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European Le Mans Series

Pla, IDEC Sport Fastest in ELMS Prologue

Olivier Pla fastest in ELMS Prologue in IDEC Sport Ligier…

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Olivier Pla logged the fastest lap time of the European Le Mans Series Prologue at Monza, with the Frenchman setting the pace in the Wednesday morning session.

He lapped Monza with a time of 1:36.461 during the opening session of the second and final day, putting IDEC Sport Racing and the No. 28 Ligier JS P217 Gibson at the top of the combined timesheets.

Pla’s time was 0.483 seconds clear of Richard Bradley’s lap during Tuesday afternoon, which had put the No. 40 Graff Oreca 07 Gibson top overnight. 

Two other cars on Wednesday managed to topple Bradley’s time, with the sister Graff car and G-Drive Racing entry both going faster.

While the Orecas did seem to have an advantage during the first day of testing, the gap was slightly less prominent come day two, as the IDEC Sport and Algarve Pro Racing Ligiers showed their competitiveness.

The Dallara P217 Gibson wasn’t as fast however. Dennis Andersen set the car’s quickest lap time of the test in the High Class Racing entry, but still almost 1.4 seconds off the pace.

AT Racing was fastest in LMP3 on Tuesday, but reigning champion United Autosports came through to put the No. 2 Ligier JS P3 Nissan, driven by Americans Sean Rayhall and John Falb, to the top by the end of the test.

That car set a time of 1:45.219 around the Italian circuit, going four tenths quicker than AT Racing had done. 

The M.Racing – YMR Norma M30 Nissan sustained heavy damage in a crash on Tuesday afternoon, but its fastest lap time kept it the quickest Norma, 1.3 seconds down on the class pace.

TF Sport’s pace on the first day went unmatched in the GTE class, with no-one able to match it in day two. The British team’s time of 1:48.720 from the first session therefore remains the quickest GTE lap.

However, contact during Wednesday morning took the No. 90 Aston Martin Vantage GTE out of contention for the rest of the day.

Beechdean AMR was the second-quickest GTE team of the test, while a session-topping time from Spirit of Race put the No. 55 Ferrari 488 GTE on top in the final outing of the day.

RESULTS: Session 4
RESULTS: Session 5

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.

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