Lynn Holds Off Hanson to Claim Spa Pole for Algarve Pro

Algarve Pro Racing’s Alex Lynn beat Phil Hanson in LMP2 qualifying to take pole position for the fourth round of the European Le Mans Series season at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Cadillac factory Hypercar driver set the pace with a time of 2:03.564 and remained at the top of the leaderboard despite two improvements from Hanson, who ended up missing out by 0.108 seconds in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson.

Hanson, searching for his second consecutive ELMS pole, was initially three-tenths down on Lynn and removed a further two-tenths at the end of the 15-minute session, however it wasn’t enough to overcome his British compatriot.

The United driver’s second improvement moved him back ahead of Laurents Hoerr, who briefly squeezed IDEC Sport into second before ultimately settling for third place.

Lynn’s first pole of the season means that he and his Algarve Pro Racing co-drivers James Allen and Kyffin Simpson are now level on points with the Duqueine Team lineup of Neel Jani, Rene Binder and Nico Pino at the top of the LMP2 standings.

Binder qualified fourth in the No. 30 Oreca, ahead of Inter Europol Competition’s Jonathan Aberdein, Panis Racing’s Job van Uitert and Cool Racing’s Vladislav Lomko.

The Panis team returned its Oreca to the track in qualifying after van Uitert had an accident at the exit of Les Combes in the early stages of FP2 on Saturday morning.

Salih Yoluc maintained his 100 percent pole record in LMP2 Pro-Am this season by leading a separate 15-minute session in the TF Sport-run Racing Team Turkey Oreca.

Yoluc ended up six-tenths ahead of Proton Competition driver Giorgio Roda, and almost two seconds clear of third-placed Tom van Rompuy of DKR Engineering.

Ryan Hardwick claimed the GTE pole in Proton Competition’s No. 16 Porsche 911 RSR-19, beating TF Sport Aston Martin driver Arnold Robin by 0.654 seconds.

It resulted in an increased three-point championship lead for Hardwick and his co-drivers Alessio Picariello and Zacharie Robichon, factoring in the additional point for pole.

Martin Berry was third for the JMW Motorsport Ferrari squad, above GMB Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage GTE driven by Jens Reno Moller.

In LMP3, Oscar Tunjo set the pace for WTM by Rinaldi Racing with a time of 2:17.019 in the No. 12 Duqueine D08 Nissan.

The Colombian driver finished seven-tenths clear at the top of the category and beat a cohort of eight Ligier JS P320 Nissans to secure to his second pole of the campaign.

Sunday’s four-hour race is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. CEST (5:30 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Qualifying