It's All Cool At Portimao. WATCH THE ELMS FINAL LIVE
The no37 Cool Racing Oreca will start the 4 Hours of Portimão at the front of the 41-car field after posting the fastest lap in qualifying at the chequered flag.
The fastest car in the early part of the qualifying session was the no24 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Ferdinand Habsburg, the Austrian setting a 1m31.233 before heading into the pits for fresh rubber. The no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus of Nyck De Vries briefly went onto pole with a 1m31.105 before Habsburg went quickest again with a 1m30.989.
It looked like it was going to be a home pole for the Portuguese team but Milesi decided that he wanted to start the race at the front and the 24 Hours of Le Mans winner crossed the line in 1m30.812, just 0.177s ahead of no24 Oreca.
Melbourne driver James Allen will start from 7th on the grid in the car he shares with Julien Canal and ex F1 driver Will Stevens.
LMP3 – United Autosports Back on pole
2020 LMP3 champion Wayne Boyd took the first pole of the season for the no2 United Autosports Ligier, his first since the 4 Hours of Portimão in his championship winning season.
Boyd made an early bid for the top spot with a 1m36.803, just 0.009s ahead of Ugo De Wilde in the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier. Laurents Hörr made a bid for his fifth pole of the season in the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine with a 1m36.488 but was instantly pushed back to second place by De Wilde, the Belgian going 0.057s faster than his German rival.
As the chequered flag came out it looked like De Wilde was going to take pole but Hörr went quicker again, only to lose the lap to track limits. Then Boyd crossed the line in a 1m36.372 to take pole position by just 0.059s.
LMGTE: Gunn Takes Top Spot
Ross Gunn secured his second pole position of the 2021 ELMS season with a 1m39.209 on his penultimate lap of the 10-minutes session. The British driver had gone quickest early on but a track limit violation removed that lap from the timing screen. After a short pitstop for tyres, Gunn emerged to secure pole for the 4 Hours of Portimão.
Gianmaria Bruni will join Gunn on the front row of the LMGTE grid, the Italian posting a 1m39.689, six hundredths ahead of the no88 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessio Rovera and a tenth ahead of the no80 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Miguel Molina. Rahel Frey had headed the timing screen for most of the session in the no83 Iron Lynx Ferrari, but the Swiss driver ended up 6th at the chequered flag.
