Barincoat Blazes to Buriram Pole for Carlin

Ben Barnicoat claimed pole position for the Asian Le Mans Series season finale in Thailand to narrow the title fight.

Barnicoat blitzed the field in his No. 45 Thunderhead Carlin Racing Dallara P217 Gibson to crucially put the squad ahead of their title rivals, the No. 26 G-Drive Racing By Algarve Aurus 01 Gibson.

Championship leaders G-Drive ended qualifying fourth, with Roman Rusinov 0.753 seconds off pole, reducing the outfit’s series lead to Carlin from 9 points to 8 points heading into Sunday’s 4 Hours of Buriram.

Nick Cassidy’s 1:22.904 lap time was good enough for second in the No. 1 Eurasia Motorsport Racing New Zealand Ligier JS P217 Gibson, while Eurasia’s No. 36 car of Nick Foster claimed third after moving ahead of Rusinov at the chequered flag.

Shaun Thong completed the top five in the No. 96 K2 Uchino Racing Oreca 07 Gibson, with Guy Comso taking out the LMP2-Am class pole position in the No. 25 Rick Ware Racing Ligier JS P2 Nissan.

Qualifying honors in the LMP3 class went the way of Colin Noble’s No. 2 Nielsen Racing Norma M30 Nissan for the second time this season in a qualifying one-two for the team.

Noble secured the top spot before bettering his own time on his last flying lap to a 1:29.001, putting him 0.398 seconds in front of the sister No. 3 Nielsen entry

David Droux’s No. 9 Graff machine wound up third in class, while the LMP3 standings leading No. 13 Inter Europol Competition car was fifth in the hands of Nigel Moore.

Haryanto Claims Tight GT Pole

Indonesian driver Rio Haryanto took pole position in the No. 75 T2 Motorsports Ferrari 488 GT3 in a tight GT class qualifying session.

Haryanto set a 1:32.776 to beat Tim Slade’s previous benchmark in the No. 27 Ferrari by 0.06 seconds who led the times for much of the session before being bettered.

Daniel Serra held the top spot momentarily before he was toppled by Slade and Haryanto, with the No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari finishing third.

Come Ledogar appeared to pip Haryanto on his last flying lap but the Frenchman had his time taken away for a reported breach of track limits, having to settle for fifth only a 0.173 seconds off the pace.

The GT class-leading No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo ended the session sixth in the six-car field.

The Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Buriram is scheduled to get underway on Sunday at 11:45 a.m. local time.