DragonSpeed Takes Pole for 4H Silverstone

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

DragonSpeed will start the Four Hours of Silverstone from pole position after Ben Hanley set the fastest lap time of the weekend in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session.

The British driver set a time of 1:44.040 in the No. 21 Oreca 07 Gibson to go 0.274 seconds faster than Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 32 Ligier JS P217 Gibson of United Autosports.

It marked Hanley’s first ELMS pole position of his career.

Enzo Guibbert went third fastest in the No. 39 Graff car, while Richard Bradley was less fortunate in the No. 40 Graff car, going into the barriers and causing a red flag halfway through the ten-minute session.

Ryo Hirakawa also suffered misfortune in the DragonSpeed-run G-Drive Racing car with a spin but recovered to take fourth.

Mikkel Jensen denied United Autosports the LMP3 class pole, with the AT Racing driver posting a time of 1:53.665 late in the session.

Sean Rayhall and Wayne Boyd put the Nos. 2 and 3 United cars into second and third, meanwhile.

Nicki Thiim kept Aston Martin at the top of the GTE class, setting a lap time of 1:58.269 in the TF Sport entry, while Beechdean AMR’s Ross Gunn was less than two tenths behind.

Matt Griffin was the best of the rest in the No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE, with Matteo Cairoli fourth for Proton Competition. 

The race is set for 2:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, with live streaming available on the series’ website, YouTube and Dailymotion channels. 

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

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