Virage Edges Closer To LMP3 Title With Portimao Pole
Team Virage’s #16 Ligier JS P320 will start tomorrow’s Le Mans Cup season finale at Portimao from Pole Position in LMP3 after Julien Gerbi set 1:56.685 in a rain-soaked LMP3 Qualifying. The extra point for pole means he and his teammate Gillian Henrion are 22 points ahead of their nearest rivals in the LMP3 title […]
The post Virage Edges Closer To LMP3 Title With Portimao Pole first appeared on dailysportscar.com.Team Virage’s #16 Ligier JS P320 will start tomorrow’s Le Mans Cup season finale at Portimao from Pole Position in LMP3 after Julien Gerbi set 1:56.685 in a rain-soaked LMP3 Qualifying.
The extra point for pole means he and his teammate Gillian Henrion are 22 points ahead of their nearest rivals in the LMP3 title race and only need a finish of eighth or higher to secure both the Team and Driver titles tomorrow.
“It feels nice, in Barcelona we had a shot for pole, and I had a track limit penalty so it was taken away. Since then, all the team has been chasing me saying “When will we take pole?”, so, it was a good moment to do it,” said Gerbi after the session.
“It (the conditions) got worse throughout the session, so really it was about getting out and being able to do the lap time as soon as possible, and I think that my lap was my second push, so it was in the beginning. After that, I pushed more, I drove actually better, but I think that the track was more wet, and I didn’t manage to improve the whole lap.”
“In this situation you need to think about the points, and you need to think about the championship so, most probably we’ll be in that philosophy, but after, you know, when the lights go(es) off, things can change.”
However, due to the conditions worsening throughout Qualifying, the top two in the GT3 sesssion set faster times than the LMP3 polesitter, resulting in a mixed grid for tomorrow’s race.
The fastest of two was the #64 Team Parker Racing Porsche. It was the first pole of the season for the #64 crew after Alex Martin set a 1:54.614. Hiroshi Hamaguchi put Iron Lynx’s #63 Lamborghini second.
The GT3 session, held before the LMP3 cars hit the track, was hit by drizzle as soon as it got underway. The majority of the runners attempted to set a lap time with slick tyres, but spins for the #51, #64, #18 caused a red flag that quickly put that idea to rest.
Only one of the cars sustained damage, the #55 GMB Honda, which lost control coming out of Turn 11, hitting the hump on the outside of the corner, sending the car spinning into the barriers on the right side of the track.
The rest of the session was relatively clean aside from a few laps being deleted for track limit violations.
Third fastest was Arnold Robin in the points-leading #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin, while Gabriele Rindone steered the #19 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini to fourth. The #86 HCR with CaffeineSix ended up sixth quickest, ahead of the the bruised #55 GMB Motorsport Honda NSX GT3 Evo22.
In the LMP3 session moments later, the #11 Ligier of CD Sport ended up second fastest, though Shahan Haig Sarkissian was unable to set a sub-1:57 lap and better Gerbi in the pole-winning Virage Ligier. The #77 JS P320 of Team Thor completed the top three in the class with a 1:57.330.
Fourth, fifth and sixth were the #59 of Team Virage driven by Oscar Bittar, the #7 of Nielsen Racing piloted by Anthony Wells and #15 of Inter Europol Competition, which rounding off the third row of the grid after Chris Short’s efforts.
Image courtesy of Le Mans Cup
The post Virage Edges Closer To LMP3 Title With Portimao Pole first appeared on dailysportscar.com.