Ye Takes Spa Pole in Sweep for Cool Racing

Photo: MPS Agency

Yifei Ye has stormed to overall pole for Sunday’s 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps European Le Mans Series round, in a double pole run for Cool Racing.

The Chinese driver recorded a best lap of 2:03.544 in the No. 37 Oreca 07 Gibson to edge out IDEC Sport’s Patrick Pilet by 0.307 seconds.

It marked the first ELMS pole of the season for the French squad, which also took top qualifying honors in LMP3 on Saturday.

Ye will share driving duties in the fifth round of the season with Niklas Kruetten and team boss Nico Lapierre.

The LMP2 qualifying session was effectively split in half after a spin by the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Fabio Scherer resulted in a red flag and clock stoppage with 6 minutes remaining.

Nico Jamin qualified third in the No. 65 Panis Racing Oreca, with Phil Hanson and Charlie Eastwood completing the top-five for United Autosports and Racing Team Turkey, respectively.

Malthe Jakobsen scored his fifth consecutive pole in LMP3, in another dominant run by the Cool Racing driver.

The Dane reeled off a 2:11.062 in the No. 17 Ligier JS P320 Nissan to edge out Kay van Berlo in the No. 2 United Autosports Ligier by 0.860 seconds.

GTE pole honors went to the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of series debutant Conrad Grunewald.

The American driver outpaced the No. 69 Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Ahmad Al Harthy by a considerable 1.111 seconds.

Grunewald will share driving duties of the Ferrari with Frederik Schandorff and Peugeot factory ace Mikkel Jensen.

Diego Alessi, meanwhile, qualified third in class in the No. 32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari thanks to a final lap improvement.

Ten of the 11 GTE cars set time, with the No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari having been withdrawn from the weekend due to family commitments for Bronze-rated driver Duncan Cameron.

The 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps gets underway Sunday at 11:30 a.m. local time.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John