Habsburg Captures Pole for 4H Spa

Ferdinand Habsburg scored his first European Le Mans Series pole position on a greasy track surface in qualifying for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

The 2022 series champion’s No. 24 Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 Gibson, shared with Filipe Albuquerque and Cem Bolukbasi, whisked to a best lap of 2:14.972 for Sunday’s fourth round of the championship.

Habsburg’s effort came under late threat from Matteo Cairoli’s No. 9 Iron Lynx – Proton entry, but the 2023 Spa 24 Hours polesitter fell 0.217 seconds short as Nielsen became the fourth different polewinner in LMP2 from as many races this year.

Habsburg’s fellow Alpine Hypercar racer Charles Milesi was third fastest in the championship-leading No. 48 VDS Panis Racing Oreca that claimed victory last time out at Imola, while Theo Pourchaire seized fourth in Algarve Pro Racing’s No. 25 entry.

The session finished under yellow flags when Reshad de Gerus (Duqueine) slid off the road and into the gravel at the Bruxelles hairpin, thwarting the efforts of several drivers to improve.

Gregoire Saucy will start fifth in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca, ahead of the Genesis Magma Racing ‘trajectory program’ No. 18 IDEC Sport entry in which Daniel Juncadella had a wild moment at Raidillon.

The sister IDEC machine of Paul-Loup Chatin will start seventh, while de Gerus had to settle for eighth.

LMP2 Pro/Am was controlled from the outset by Giorgio Roda’s No. 77 Proton Competition Oreca. The Italian secured a third class pole of the season by 1.645 seconds from PJ Hyett’s identical AO by TF machine.

Hyett’s bid to improve on his final tour was not helped by traffic in the form of Georgios Kolovos (DKR Engineering Oreca). The Greek was recovering from a gravelly moment at La Source, which meant he was also unable to improve and so ended up third.

ELMS returnee John Falb, replacing Tony Wells this weekend, was on course for fourth in the No. 27 Nielsen Racing Oreca but slipped to sixth in the closing seconds as Rodrigo Sales (TDS Racing) and Francois Perrodo (AF Corse) both made late gains.

Jensen and Berry head LMP3, LMGT3 sessions

Theodor Jensen continued the No. 17 CLX Motorsport crew’s qualifying monopoly of the LMP3 category in 2025.

As at the three previous ELMS races, the grey Ligier JS P325 Toyota Jensen shares with Adrien Cosmenil and Paul Lanchere was unstoppable on its way to pole, managing a best time of 2:26.054.

That put Danish driver Jensen a full 0.747 seconds quicker than Griffin Peebles in the WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine D09 Toyota, after the Australian usurped Ian Aguilera’s No. 11 EuroInternational Ligier.

Wyatt Brichacek made it three different manufacturers in the top four places aboard the DKR Engineering Ginetta G61-LT-P325-EVO, while the Ligiers of Douwe Dedecker (Inter Europol Competition) and Marius Fossard (Racing Spirit of Leman) will share row three.

Meanwhile Martin Berry left it late to head the LMGT3 session, eventually beating Duncan Cameron to the top spot after Clement Mateu had appeared the man to beat.

Berry’s No. 63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 snatched pole with a 2:37.115 lap after the checkered flag had flown, which put him 0.588 seconds clear of Cameron’s No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296.

Mateu, the only driver to deny Berry an ELMS pole this year at Paul Ricard, had set the pace from the outset in his Racing Spirit of Leman Vantage GT3 Evo and was at one stage 1.78 seconds clear of the pack.

But he could not find the late improvements of Berry and Cameron and was shuffled back to the second row, where the Frenchman will be joined by Antares Au’s No. 60 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The reigning Asian Le Mans Series champion and ELMS debutant was fractionally quicker than fellow Porsche driver Celia Martin (Iron Dames), who lines up fifth, while Andrew Gilbert’s No. 74 Kessel Ferrari was another early pacesetter to fall back in the latter stages and end up sixth quickest.

The 4 Hours of Spa will commence on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. CEST (7 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Qualifying