The no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07-Gibson will start the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring tomorrow at the head of the 41-car grid after Logan Sargeant held his nerve as the damp track after earlier rain made the conditions difficult to judge.
The American, who is making his LMP2, and ELMS race, debut this weekend, posted a 1m20.596 lap to finish the short 10-minute session 0.157s ahead of Ferdinand Habsburg in the no24 Algarve Pro Racing, the Austrian briefly holding the top spot for his home race earlier in the session.
The no32 United Autosports Oreca of Nicolas Jamin will head row 2 after the French driver posted a 1m20.877, 0.281s behind Sergeant and 0.076s ahead of the no25 G-Drive Racing Aurus of Roberto Mehri.
Round 1 winner Louis Deletraz in the no41 Orlen Team WRT Oreca was fifth fastest with a 1m21.037.The top 11 cars were split by less than 1 second at the end of qualifying.
LMP3: DKR Engineering Takes Pole as Heavy Rain Causes Teams a Tyre Choice Dilemma
As the cars lined up at the end of the pitlane to start the 10-minute LMP3 qualifying session the rain started to come down quite hard and will all the cars on slick tyres the drivers had to be ultra-careful in the slippery conditions, but several cars went off track or span on the wet surface.
While some came into the pits most stayed out as the rain started to ease and it was Wayne Boyd in the no2 United Autosports Ligier who made the early pace, the reigning champion posting a 1m34.002 after briefly losing the top spot to Laurents Hörr in the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine.
The times continued to tumble as the track started to dry with Laurents Hörr bouncing to the top of the standings with a 1m31.365 after David Droux made a bid for pole in the no8 Graff Ligier.Wayne Boyd was still in the hunt and briefly appeared at the head of the timing screen before the lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.
The session ended with Laurents Hörr in the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine finishing on a 1m29.243 on his penultimate lap, with Wayne Boyd in the no2 United Autosports Ligier in second just 0.225s behind, with the no3 United Autosports Ligier of Duncan Tappy heading row 2 with the no18 1 Aim Villorba Corse Ligier of Damiano Fioravanti also starting tomorrow’s race on row 2.
LMGTE: Rovera Takes Pole for AF Corse as Ferrari Dominate Wet Qualifying
The no88 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of Alessio Rovera was the best of the nine car grid, out pacing the three Iron Lynx Ferraris.
The Italian’s lap of 1m27.200 in the damp session that was declared wet at the start was 0.328s ahead of the rest of the field, which was led by the no83 Ferrari of Michelle Gatting, the Dane posting a 1m27.528 lap as the chequered flag was shown to put the Iron Dames car on the front row for tomorrow’s race.
The no60 and no80 Iron Lynx Ferraris will fill row 2 while no77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Matt Campbell was 5thfastest and the best of the rest with a 1m27.948 lap, seven tenths behind Rovera.
The 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring is due to begin at 11h00 on Sunday 16 May.
CLICK HERE for the result from qualifying for the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring
