The TDS Racing x Vaillant Oreca-Gibson team secured the first pole position and the first championship point of the 2022 European Le Mans Series in dramatic fashion when the red flag was shown at the end of the 10-minute qualifying session at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. Mathias Beche led the way with a lap in 1:43.038, which was under threat as several rivals posted purple and blue sector times. However, the session was stopped due to the #40 Graff Oreca, driven by David Droux, stopping on the track. The Swiss driver had already pulled into the pitlane and celebrated the pole position with the rest of the TDS Racing team members. The #22 United Autosports Oreca will start on the front row after Tom Gamble’s best lap of 1m43.191. The #9 Prema Racing Oreca and the #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca will make up row two.
It was an intense qualifying session as the provisional pole position had been claimed by at least three other cars, with Louis Deletraz (#9 Prema Racing), Yifei Ye (#37 Cool Racing), and Tom Gamble (#22 United Autosports) all making a bid for the top spot on tomorrow’s grid.
The TDS Racing x Vaillant Oreca-Gibson secured the first pole position, and the first championship point, of the 2022 European Le Mans Series in dramatic fashion when the red flag was shown right at the end of the 10-minute qualifying session.
Other Pole Winners
In the LMP3 category, Malthe Jakobsen of Cool Racing Ligier secured the class pole for the first time by posting two rapid laps with a best time of 1:49.008, three-tenths ahead of the rest of the field. Alex Kapadia of RLR MSport Ligier put in a last gasp challenge for pole, finishing in second place on the LMP3 grid, 0.339s behind Jakobsen’s time. The #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine-Nissan will join the #27 Cool Racing Ligier on the second row after Sebastien Alvarez posted a 1:49.700 lap to keep the reigning champions in touch for tomorrow’s 4 Hours of Le Castellet.
Meanwhile, the LMGTE pole was claimed by the #32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Memo Gidley, the American claiming the top spot in the first all-bronze ELMS qualifying session. The #83 Iron Dames Ferrari will join the #32 Ferrari on row two after Sarah Bovy put in a 1:55.020 on her last lap, pushing the #77 Porsche into fourth by 0.174s.
CLICK HERE for the results from LMP2 Qualifying
CLICK HERE for the results from LMP3 Qualifying
CLICK HERE for the results from LMGTE Qualifying
The 4 Hours of Le Castellet is set to start at 11h00 tomorrow morning.
