Oliver Turvey and Mika Salo on top of Paul Ricard qualifying

Oliver Turvey took his, and Jota Sport’s, fourth pole position in 2013 with a lap of 1m48.043 around the Paul Ricard circuit as the chequered flag fell to end the final qualifying session of the season. The British driver’s time was just 0.097 ahead of Brendon Hartley in the Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan, with the New Zealander claiming the front row position ahead championship rivals Thiriet by TDS Racing and Signatech Alpine with Mathias Beche and Nelson Panciatici qualifying in 3rd and 4th respectively.

The LMPC qualifying went as planned for title points leader Paul Loup Chatin, with the French driver posting a 1m52.052 lap, 2.5 seconds ahead of Anthony Pons in the second Team Endurance Challenge Oreca.

Ireland’s Matt Griffin took the top spot in the LMGTE class, putting himself, Johnny Mowlem and RAM Racing in the best position to take the driver and team titles later today. However they are far from complacent with Andrea Bertolini in the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari, Gunnar Jeanette in the no53 RAM Racing Ferrari, Nick Tandy in the Proton Competition Porsche and Jean-Karl Vernay in the IMSA Performance MATMUT Porsche all posting competitive times in qualifying.

Mika Salo is a name that is well known in the world of motorsport and beyond and the Finn’s name has appeared at the top of the ELMS time sheets for the GTC class when he posted a 1m57.377 lap to secure pole position in the no68 SMP Racing Ferrari just 0.026s ahead of teammate Viktor Shaitar in the championship leading no69 458 Italia GT3.

The drivers and teams now have five hours to prepare for the final race of the 2013 ELMS season with the 3 Hours of Paul Ricard starting at 16:30.

European Le Mans Series