QUALIFYING: TURVEY AND JOTA MAKE IT 4 POLES FROM 5 EVENTS

The British driver's time was just 0.097 ahead of Brendon Hartley in the Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan, with the New Zealander claiming the front row position ahead championship rivals Thiriet by TDS Racing and Signatech Alpine with Mathias Beche and Nelson Panciatici qualifying in 3rd and 4th respectively.

The LMPC qualifying went as planned for title points leader Paul Loup Chatin, with the French driver posting a 1m52.052 lap, 2.5 seconds ahead of Anthony Pons in the second Team Endurance Challenge Oreca.

Oliver Turvey - Jota Sport n°38 LMP2

"I felt fantastic, it was a really tight battle between me and Brendon (Hartley). The team was keeping me informed of what was going on…  and I managed to improve a little in the last lap. It was really a great qualifying session; a fantastic battle. To get four out of five poles… (Hungary was tough because of the rain and the crash), is a fantastic result and I am really pleased for myself and for the team. They struggled yesterday with the car and we made quite a few changes overnight; the car felt really good this morning. I was able to get the most out of it, and to get pole is the perfect result"

"You can still get the team and driver championship title, how do you feel about it ?

Yes, the championship is still on, but it's going to be really tough, because there is quite a gap. We need some luck… but all we have to do is drive the best we can and try to win the race. Getting pole position is an extra point; it helps get closer to the title. But we just need to go out there, and try to win the race."

Paul Loup Chatin - Team Endurance Challenge n°49 - LMPC

"To get one additional point for the pole position is good of course, but whether we have one or two doesn't change anything in the work we have to do today.  Mathematically, we have not won yet, and what matters today, is to win the race. But everyone knows that as long as you have not seen the chequered flag, it's no over… Gary and I want to finish on a high note, and our objective today is to finish the race and win the titles"

GT QUALIFYING: ADVANTAGE RAM RACING AND SALO SECURES GTC POLE 

Ireland's Matt Griffin took the top spot in the LMGTE class, putting himself, Johnny Mowlem and RAM Racing in the best position to take the driver and team titles later today.  However they are far from complacent with Andrea Bertolini in the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari, Gunnar Jeanette in the no53 RAM Racing Ferrari, Nick Tandy in the Proton Competition Porsche and Jean-Karl Vernay in the IMSA Performance MATMUT Porsche all posting competitive times in qualifying. 

Mika Salo is a name that is well known in the world of motorsport and beyond and the Finn's name has appeared at the top of the ELMS time sheets for the GTC class when he posted a 1m57.377 lap to secure pole position in the no68 SMP Racing Ferrari just 0.026s ahead of teammate Viktor Shaitar in the championship leading no69 458 Italia GT3. 

Mika Salo - SMP Racing Ferrari n°68 - GTC

"It's really fun to drive again, I have not done so many races this year, and I am very happy to drive with our big boss at SMP Racing. I know the Paul Ricard circuit very well of course because I almost lived here with Toyota. I have done about a million laps here, so I feel really good. It an easy circuit for me. SMP Racing have done very well, we did one and two (in qualifying). No one told me there was a point for the pole position, so if I had known I would probably had let my teammates in the front... They are going for the championship and I am very happy to give them a hand here, even though they have already done a great job !"

Matt Griffin - Ram Racing Ferrari n°52 - LMGTE :

“We ran a tyre combination for the race which we knew might hamper us a little bit in qualifying but we felt we had enough in the tank to go with it.  Now we're looking super good for the race because we've got a slightly harder compound on the rear plus we got pole!  My lap times kept improving as the harder compound takes a lot longer to get heat into it; on my in lap I was another two tenths of a second up on the first sector but I was brought into the box as we didn't need it. I'm super happy as I've done qualifying twice and that's two poles for me.  I didn't have a spin this time like in Imola so made life a bit easier for myself!  With one eye on the championship, it makes it safer to start from pole.”

The drivers and teams now have five hours to prepare for the final race of the 2013 ELMS season with the 3 Hours of Paul Ricard starting at 16:30.  The race will be streamed live on the official ELMS website at www.europeanlemansseries.com

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