Hanson Puts United On 4H Aragon Pole
Phil Hanson starred in today’s ELMS Qualifying at Aragon, ahead of the four-hour into-the-night race later today, scoring the first pole position of the season for the #22 United Autosports ORECA. In the end, the pole-winning lap was a 1:46.822, set with a minute to go in the session. It was bettered by Neel Jani […]
The post Hanson Puts United On 4H Aragon Pole first appeared on dailysportscar.com.Phil Hanson starred in today’s ELMS Qualifying at Aragon, ahead of the four-hour into-the-night race later today, scoring the first pole position of the season for the #22 United Autosports ORECA.
In the end, the pole-winning lap was a 1:46.822, set with a minute to go in the session. It was bettered by Neel Jani in the #30 Duqueine ORECA moments later, but the Swiss’ 1:46.801 would be deleted due for a track limits violation, handing the top spot back to Hanson, for whom it was also his first pole from behind the wheel in ELMS competition.
The decision to delete Jani’s time dropped him to second with a 1:46.850, 0.028 off pole.
“We were surprised by the pace,” Hanson said after scoring his first pole from behind the wheel in ELMS competition. “It was super tight but I was able to put the lap together. I wasn’t struggling with the heat too much this week, but there are now rumours of a storm coming! It would be funny for the race to be wet after 42-degree heat all week.”
On row two, a rapid 1:46.901 from Olli Caldwell in the #43 Inter Europol ORECA secured third, while a 1:47.262 from Jose Maria Lopez in the #47 COOL ORECA was good enough for fourth.
Further down the order, it was a disastrous session for the Paul Ricard-winning Algarve Pro Racing #25 crew, as James Allen failed to set a time and stopped out on track at Turn 11, bringing out red flags before anyone had set a flying lap. The car will start from the back of the field.
LMP2 Pro/Am’s session, held moments before the LMP2 teams hit the track, saw Salih Yoluc score his third class pole in a row in the Racing Team Turkey ORECA. After multiple improvements late in the session, his best time was a 1:49.361, three-tenths quicker than Proton Competition’s Giorgio Roda who came closest to challenging him.
“Salih did an amazing lap again and got us an extra point in the championship. It will be tough starting behind the LMP2s, but our goal is to fight for the overall win,” Racing Team Turkey driver Louis Delatraz said after the session.
Roda also set a series of fast times during the session in the #99, his best eventually a 1:49.682 to secure a spot on the front row.
A late flyer from Rodrigo Sales put the #24 Nielsen Racing ORECA third, leapfrogging the #83 AF Corse example which ended up fourth after Francois Perrodo had multiple fast laps deleted for track limit violations.
LMP3 was topped by Inter Europol’s Wyatt Brichacek, who made multiple improvements in the #13 en route to pole. His best time was a 1:52.269, three-tenths faster than Racing Spirit of Leman’s Antoine Doquin, who set a lap of 1:52.590 with six minutes to go.
Remarkably, Brichacek’s performance delivered Inter Europol’s first ever ELMS LMP3 pole position, a remarkable feat considering the Le Mans class-winning Polish team’s history in the category which dates back to 2016.
“We worked so hard for this. The temperature of the track has changed a lot but we are prepared for this situation. We think we have a very good set-up for the race, so I am very confident,” said Brichacek’s teammate Miguel Cristovao.
Third in LMP3 was the #8 Team Virage Ligier of Manuel Espirito Santo, ahead of the #11 Eurointernational Ligier that slotted in fourth. Eurointernational’s second car, the #10, will start fifth.
It was an extremely tight session, with nine of the 12 cars in the class all setting times within nine-tenths of pole.
In GTE, JMW Motorsport’s Ferrari 488 GTE Evo will start from pole position after a late flyer from Martin Berry at the very end of the red-flag interrupted session.
Berry’s time was a 1:57.022, which pipped Formula Racing’s Johnny Laursen to the top spot by 0.241.
“Coming to this weekend it was an unknown for everyone, we’ve never been here before. So it’s a mega result,” a jubilant Lorcan Hanafin said after the session when asked about his teammate’s performance.
Proton Competition’s #16 Porsche ended up third fastest after Ryan Hardwick recovered from an off in the opening minutes that brought out the red flags. Hardwick had a spin and ended up stuck in a gravel trap, bringing the session to a temporary halt with just under nine minutes remaining.
After returning to the pits, Hardwick eventually set a 1:57.375 to hand his team a space on row two in GTE. The #93 Proton Porsche will line up alongside the #16 after a strong performance from Michael Fassbender, who briefly sat atop the timing screens after the session restarted.
Tonight’s ELMS 4 Hours of Aragon is set to get underway at 18:00 local time in Spain.
Image courtesy of United Autosports
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