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European Le Mans Series

Roussel Leads DragonSpeed Front Row Sweep

DragonSpeed continues dominant run in Austria with front row sweep…

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

DragonSpeed has swept the front row for the Four Hours of Red Bull Ring, after a dominant qualifying performance on Saturday that resulted in Leo Roussel taking the top spot in the G-Drive Racing-backed Oreca 07 Gibson.

The Silver-rated Frenchman posted a fastest lap time of 1:18.435 in the ten-minute qualifying session after swapping positions with teammate Nicolas Lapierre, in the sister car carrying DragonSpeed colors, throughout the session.

Roussel shares the orange and black Oreca this weekend with Memo Rojas and substitute driver Nicolas Minassian.

Lapierre’s best time was just 0.005 seconds faster than that of Roussel, but had some laps deleted due to track limits abuses, something that hampered many drivers’ qualifying runs on the Austrian circuit.

Filipe Albuquerque took the United Autosports Ligier JS P217 Gibson to third on the grid while Egor Orudzhev was the fastest Dallara P217 Gibson driver, putting the SMP Racing car into fifth on his first weekend driving an LMP2 car.

Duqueine Engineering took LMP3 pole with its new Norma M30 Nissan driven by David Droux, out-qualifying the AT Racing Ligier JS P3 Nissan by 0.197 seconds late in the session. 

Yann Ehrlacher made it two Normas in the top three with the M.Racing – YMR car, meanwhile.

The LMP3 session was red-flagged for several minutes as Ross Kaiser’s 360 Racing Ligier lost its wheel and had to be retrieved.

Andrea Bertolini led a Spirit of Race sweep of the GTE front row after setting the fastest time in class in his No. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE, while Matt Griffin put the sister car in second.

Matteo Cairoli qualified third in the Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR, ahead of Johnny Cocker’s JMW Motorsport Ferrari.

The Four Hours of Red Bull Ring will get underway at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday.

RESULTS: Qualifying

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

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