De Gerus Beats Allen To 4H Barcelona Pole

Reshad De Gerus snatched pole position for the 2023 ELMS 4 Hours of Barcelona in COOL Racing’s #47 ORECA, with a last-gasp 1:29.396 flyer at the end of what was a thrilling LMP2 shootout in Spain ahead of tomorrow’s season opener.

The time from De Gerus pushed James Allen’s #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA to second, moments after the Australian pipped Neel Jani to the top spot.

Jani ended up third in the #30 Duqueine Team ORECA, having waited until the first flurry of times came in to leave pit lane. The Le Mans winner and ELMS debutant briefly took provisional pole with a 1:29.692 before Allen and De Gerus bettered his time. He improved in the final moments also, but a 1:29.593 wasn’t enough for a front-row spot.

“I put everything together with a last push,” said De Gerus. “It’s very good to get the pole here. It’s amazing. I am sure we will have a good race tomorrow. I think it’s very good to be on the front row because we have lots of tyre degradation. So to have clean air will be nice.”

Outside the top three Phil Hanson put the #22 United ORECA fourth on the grid, ahead of Job Van Uitert who slotted in fifth steering Panis Racing’s 07 Gibson.

The LMP2 session was held after an impressive performance from Salih Yoluc to put Racing Team Turkey on LMP2 Pro/Am pole in the first-ever separate session for the new class. The Turkish driver set a 1:30.947 to go three-tenths faster than the other 10 Bronze-rated drivers that took part in the session, which was interrupted by a red flag.

LMP2 Pro/Am’s 15-minute run was one of two sessions to be red-flagged during ELMS Qualifying. The stoppage was caused by a brake fire for Henrik Hedman, who had to pull off at Turn 1 with just over eight minutes to go and be recovered by the marshals.

The pause and subsequent restart created a dash for fast times, which resulted in reigning Asian Le Mans Series champion Yoluc taking provisional pole and then improving to secure the position.

Giorgio Roda gave his all in pursuit of pole in the dying moments, but his final tour of the circuit, while an improvement on his initial banker, saw him stay second with a 1:31.267.

Alexandre Coigny took third, with a 1:32.838 aboard the #37 COOL Racing ORECA.

Marcos Siebert bossed the LMP3 Qualifying session for COOL Racing, with a 1:35.250 after multiple improvements that put him three tenths clear at the top. Following his hot lap, he pitted the #17 Ligier with a handful of minutes to go, confident it wouldn’t be bettered.

“It was a really good effort. We’ve been looking strong since the Prologue,” said Siebert, after scoring COOL Racing’s seventh LMP3 pole position in a row.

Alongside him on the front row will be the #13 Inter Europol Ligier, thanks to a 1:35.562 from Wyatt Brichacek which pushed Antoine Doquin in the #31 Racing Spirit of Leman JS P320 to third.

The fastest Duqueine M30 D08 – WTM Racing by Rinaldi’s #12 – ended up fourth.

The times did improve up and down the order during the session, but nobody was able to produce a final improvement at the death, as the session was cut short by a red flag, Manuel Espirito Santo caused the stoppage after he ended up beached in the gravel at Turn 3 in the #8 Team Virage Ligier.

Martin Berry ran fastest in GTE, after a superb 1:41.060 in the JMW Motorsport Ferrari to score the British team its first ELMS pole position since the 2018 season finale. The time came in the final five minutes of the session, to better the provisional pole time from Takeshi Kimura in the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari.

Kimura tried to respond on his final flyer and did improve from a 1:41.281 to a 1:41.173, but it wasn’t enough, with the Japanese driver missing out on pole by 0.113.

“I’m pretty happy about that. It’s my first weekend in a GTE car so I didn’t know what to expect,” Berry said after the session.

Ryan Hardwick meanwhile took third in the #16 Proton Porsche, ahead of the first of the Aston Martins from TF Sport.

Arnold Robin set the time in the #72 TF Aston Martin to secure a spot on the second row, adding to his strong performance in Le Mans Cup GT3 Qualifying with Racing Spirit of Leman earlier in the day which saw him set the class pole.

Tomorrow’s ELMS season opener is set to get underway at 11:30 am tomorrow local time.

QUALIFYING TIMES >>>