JOTA on pole for 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring

After heavy rain overnight the track was very clean as the LMGTE and GTC cars went out on track for the first session. However the sun was shining and the air temperature peaked at 20 degrees as the cars made their way onto the circuit.

The LMP Session was interrupted by a red flag with 4 minutes 50 seconds remaining on the clock when Gary Hirsch in the nr41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson-Nissan went off the track at Turn 1 and into the tyre wall.  Hirsch was OK but the car had to be lifted off the track before the session could resume.

JOTA Sport and Murphy Prototypes will form the front row of the 29 strong grid, with row two being formed by the no37 SMP Racing BR01-Nissan, the best qualifying run by the new Russian built car after Mikhail Aleshin posted a 1m23.447 lap, just ahead of Tristan Gommendy’s race winning Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05-Nissan.

In LMP3 the no3 Team LNT Ginetta Nissan of Charlie Robertson claimed the third class pole from three starts and also posted the first sub 1 minute 30 second lap.  Robertson’s 1m29.851 lap was 0.3 seconds quicker than Konstantin Calko’s best time in the no15 SVK by Speed Factory Ginetta.

The LMGTE pole was claimed by the no55 AF Corse Ferrari of Matt Griffin with a 1m29.692.  The Irish driver won the LMGTE class at the Red Bull Ring in 2013 (RAM Racing) and 2014 (AF Corse) and is looking to complete the hat-trick during this afternoon’s race.  However the competition will be fierce in the 8 car LMGTE class with the second placed car of Raffaele Giammaria, the no51 AF Corse Ferrari, finishing the session just 0.022 seconds behind Griffin.

The no60 Formula Racing Ferrari of Mickel Mac was third with Austrian team AT Racing, who won last time out in Imola, starting in 4th place.  Richard Leitz, the only Austrian driver on the grid, finished in 6th in the LMGTE rankings, 0.6 seconds behind the pole position holder.

It was all smiles in the AF Corse garage as the no62 AF Corse Ferrari of Francesco Castellacchi gave the Italian team a double pole when the former FIA GT3 European Champion claimed the GTC pole position for this afternoon’s race.  Castellacci’s 1m31.101 lap was 0.2 seconds quicker than Marco Cioci in the no63 AF Corse Ferrari and 0.6 second ahead of Franck Perera in the BMW Z4 run by TDS Racing.

The race will begin at 13h30 this afternoon

CLICK HERE for the result from qualifying for Round 3 of the ELMS