Deletraz, Prema End Paul Ricard Test on Top

Photo: MPS Agency

Louis Deletaz ended the two-day pre-season European Le Mans Series test at Paul Ricard on top, with Prema setting the two quickest times overall on the second day.

The defending ELMS champion reeled off a 1:43.662 in the No. 9 Oreca 07 Gibson to edge out the No. 28 IDEC Sport entry of Patrick Pilet by 0.111 seconds.

Both times were quicker than Yifei Ye’s 1:43.856 set during Monday’s track action in Le Castellet, while Deltraz’s co-driver Ferdinand Habsburg also went quicker with a 1:43.759, also set on Tuesday morning.

The No. 51 Team Virage Oreca of Gabriel Aubry ended the test quickest of the LMP2 Pro-Am class competitors in fourth.

Of note, LMP2 debutant Jack Aitken was fifth quickest in the No. 34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca, ahead of the TDS Racing by Vailante entry of Mathias Beche.

Malthe Jakobsen’s 1:50.106 lap time in the No. 17 Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan from Monday morning held up as the quickest in LMP3 over the two days.

GTE, meanwhile, was paced by the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Mikkel Jensen, thanks to a 1:54.058 lap time set by the Peugeot factory driver in the penultimate session of the test.

It was a mere 0.001 seconds faster than Davide Rigon’s pace-setting time from Monday in the No. 60 Iron Lynx Ferrari.

ELMS teams will now prepare for the season-opening 4 Hours of Le Castellet, with official track action resuming on Friday ahead of Sunday’s race.

RESULTS: Session 5 / Session 6 / Combined

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John