First pole position for Graff Racing in LMP2

The French team was thrilled when Enzo Guibbert clocked the best time in the #39 Oreca 07-Gibson at the qualifying session. The French driver summed it up: "It's fanstastic to clinch pole position here at Monza. And it's my first qualifying in LMP2!" Nicolas Lapierre, in DragonSpeed's #21 Oreca 07-Gibson gave his all but missed the pole by one-tenth of a second. The third time was clocked by Ryo Hirakawa in G-Drive Racing's #22, which makes three Oreca 07s in the top three positions on the starting grid! The first Ligier JS P217 is United Autosports' #32, winner of the first race of the season at Silverstone. 

United Autosports still in control

In LMP3, the defending champion rose to the occasion and clocked the best time in 1'45.725 thanks to British driver Wayne Boyd in the #3 Ligier JS P3-Nissan, ahead of a car that just qualified better in this class than ever before: Yvan Muller Racing's #19 Norma M30-Nissan with Ricky Capo at the wheel. The third spot went to a driver very well-known at Le Mans, Matthieu Lahaye in the #17 Ligier JS P3 Ultimate. The French native has participated in the 24 Hours four times with his best result dating back to 2008, the year he debuted, at the wheel of Saulnier Racing's Pescarolo 01-Judd along with Pierre Ragues and Cheng Congfu (third in LMP2). At Monza, a total of 13 LMP3s have qualified within the same second! British driver Wayne Boyd: "I had a good feeling with the car this afternoon. I want to thank the entire team as well as my two teammates. The race tomorrow will be very close, especially after the times clocked at this session, I hope we will win. We'll see how it goes tomorrow."

Ferrari on its home turf!

It couldn't have gone any other way. Ferrari, at its favorite circuit and cheered on by its countless "tifosi" (fans), clocked the best time in the LMGTE Am class thanks to Spirit of Race's #55 488 GTE driven by Matt Griffin: "It's a great result for the whole team. We worked hard with the engineers to adapt the car to this circuit. It was just wonderful, I gave everything I could to clock this time. It's really a special feeling to score the pole with Ferrari, here at Monza. It's a dream that became a reality for me."

Less than three-tenths of a second behind the Italian is Larbre Compétition's Corvette C7-Z06 in the team's first race of the season. The third time went to Mattéo Cairoli in Proton Compétition's #77 Porsche 911 RSR after the team announced (almost all) its driver line-ups for the 24 Hours of Le Mans yesterday (read article).

The start of the Monza round will be given tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. local time.

Photo (Copyright - VSA/Pascal Saivet): Graff Racing's #39 Oreca 07-Gibson will start from the pole tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.