Yelloly Grabs Pole At Paul Ricard

Photo: MPS Agency

Nick Yelloly snared pole position for Inter Europol Competition in qualifying for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, round two of the European Le Mans Series.

The Briton stormed to the top of the timesheets with a 1:48.741 in the No. 43 Oreca 07 Gibson on his final lap of the session.

Yelloly ultimately beat fellow late-improver Charles Milesi, in the No. 48 VDS Panis Racing Oreca, by 0.235 seconds.

After setting fastest times in both free practice sessions, Matteo Cairoli had to settle for third in the No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca, having headed Yelloly and Milesi into the final moments. The Italian’s 1:49.009 ended up 0.268 seconds in arrears.

Mathys Jaubert continued the encouraging start to his LMP2 career by posting the fourth-fastest time in the No. 18 IDEC Sport Oreca, outpacing the second Inter Europol machine driven by Luca Ghiotto.

Tom Blomqvist was sixth in the CLX Pure Rxcing entry, edging out Paul-Loup Chatin in the second IDEC car by 0.001 seconds, as Barcelona pole sitter Reshad de Gerus (Duqueine) had to make do with eighth spot.

An entertaining LMP2 Pro-Am session was captured by PJ Hyett’s No. 99 AO by TF Oreca, after repeatedly exchanging the top spot with Giorgio Roda.

The Italian’s No. 77 Proton Competition Oreca made the early running before Hyett snatched the top spot with an effort 0.099 seconds faster.

Roda responded, pulling 0.070 seconds clear, but Hyett dug deep to produce a 1:51.442 lap that put him 0.144 seconds ahead. Roda therefore had to settle for second, with Rodrigo Sales the best of the rest and 0.911 seconds adrift in TDS Racing’s Oreca.

Georgios Kolovos in DKR Engineering’s Oreca will join Sales on the second row, after setting his best lap right at the end of the session.

Aston Martin quickest in LMGT3, CLX tops LMP3

Photo: MPS Agency

Clement Mateu delivered Aston Martin’s first LMGT3 class pole position of the season in his Racing Spirit of Leman Vantage GT3 Evo.

The Frenchman led the way throughout the session, posting a best effort of 2:04.641 to end up with a 0.723 seconds margin over Duncan Cameron’s No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296 GT3.

Martin Berry was unable to repeat his qualifying heroics from Barcelona aboard the No. 63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3, but salvaged third place after twice losing competitive times to track limits infringements.

Berry had posed the only true challenge to Mateu, briefly dipping 0.005 seconds under the eventual polesitter’s time before the No. 59 Aston Martin found another four tenths, and with his final lap of the session deposed Custodio Toledo’s No. 50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari.

Another late improvement from Andrew Gilbert moved the No. 74 Kessel Ferrari ahead of Celia Martin’s No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R for fifth.

In the LMP3 class, Adrien Closmenil showed his Barcelona pole was no fluke and paced the field by almost a full second aboard the No. 17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 Toyota.

Closmenil’s fastest lap, a 1:57.194, was 0.925 seconds quicker than fellow Ligier driver Rik Koen’s No. 8 Team Virage example.

The only non-Ligier in the top seven, WTM by Rinaldi Racing’s Duqueine D09 Toyota, was the only other car within a second of Closmenil. Griffin Peebles posted the third-fastest time, 0.992s adrift, to slot ahead of Ian Aguilera’s No. 11 Eurointernational Ligier.

Early pacesetter Quentin Antonel’s M Racing Ligier slumped to sixth by the conclusion of the session, the Belgian also falling behind Gillian Henrion (RLR M Sport) who took fifth.

The 4 Hours of 4 Hours of Le Castellet will commence on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. CEST (6 a.m. ET).