Thiriet Goes Fastest in Second Practice at Red Bull Ring

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Pierre Thiriet took the top spot on the leaderboards at the end of Free Practice 2 for the Four Hours of Red Bull Ring, in his No. 46 Oreca 05 Nissan run by Thiriet by TDS Racing.

A best lap time of 1:21.346 was enough to secure the session lead for the Frenchman and team-mates Mathias Beche and Ryo Hirakawa, but it was only 0.026 seconds clear of Nicolas Lapierre’s DragonSpeed Oreca Nissan.

Paul-Loup Chatin was third for Panis Barthez Competition, the Ligier JS P2 Nissan in the top four. Tristan Gommendy was fourth for Eurasia Motorsport, while Andrea Pizzitola placed fifth in the Algarve Pro Racing car.

It was a return to the top for United Autosports in LMP3, as the Anglo-American team which has dominated the season thus far missed out on first position in Friday’s Free Practice 1.

A 1:26.146 from Wayne Boyd was enough to put the No. 3 Ligier JS P3 Nissan ahead of Ross Kaiser’s 360 Racing Ligier Nissan by more than three-tenths of a second.

Matteo Cairoli and Proton Competition continued to lead in GTE, after topping the first practice session on Friday.

The Italian driver set a time of 1:27.992 during the Saturday morning run, enough to edge out AT Racing’s Alessandro Pier Guidi by 0.335 seconds.

Qualifying for Round 3 of the European Le Mans Series season will start at 12:50 p.m. local time, ahead of Sunday’s four-hour race.

RESULTS: Free Practice 2

Jake Kilshaw

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