ELMS, 6 Hours of Le Castellet - Qualifying Report

Pole for TDS Racing in P2, Melo takes GTE Pro, and Goossens heads GTE Am

The Qualifying session form the weekend’s 6 Hours of Le Castellet got under way at ten to four, with the Stephane Sarrazin first to post a quick time, with a 1:49.917 well on the pace, but almost instantly bettered by Guillaume Moreau in the Oak Racing Morgan Judd with a 1:49.363 to lay his first claim to provisional pole.

These two swapped the top slot, lap by lap, for several minutes, with Sarrazin regaining the top, and then Moreau snatching it back.

Tom Kimber-Smith appeared to be working up to speed more gently, leaving Sam Hancock in then Jota Zytek to slot into third with a 1:50.147 for the #38 car.

Sarrazin and Moreau continued to set the outright pace, with Beche then clocking a 1:49.860 to snatch third from Hancock for Thiriet TDS Racing. The surprise with ten minutes gone was to see the Boutsen LMPC #40 standing 5th overall, with a much improved 1:57.125, but with several of the P2 cars yet to have set a good flying lap it was a temporary aberration.

Pierre Kaffer’s first flyer was a 1:50.385 to ease the Boutsen LMPC down to 7th, and then Warren Hughes entered the fray with a 1:50.182 on his first flyer, and then a 1:49.122 on his second, to move third.

A thrilling lap from Tom Kimber-Smith threw the Graves car up to second, 1:48.882 snatching the slot from Sarrazin, but Beche was also on a charge. Despite tyres that had already done for our five flying laps, he was still able to make improvements, and clocking 1:48.171 was the best we’d seen for some hours. It rocketed the TDS Oreca through to the top slot.

Pierre Kaffer’s next best saw the Pecom car through to fourth, demoting Hughes to fifth. Three cars had still yet to set times, including the Curtis Racing LMPC, the Extreme Limite Norma and, of course, the Boutsen Oreca, unlikely to make an appearance again before tomorrow morning’s warm-up.

The early flyers; Sarrazin and Hancock, were looking unlikely to maintain their challenge with others now consistently quicker, but Tom Kimber-Smith hadn’t yet finished his run. No improvement, but close to his best time.

The one making an unhurried approach to qualifying was the Status GP Lola, but Buurman came through with a late run, moving into second with a 1:48.837 just a couple of laps from the chequered flag.

A brief spin for Warren Hughes would likely have flat-spotted the tyres on the Murphy Prototypes Oreca, and he pitted some time before the chequered flag, which flew at ten past four, just in time for Phil Keen to set a single flyer in the Curtis racing technologies LMPC and assure the squad a sensible slot on the grid.

Top LMP2 Times

1. Thiriet by TDS Racing #46 (Mathias Beche): 1:48.171
2. Status GP #17 (Yelmer Buurman): 1:48.482
3. Greaves Motorsport Zytek #1 (Tom Kimber-Smith): 1:48.882
4. Oak Racing Morgan Judd #24 (Guillaume Moreau): 1:48.977
5. Pecom Racing #10 (Pierre Kaffer): 1:49.068
6. Murphy Prototypes #24 (Warren Hughes): 1:49.122
7. Sebastien Loeb Racing #19 (Stéphane Sarrazin): 1:49.157
8. Jota Zytek Nissan #38 (Sam Hancock): 1:49.687
9. Race Performance #11 (Michel Frey): 1:50.193
10. Boutsen Ginion LMPC #40 (Massimo Vignali): 1:55.338
11. Curtis Racing Technologies #42 (Phil Keen): 1:55.410

GT Qualifying

The GT cars headed out into the sunlight at twenty past four, but it’s a long out-lap here at Paul Ricard, and it was some while before anyone came through to set a flying time.

Marc Goossens in the #75 Prospeed Porsche immediately went two seconds quicker than the car had gone in practice, with a 1:58.388, but laps from JMB, Kessel and AF Corse weren’t yet in that league.

Stuart Hall however was swiftly into the groove he’d set in final practice, and his first through-lap was a 1:59.113, to move the #69 Aston into provisional second in GT. His second, a 1:58.532, narrowed the gap to Goossens to around four-tenths.

Once again, the ‘Am’ cars were leading the charge as the session got under way, the ‘Pros’ seemingly taking that little while longer to gather their momentum. The first of these to impress was Peter Philipp in the #61 Kessel Racing F458, but with fifteen minutes gone, Jaime Melo popped in exactly where he’d been expected to appear, laying claim to the top position with a best of 1:58.214.

Nicolas Armindo then moved through to second in the ‘Am’ category, demoting Stuart Hall to third, a mere tenth shy of Goossens.

James Walker, qualifying gunner for JMW, was taking things more gently in the yellow Ferrari 458, setting a 1:58.581 on his first flyer, which was enough for second in the category, but still behind the leading three in GTE ‘Am’. His second, a 1:48.517, was much better, and eased him through to 15th overall just before the chequered flag came out.

The session lacked the exciting final moments we’d witnessed in P2 category, but the final order is hardly what we’d have expected in GT:

12. JMB Racing Ferrari 458 #83 (Jaime Melo): 1:57.630
13. Prospeed Competition Porsche #75 (Marc Goossens): 1:58.388
14. IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche #67 (Nicolas Armindo): 1:58.428
15. JMW Motorsport Ferrari 458 #66 (James Walker) 1:58.517
16. Gulf Racing Aston Martin #69 (Stuart Hall): 1:58.532
17. A F Corse Ferrari 458 #60 (Marco Cioci): 1:58.803
18. Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 #61 (Peter Philipp): 1:59.082
19. JMB Racing Ferrari 458 #99 (Alain Ferte): 2:00.182
20. Extreme Limite #44 (Fabien Rosier): no time
21. Boutsen Oreca 03 #45 (Jack Clarke): no time

A full qualifying results listing will follow shortly.