De Gerus Storms to Pole for Barcelona Opener

Photo: MPS Agency

Reshad de Gerus gave Duqueine Team pole position in qualifying of the 4 Hours of Barcelona, the opening round of the European Le Mans Series.

The Frenchman stormed to a best lap of 1:27.822 aboard the No. 30 Oreca 07 Gibson, 0.166 seconds faster than the No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca in the hands of Matteo Cairoli.

Cairoli held provisional pole for a not insignificant portion of the 15-minute session, but was ultimately narrowly bested by De Gerus, who took his first pole since the 2023 season opener at Barcelona.

Tom Dillmann, despite forming a pole threat, ended up third for Inter Europol Competition ahead of the No. 37 CLX Pure Rxcing Oreca of Tom Blomqvist.

Mathys Jaubert completed the overall top five in his maiden ELMS qualifying session, with the Frenchman’s late effort demoting the No. 48 VDS Panis Racing entry of Charles Milesi to sixth.

In LMP2 Pro-Am, Giorgio Roda extended his strong qualifying record by narrowly beating Ao by TF’s PJ Hyett and TDS Racing’s Rodrigo Sales in a red-flagged session.

Roda laid down a benchmark of 1:31.110 aboard the No. 77 Oreca 07 Gibson, which was then quick enough to fend off Hyett’s fastest effort by 0.239 seconds.

Sales, piloting the No. 29 Oreca, was 0.813 seconds off in third place and was joined on the second row by AF Corse driver Francois Perrodo.

The 15-minute Pro-Am shootout was interrupted by a red flag, triggered when Georgios Kolovos went off at Turn 7 aboard the No. 3 DKR Engineering Oreca.

Notably, Sales went off into the Turn 3 gravel at the same time, but Kolovos was determined to have caused the red flag and was therefore not allowed to rejoin the session.

Iron Lynx Gives Mercedes-AMG Debut LMGT3 Pole, CLX Tops LMP3

Martin Berry delivered Mercedes-AMG pole position in the LMGT3 class upon the brand’s series debut.

Berry steered the No. 60 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a best lap of 1:42.257, outpacing the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R in the hands of Celia Martin by 0.187 seconds.

The result is a landmark outcome for Mercedes-AMG, topping qualifying for its maiden outing in ELMS. Berry also secured his personal first LMGT3 pole.

Clement Mateu took third in the No. 59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, ahead of Custodio Toledo aboard the No. 50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

The LMP3 pole was captured by CLX Motorsport, with Adrien Closmenil setting a best time of 1:36.188 aboard the No. 17 Ligier JS P325 Toyota.

Closmenil was 0.237 seconds faster than Rik Koen aboard the No. 8 Team Virage Ligier, with Ian Aguilera third for Eurointernational.

Jean-Baptiste Lahaye slotted into fourth in the No. 35 Ultimate Ligier, which the top five in class rounded out by the No. 12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine D09 Nissan driven by Griffin Peebles.

The 4 Hours of Barcelona will kick off Sunday at 12:00 p.m. CEST (6:00 a.m. EDT).