Dragonspeed on Pole in Italy

Lapierre, who is the current 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 class champion, set a lap time of 1m33.780,  beating the previous best qualifying lap at Imola by two tenths of a second and was just ahead of the no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca05-Nissan to give the French manufacturer a front row lockout.

Ligier will fill row two for tomorrow’s race with the no23 Panis Barthez Competition finishing 3^rd with Paul Loup Chatin just ahead of Olivier Pla in the no40 Krohn Racing Ligier.

In LMP3 the no3 United Autosports Ligier Nissan of Wayne Boyd took the top spot in the class.  It looked like it was going to be a United Autosports 1-2, with Alex Brundle in the no2 car in second place but a last gasp lap by Giorgio Mondini put the Eurointernational Ligier into second place as the chequered flag came out to end the session.

Wolf Henzler broke the Ferrari strangle hold on pole position at Imola with the fastest lap in LMGTE in the no77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR.  Ferrari had taken pole in Imola in 2013, 2014 and 2015 but this year the Porsche finished 0.041 seconds ahead of the no66 JMW Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini.  Row two will also be Porsche and Ferrari with the no88 Proton Competition 911 of Klaus Bachler finishing ahead of Davide Rigon in the AT Racing Ferrari.

Reigning champions Formula Racing missed qualifying after Christina Nielsen’s heavy crash in the earlier Free Practice session.  While Nielsen was OK, the Danish team will not be taking any further part in the 4 Hours of Imola.

The 4 Hours of Imola will take place on Sunday 15 May with the race getting underway at 14h00.

CLICK HERE for the result from Qualifying