Jamin Takes Last Gasp Barcelona Pole

Nicolas Jamin took pole position for the 4 Hours of Barcelona, snatching the fastest time away from Cool Racing’s Yifei Ye amidst a flurry of late improvements.

Jamin reeled off a 1:34.802 behind the wheel of the No. 65 Panis Racing Oreca 07 Gibson in the dying seconds of the session to quickest overall.

The Frenchman’s late flyer improved a lap of 1:34.899 set by the No. 37 Cool Racing Oreca of Ye, beating him out by a mere 0.097 seconds.

Both drivers set their fastest time at the very end of the 10-minute session amidst a series of improvements from several drivers that cost IDEC Sport’s Paul-Loup Chatin pole.

Chatin had been at the top of the times thanks to a lap of 1:34.976 in the No. 28 Oreca, but pitted early and watched from the sidelines as improvements from Jamin, Ye and Racing Team Turkey’s Jack Aitken left him fourth.

Alessio Rovera took fifth for AF Corse, with TDS Racing’s Mathias Beche sixth ahead of championship leader Ferdinand Habsburg aboard the No. 9 Prema Oreca.

Habsburg remained clear of Inter Europol Competition’s Pietro Fittipaldi, with Tom Gamble and Bent Viscaal completing the top ten for United Autosports and Algarve Pro Racing, respectively.

In LMP3, Malthe Jakobsen secured his fourth consecutive pole position for Cool Racing.

The 18-year-old Dane remained comfortably clear of the competition, setting a 1:40.112 behind the wheel of the No. 17 Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

Jakobsen’s best effort left him 0.666 seconds clear of second-placed Nico Pino in the No. 13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier.

Bailey Voisin slotted into third for United Autosports, winning the battle for the final spot in the top three by beating out the second Cool Racing Ligier of Antoine Doquin and DKR Engineering’s Sebastian Alvarez.

Kay van Berlo took sixth in the second United Autosports Ligier, with Ross Kaiser seventh for 360 Racing and the No. 15 RLR MSport Ligier of Valentino Catalano rounding out the top eight.

Al Harthy Scores Second Season Pole in GTE

Ahmad al Harthy took his second GTE pole position for Oman Racing with TF Sport.

Al Harthy set a series of fast laps in the No. 69 Aston Martin Vantage AMR before ending with a 1:45.692 to secure pole.

He remained 0.346 seconds clear of the No. 83 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of Sarah Bovy.

Bovy attempted to take pole away from Al Harthy with a late second run, but abandoned her final flyer to remain second.

Christian Ried took third for Proton Competition, ahead of the No. 32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Diego Alesso.

Takeshi Kimura qualified fifth for Kessel Racing, with Michael Fassbender coming in sixth in the No. 93 Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19.

The 4 Hours of Barcelona kicks off on Sunday at 11:45 a.m. CEST (5:45 a.m. ET).