G-Drive Racing’s Dunlop-shod Aurus 01 Gibson will start from pole position in tomorrow’s ELMS 4 Hours of Le Castellet, after a thrilling LMP2 Qualifying session.

Norman Nato, who won here last year with Racing Engineering, was put forward for the session and delivered for the 2018 championship-winning team. The Frenchman set multiple fast times during the 15-minute dash, taking provisional pole towards the end, before trading places with Paul Loup Chatin at the top.

Eventually though, Nato, in the re-badged, re-homologated ORECA 07, set a 1:40.052 to seal it. In the process, the time broke the LMP2 circuit lap record yet again this weekend, and put an Aurus on pole for the first time in ACO rules racing.

“I think it’s really good, I wasn’t expecting that! Let’s hope for the race now!” team owner and driver Roman Rusinov said.

Nato added: “To be honest we didn’t expect that, as we used much of practice and testing to get together a race set up. We knew the Michelin tyres are strong here too. We found something quite interested, and I finished the job. It will be a really interesting race tomorrow!”

Chatin’s best time was just 25 thousandths off, the Frenchman who paced FP2, putting together a 1:40.077 lap at the end in the IDEC Sport #28 ORECA.

Remarkably, the best of the Ligiers ended up third. Alex Brundle put on a show at the end, pushing the #32 United Autosports JS P217 to its limits, jumping into the top three after the checkered flag came out with a 1:40.293.

“I came into that thinking anything in the top eight would be a real achievement as we’ve been obliterating tyres all week. I’m very happy with that!” Brundle told DSC.

Just outside the top three was the Cool Racing ORECA 07, a strong result for the team on its first weekend in LMP2, and the DragonSpeed ORECA 07, which returned to the pits with a time within four-tenths of pole.

In LMP3, like the Le Mans Cup Qualifying session, the Norma M30s were the class of the field.

Oregon Team eventually took its first ever ELMS pole after multiple improvements from the frontrunners throughout the session. Damiani Fioravanti drove the team’s #10 M30 and took Pole with a 1:49.686 on his final flying lap.

“It was an awesome drive from Damiani it sets us up really well for the race. The race is long but this first step is great.” said his teammate Gustas Grinbergas.

Starting from second in tomorrow’s race will be the #17 Ultimate Norma, Matthieu Lahaye getting faster throughout the session, always in the running for pole, his best time eventually a 1:49.814, just over a tenth off Fioravanti at the end.

The top three was then completed by the #19 M Racing Norma with a 1:50.194, which pushed the Realteam Racing example down to the second spot on the second row.

The best of the Ligiers ended up fifth, the #11 Eurointernational JS P3 managing a 1:50.659 from Dane Mikkel Jensen. It was a remarkable achievement to get such a lap out of the car, as the team received the replacement chassis (and indeed the oldest JS P3 in existence chassis 01!) just last night after a court order forced authorities to seize both its cars for the weekend on Friday morning.

In GTE, Matteo Cairoli was another driver who left it late, but stunned the field. He put together a 1:52.499 at the death of the session to put the #77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR on pole.

The Italian had to push hard at the end, and better Alessandro Pier Guidi’s effort in the new #51 Luzich Racing Ferrari. Pier Guidi looked sure to have taken pole after a late 1:51.772 to break the Porsche deadlock at the front, but it wasn’t enough.

The top three, in the end, was completed by the #88 Proton Competition Porsche, Thomas Preining unable to respond to Pier Guidi and Cairoli’s late efforts to better his time, as the Austrian had pitted to sit out the final minutes.

“It was a good lap from Matteo at the end, we managed to come back, we were really lucky with the timing!” Said team boss Christian Reid. “To start the season with pole is always good!”

Featured image courtesy of G-Drive Racing

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