24h Le Mans
As expected these days, qualifying in the European Le Mans Series this weekend was highly competitive, and in the end Panis Barthez Compétition's #23 LigierJS P2 proved the fastest. The team not only clocked the best time in LM P2 but in LM P3 as well.
The fight in LM P2 was stunning. Paul Loup Chatin scored his first pole position with Panis Barthez Compétition's #23 Ligier JS P2 in 1:20:700. He is ahead by only five-hundredths of a second (!) of Thiriet by TDS Racing's #46 Oreca 05 Nissan driven by Mathias Beche. The current leader in the championship, G-Drive Racing's #38 Gibson 015S Nissan (Harry Tincknell) qualified third. The three cars are only separated by one tenth of a second, so tomorrow's race promises to be heated.
The other classes were also highly disputed. In LM P3, Simon Gachet clocked the best time at the wheel of his Ligier JS P3 (#16) in 1:26:126, and secured another top spot for French team Panis Barthez Compétition. Two other Ligier JS P3s - the #3 (United Autosport) and the #19 (Duqueine Engineering) - followed at two-tenths of a second.
In the LM GTE class, Proton Compétition's #88 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Matteo Cairoli clocked the best time. The German car came in ahead of JMW Motorsport and AT Racing's #56 and #66 Ferrari F458 Italia, respectively, with the latter competing at home. Again, the separations were very narrow with less than two-tenths of a second between the fastest cars.
Now on to the race tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. local time. If the times clocked during qualifying are any indication, the battle for victory will be fierce!
Click here for the qualifying classifications.
Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO
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