Cairoli Storms to Home Pole at Mugello

Matteo Cairoli became the fifth different driver to take a European Le Mans Series pole position this season by leading qualifying for the 4 Hours of Mugello.

The Lamborghini factory driver laid down an early benchmark time of 1:32.829 aboard the No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca 07 Gibson.

Cairoli’s time stood even through a late-session red flag, triggered when Patrick Pilet spun into the gravel at Turns 4 and 5 with under three minutes to go.

After the restart, nobody was able to improve upon Cairoli’s time, with Panis Racing’s Charles Milesi falling short by 0.037 seconds.

Alex Lynn qualified third aboard the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca a further 0.188 seconds back, with Oliver Gray and Reshad de Gerus completing the top five.

4 Hours Spa-Francorchamps winner Louis Deletraz slotted into sixth for AO by TF, ahead of the No. 37 Cool Racing Oreca of Malthe Jakobsen.

Jakobsen and Lynn were two of only three drivers not to rejoin the session for the restart, with Pilet also not allowed to go back out after causing the red flag.

Pilet ultimately fell just outside the top ten in eleventh, behind Ben Hanley, Tom Dillmann and Ferdinand Habsburg.

Giorgio Roda stormed to his fourth LMP2 Pro-Am pole position in five races with a 1:35.840.

A pair of fast laps ultimately left the No. 77 Proton Competition Oreca 0.331 seconds clear of the No. 29 Richard Mille by TDS entry of Rodrigo Sales.

Sales, in turn, won the battle for second place from John Falb’s No. 24 Nielsen Racing Oreca by 0.690 seconds.

Greek driver Georgios Kolovos qualified fourth upon debut in the No. 19 Team Virage Oreca, ahead of the No. 21 United Autosports machine of Daniel Schneider.

Cool Racing, Racing Spirit of Leman on LMP3, LMGT3 Pole

Manuel Espirito Santo led LMP3 qualifying for the second time this season, setting a 1:41.083 aboard the No. 17 Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

Wyatt Brichacek came second aboard the No. 4 DKR Engineering Duqueine D08 Nissan, losing out to Espirito Santo by 0.462 seconds.

Brichacek ran into trouble late in the session when the car spun and failed to return to the pits afterwards, having to been recovered.

Kai Askey and Antoine Doquin took third and fourth for Inter Europol Competition and Racing Spirit of Leman.

Jean-Baptiste Lahaye, having led early on, filtered down to fifth in the No. 35 Ultimate Ligier.

In LMGT3, Derek DeBoer denied Sarah Bovy to take Racing Spirit of Lemans’ first pole position of the season.

The American racer set a late-session benchmark of 1:47.891 aboard the No. 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, beating Bovy’s No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R by 0.124 seconds.

Martin Berry made it two Aston Martins in the top three with the No. 97 Grid Motorsport by TF-entered example, joined on the second row by the No. 50 Formula Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by Johnny Laursen.

Hiroshi Hamaguchi completed the top five in the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

The 4 Hours of Mugello kicks off Sunday at 11:30 a.m. CEST (5:30 a.m. EDT).