Tincknell Clinches Pole for Jota at Red Bull Ring

Jota Sport will start today’s Four Hours of Red Bull Ring from pole position, following Harry Tincknell’s fastest lap in qualifying at the Austrian circuit.

Tincknell put the No. 38 Gibson 015S Nissan on top just past the halfway point of the session and improved his fastest time twice. His final time of 1:22.983 almost a tenth quicker than last year’s pole time.

Nathanael Berthon in the No. 48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03R Nissan finished the session in second place, 0.341 seconds behind the Nissan works driver.

Mikhail Aleshin, who had been on provisional pole halfway through the session, claimed third place for SMP Racing. The BR01 Nissan was just under half a second slower than the pole-sitting Gibson.

Second fastest in practice, Gary Hirsch was unable to qualify the No. 41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson 015S Nissan near the front. The Swiss driver had a moment on his first lap and then went off into the tyre wall at turn 1 on his next.

That brought out the red flag with just under five minutes left. Once the stricken car had been removed the cars went out again in a final attempt to take pole. Tincknell and Berthon improved, while James Winslow in the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier spun.

Tristan Gommendy in the No. 46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca abandonded his last lap, finishing the session in fourth place, with Nic Minassian (SMP Racing) and Leo Roussel (Pegasus Racing) completing the top six.

In LMP3 Charlie Robertson qualified the No. 3 Team LNT Ginetta Nissan on pole position, setting the 16th fastest time overall. SVK By Speed Factory’s Konstantin Calko was second fastest, with Team LNT’s Mark Shulzhitskiy taking third place.

Matt Griffin drove the No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia to pole position in GTE, beating fellow AF Corse driver Raffaele Giammaria to pole. The Irish driver lapped the Red Bull Ring in 1:29.692, just 0.022 seconds faster than the Italian. The Formula Racing Ferrari took third place.

In GTC it was Francesco Castellacci who claimed pole position for AF Corse, the No. 62 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 beat the No. 63 sister-car by two-tenths.

The Four Hours of Red Bull Ring will start at 1.30 pm local time.

RESULTS: Qualifying