Nico Lapierre secured the second pole position of the year for the no21 Dragonspeed Oreca-Gibson with the French driver leading an Oreca 1-2-3 at the French manufacturers home track, with three French drivers at the wheel of each car.
Lapierre posted a 1m52.761 lap on his first flying lap which was never beaten for the rest of the 10-minute qualifying session despite a strong challenge from Leo Roussel in the Dragonspeed run no22 G-Drive Racing Oreca.
At the chequered flag Lapierre was 0.145s ahead of Roussel and 0.290s ahead of Enzo Guibbert in the no39 Graff Oreca-Gibson.
The no27 SMP Racing Dallara of Matevos Isaakyan was fourth fastest, the Russian posting a 1m53.194 lap, three tenths ahead of the first of the Ligiers, the no32 United Autosports JSP217 in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque.
Ross Kaiser took the no6 360 Racing Ligier to the LMP3 pole position at Le Castellet, taking control of the class and then securing pole with a 2m02.186 in the second half of qualifying. Kaiser’s lap was 0.285s ahead of fellow British driver Alex Kapadia in the no15 RLR MSport Ligier and means there have been four different cars on pole position this season.
Kapadia had held the provisional pole early in the session but couldn’t quite make it after Kaiser had posted two very quick laps.
The third car in the mix for the pole position was the no18 M.Racing YMR Ligier of Alexandre Cougnaud, the French driver finishing the session in third place 0.4 seconds behind the pole position holder at the end of the 10 minute session.
Matt Griffin secured the second LMGTE pole position of the season for the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari F488 after the Irishman put in two quick laps, with the best lap of 2m04.202 good enough to claim pole by 0.37 seconds ahead of Matteo Cairoli’s no77 Proton Competition Porsche 911.
Source: ELMS Media
