Masson Secures Silverstone ELMS Pole

European Le Mans Series championship leaders VDS Panis Racing scored a first LMP2 pole of the season at the 4 Hours of Silverstone courtesy of Esteban Masson.

On the British circuit’s return to the calendar for the first time since 2019, Masson demonstrated in qualifying that his chart-topping time from first practice on Friday was no fluke.

The Toyota protégé’s 1:42.343 lap in the No. 48 Oreca 07-Gibson he shares with Charles Milesi and Oliver Gray means there has still not been a repeat outright pole winner in the ELMS in 2025.

Nearest challenger Matteo Cairoli fell 0.361 seconds short in the No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca, with the bonus point for pole extending VDS Panis Racing’s championship advantage to 21 points.

Home hero Nick Yelloly managed third in his No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca, 0.449 seconds slower than Masson, while another late improvement from newly-announced Peugeot Hypercar driver Theo Pourchaire secured fourth for his No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca.

Enzo Fittipaldi was fifth fastest in the No. 47 CLX Motorsport machine, ahead of Roy Nissany (Duqueine), while United Autosports racer Ben Hanley beat Nielsen Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque to seventh spot.

A thrilling LMP2 Pro-Am session was decided by just 0.017 seconds as PJ Hyett pipped Giorgio Roda to a second pole of the campaign.

Proton Competition driver Roda came out of the traps fastest and was at one stage 2.72 seconds quicker than AO by TF rival Hyett. But the American continued to find time and closed in as Roda proved unable to surpass his 1:45.335 gambit.

As at Paul Ricard, Hyett ultimately prevailed with a 1:45.318 lap that Roda could not match.

Rodrigo Sales was nine tenths off the pace in third aboard his TDS Racing Oreca, while John Falb took fourth for Nielsen Racing by outpacing Giorgios Kolovos (DKR Engineering) and United Autosports driver Daniel Schneider.

Peebles and Martin leave it late

CLX Motorsport’s perfect qualifying record in LMP3 was ended by WTM by Rinaldi Motorsport, as Griffin Peebles pipped RLR M Sport driver Gillian Henrion to pole position.

Australian driver Peebles managed a 1:53.038 lap in his Duqueine D09-Toyota after the checkered flag to deny Henrion’s Ligier JS P325-Toyota by 0.276 seconds.

The session had been finely poised entering its closing stages, with the top four briefly split by 0.084 seconds. At this point, Henrion paced CLX Ligier driver Theodor Jensen by just 0.013 seconds, while Peebles and Ian Aguilera (Eurointernational Ligier) matched each other to a thousandth of a second.

But when it counted, runaway championship leader Jensen could not clinch the bonus point for pole for the first time in 2025, while Peebles unlocked more pace than Henrion.

Aguilera had to settle for fourth, ahead of Spa winner Rik Koen’s Team Virage Ligier, while Marius Fossard’s Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier completed the top six.

In the LMGT3 class, Celia Martin secured a first pole of the season in her Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R with a similarly late effort after the checkered flag was flown.

On a damp but fast-drying circuit, Martin Berry had looked set to celebrate a fourth pole in five ELMS rounds as the clock ticked down to zero, but crucially could not find any improvement in his Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo when Martin pumped in a 2:11.819 lap.

That gave the French driver a 0.965 second advantage over Berry and completed a stellar day for Iron Dames, after Vanina Ickx claimed pole for Saturday afternoon’s Michelin Le Mans Cup event.

After pitting for fresh tires, Takeshi Kimura stormed up to third in his Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in the dying seconds, demoting Clement Mateu’s Racing Spirit of LeMan Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Michael Birch produced his best qualifying performance of the season with fifth in the single United Autosports McLaren 720S Evo, while Andrew Gilbert in the second Kessel Ferrari completed the top six.

The 4 Hours of Silverstone will commence on Sunday at 11:00 p.m. BST (6 a.m. EDT), the race being moved forward an hour to avoid scheduled bad weather.

RESULTS: Qualifying