De Gerus Storms to Barcelona Pole

Reshad de Gerus put Cool Racing on pole position for the 4 Hours of Barcelona by narrowly outqualifying Algarve Pro Racing’s James Allen.

De Gerus charged to a late best lap of 1:29.396 aboard the No. 47 Oreca 07 Gibson to outpace Allen, who was driving the No. 25 Oreca for the Portugal-based team.

The Cool Racing driver dropped Allen to second position not long after the Australian had himself taken provisional pole away from Duqueine Team driver Neel Jani.

Jani looked to have pole position in hand after setting a 1:29.593 aboard the No. 30 Oreca, but just as the Swiss driver brought his car into the pits, Allen leaped into the top spot by a difference of 0.008 seconds.

After then losing out to an improving De Gerus, Allen made another attempt at the fastest time but came up short by 0.039 seconds and ended the session second.

Jani qualified third, with the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca of Phil Hanson fourth.

Job van Uitert completed the top five ahead of Inter Europol Competition’s Jonathan Aberdein and Paul-Loup Chatin for IDEC Sport.

Pole position in LMP2 Pro-Am went to the No. 34 Racing Team Turkey of Salih Yoluc.

The Turkish driver’s best lap of 1:30.947 outpaced Proton Competition’s Giorgio Roda by 0.320 seconds.

Alexandre Coigny completed the top three for Cool Racing, 1.8 seconds down on Yoluc but still ahead of DKR Engineering’s Tom van Rompuy.

Siebert, Berry on Pole in LMP3, GTE

LMP3 pole position went to the No. 17 Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Marcos Siebert.

Siebert steered his car to a best lap of 1:35.250, beating Inter Europol Competition’s Wyatt Brichacek to pole by 0.312 seconds.

Antoine Doquin came third for Racing Spirit of Leman, ahead of WTM Racing by Rinaldi’s Oscar Tune.

JMW Motorsport will start from pole position in GTE, leading a Ferrari one-two.

Martin Berry topped the session aboard the No. 66 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo with a best lap of 1:41.060, which was 0.113 seconds clear of Kessel Racing’s Takeshi Kimura.

A late improvement from Kimura wasn’t enough to capture pole, but it managed to vault him ahead of the No. 16 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Ryan Hardwick.

Arnold Robin slotted into fourth place aboard the No. 72 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR, with Jens Moller rounding out the top five for GMB Motorsport.

The 4 Hours of Barcelona kicks off Sunday at 11:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. ET).