Double Pole for Panis Barthez at Red Bull Ring

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Panis Barthez Competition secured pole positions in both LMP2 and LMP3 during qualifying for Sunday’s European Le Mans Series Four Hours of Red Bull Ring.

Paul-Loup Chatin lapped the Austrian track at 1:20.700, and stayed out front despite pitting when he would have had time to complete another lap.

He, Fabien Barthez and Timothe Buret will start from pole position in the No. 23 Ligier JS P2 Nissan.

Mathias Beche put Thiriet by TDS Racing second on the grid, just 0.053 seconds slower in his Oreca 05 Nissan, while Harry Tincknell was third in the G-Drive Racing Gibson 015S Nissan.

Eurasia Motorsport’s Tristan Gommendy edged out Nicolas Lapierre for fourth position, after the DragonSpeed driver spun on his last lap.

Simon Gachet continued the trend for Panis Barthez in LMP3, as the Frenchman took pole with a time of 1:26.126; 0.157 seconds clear of second-placed United Autosport’s Wayne Boyd.

The No. 19 Duqueine Engineering car will start third, ahead of the Ultimate car in fourth and No. 11 Eurointernational team fifth, in an all-Ligier JS P3 Nissan field.

The LMP3 session was red-flagged for a couple of minutes midway through, when Giorgio Maggi’s Race Performance car stopped at Turn 2, but it restarted with around five minutes on the clock, leaving enough time for teams to improve their pace.

Matteo Cairoli continued his perfect run so far this weekend, taking the GTE pole in the No. 88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR with a time of 1:27.652 on his last of five laps.

Andrea Bertolini qualified the JMW Motorsport Ferrari F458 Italia GT into second position, with a deficit of just 0.121 seconds.

Bertolini led three more Ferraris in the top-five, with AT Racing and Alessandro Pier Guidi ahead of the Nos. 51 and 55 AF Corse cars of Marco Cioci and Matt Griffin, respectively.

The other Ferrari, of Formula Racing’s Mikkel Mac, will start in eighth, while Darren Turner took sixth position for Aston Martin Racing ahead of Wolf Henzler in the other Proton Competition Porsche.

The Four Hours of Red Bull Ring starts at 2:00 p.m. local time on Sunday.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.