Qualifying report
European Le Mans Silverstone
Silverstone ELMS: Beche delivers pole for Thiriet by TDS
Mathias Beche put his #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing car on pole by more than a second for the season-opening European Le Mans Series race at Silverstone.
Jack Amey
Edited: Apr 16, 2016, 8:14 PM
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His time of 2m06.786s was 1.105s clear of Stefano Coletti in the #32 SMP Racing, whose time of 2m08.918s was only good enough for second place.
The #29 and #38 cars of Pegasus Racing and G-Drive Racing, driven by Leo Roussel and Harry Tincknell respectively, make up the second row of the grid.
The #48 Murphy Prototypes caused a red flag during qualifying when Damien Faulkner went off at Luffield, his car hitting the barrier on the outside of the corner.
There were six minutes left in the session when the red flags came out with the track seemingly wet from the earlier snow at Silverstone.
Beche was briefly dispatched from pole position shortly after the session resumed but returned the top of the time sheets when he posted a 2m06.721s.
The #46 car has maintained its top form leading both the practice sessions and qualifying for the opening European Le Mans Series race.
The last minute yellow flag in the last corner, caused by newcomer Parth Ghorpade in the Algarve car, compromised the lap times of many drivers, as they couldn't improve on their times.
Meanwhile, Ross Kaiser’s time of 2m13.264s was enough to take LMP3 pole position away from Dino Lunardi.
The session saw a number of spins due to poor weather and track conditions, but it was Kaiser who came out on top.
His time of 2m13.264s right at the end of the session pipped Lunardi’s #19 Duqueine Racing car to pole by 0.051s.
Lunardi had been quickest in the session until the very end, when Kaiser pipped him to start ahead on the grid.
The #96 Aston Martin will start from the front of the GTE class after dominating a qualifying session in wet conditions.
Richie Stanaway’s time of 2m19.348s was enough to put Aston Martin at the head of the GTE field, just under a second clear of Richard Lietz’s 2m20.386s in the #88 Porsche Proton Competition car.
Qualifying results - Top 10:
Pos Driver Car / Engine Time Gap 1 Pierre Thiriet
Mathias Beche
Ryo Hirakawa ORECA/Nissan 2'06.471 2 Stefano Coletti
Julian Leal
Andreas Wirth BR Engineering/Nissan 2'07.576 1.105 3 Ines Taittinger
Remy Striebig
Leo Roussel Morgan/Nissan 2'07.624 1.153 4 Simon Dolan
Harry Tincknell
G.van der Garde Gibson/Nissan 2'07.855 1.384 5 Henrik Hedman
Nicolas Lapierre
Benjamin Hanley ORECA/Nissan 2'08.194 1.723 6 Sean Gelael
Mitch Evans
A.Giovinazzi BR Engineering/Nissan 2'08.247 1.776 7 Memo Rojas
Julien Canal
Kuba Giermaziak Ligier/Nissan 2'08.592 2.121 8 Fabien Barthez
Timothé Buret
Paul-Loup Chatin Ligier/Nissan 2'08.895 2.424 9 Tracy Krohn
Nic Jönsson
Björn Wirdheim Ligier/Nissan 2'09.518 3.047 10 Patrice Lafargue
Paul Lafargue
D.Enjalbert Ligier/Judd 2'09.943 3.472
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