Alessio Rovera secured the first ELMS LMP2 pole position for AF Corse in his home race at Imola. Just a week after claiming a pole position for the team in the FIA WEC at Spa-Francorchamps, Rovera set the benchmark with a lap time of 1m32.396 in the no88 AF Corse Oreca-Gibson. Despite the efforts of Mathias Beche in the no31 TDS Racing X Vaillante Oreca, who came close with a lap time of 1m32.613, Rovera maintained his position at the top.
Rovera further improved his time to 1m32.269 before the end of the qualifying session, securing his pole position for the 4 Hours of Imola. Louis Deletraz of Prema Racing will start from the second row, followed by Yifei Ye of Cool Racing. Job Van Uitert of Panis Racing and Phil Hanson of United Autosports will make up the third row. Unfortunately, the no24 Nielsen Racing Oreca of Ben Hanley was unable to post a time due to a wheel issue.
Jakobsen Storms to LMP3 Pole in Imola
In the LMP3 category, Malthe Jakobsen of Cool Racing dominated qualifying and secured pole position for the 4 Hours of Imola. The 18-year-old driver, who won the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, set the pace with a best lap time of 1m37.182 in the no17 Ligier JS P320. Sebastian Alvarez of DKR Engineering finished in second place, 0.492s behind Jakobsen, followed by Noam Abramczyk of Inter Europol Competition in third.
Bailey Voisin of United Autosport and Nicolas Maulini of Cool Racing will start from the second row, while the third row will be occupied by the no2 United Autosport Ligier and the no27 Cool Racing Ligier.
Ahmed Al Harthy Becomes First Omani Driver to Claim ELMS Pole
Ahmed Al Harthy of Oman Racing with TF Sport made history by becoming the first Omani driver to secure a pole position in the ELMS. Al Harthy set a time of 1m41.974 in the no69 Aston Martin, establishing himself as the leader in the LMGTE category for the 4 Hours of Imola. Sarah Bovy of Iron Lynx Ferrari finished in second place, followed by Andrew Haryanto of Absolute Racing Porsche.
The 4 Hours of Imola is set to begin at 11:30 on Sunday, May 15th.
CLICK HERE for the results from qualifying for the 4 Hours of Imola.
