport 28 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:42.460
4 Cool Racing 37 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:42.557
5 Panis Barthez Competition 23 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:42.716
6 G-Drive Racing 26 Aurus 01 – Gibson LMP2 1:42.993
7 Duqueine Engineering 30 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:43.089
8 Graff 39 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:43.240
9 RLR MSport 43 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:43.299
10 United Autosports 32 Ligier JSP217 – Gibson LMP2 1:43.323
11 Algarve Pro Racing 25 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:43.549
12 High Class Racing 20 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:43.644
13 BHK Motorsport 35 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:44.360
14 Inter Europol Competition 34 Ligier JSP217 – Gibson LMP2 1:44.936
15 Panis Barthez Competition 24 Ligier JSP217 – Gibson LMP2 1:45.207
16 Algarve Pro Racing 31 Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 1:45.570
17 Carlin 45 Dallara P217 – Gibson LMP2 1:46.245
18 Idec Sport 27 Ligier JSP217 – Gibson LMP2 1:47.630
Pos Team No. Car Class Time
1 M Racing 19 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 1:53.468
2 Ultimate 17 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 1:53.730
3 Oregon Team 10 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 1:53.744
4 Eurointernational 11 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 1:53.781
5 360 Racing 6 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 1:53.847
6 Nielsen Racing 7 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 1:54.103
7 Realteam Racing 9 Norma M 30 – Nissan LMP3 1:54.372
8 United Autosports 2 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 1:54.605
9 United Autosports 3 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 1:54.615
10 RLR MSport 15 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 1:54.968
11 Nielsen Racing 8 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 1:55.062
12 Inter Europol Competition 14 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 1:55.483
13 360 Racing 5 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 1:55.649
14 Inter Europol Competition 13 Ligier JS P3 – Nissan LMP3 1:55.772
Pos Team No. Car Class Time
1 Proton Competition 88 Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE 1:55.322
2 Kessel Racing 60 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 1:56.178
3 Spirit of Race 55 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 1:56.335
4 Dempsey – Proton Racing 77 Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE 1:56.619
5 Luzich Racing 51 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 1:56.783
6 Kessel Racing 83 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 1:57.137
7 JMW Motorsport 66 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO LMGTE 1:57.204