United Autosports tops FP1 at Spa-Francorchamps

ELMS

Sep 22

ELMS overall teams trophy ranking before Spa-Francorchamps round

The battle for the overall titles in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) is tense between PRO and PRO-AM with Racing Team Turkey (PRO-AM) second and three PRO teams topping the ranking before the Spa-Francorchamps round with 10 points between the four.

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. ELMS OVERALL TEAMS TROPHY AFTER ARAGON FINAL

All competitors did participate to the morning Free Practice 1 for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps which was dominated by Philip Hanson in LMP2, Antoine Doquin in LMP3 and Matteo Cairoli in LMGTE.

The afternoon of this fourth round of the 2023 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) was reserved to the bronze drivers driving LMP2 PRO-AM, LMP3 and LMGTE cars.

LMP2 classes overall

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. #22 United Autopsorts ORECA.

Four times winner of the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Philip Hanson in the #22 United Autosports Oreca was the fastest overall of the session, only 0.030" ahead of Malthe Jakobsen with #37 COOL Racing Oreca.

Two other pro-am cars are following with Sebastian MONTOYA in #81 DragonSpeed USA Oreca (+0.069 sec.) and Bent VISCAAL with #20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca (+0.191 sec.).

LMP3 class

Antoine Doquin with #31 Racing Spirit of Le Mans Ligier did set the quickest lap (2:12.789) in LMP3, 0.068 sec. faster than Marcos Siebert with #17 COOL Racing Ligier.

LMGTE class

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. #60 Iron Lynx Porsche

The LMGTE class was topped by Matteo Cairoli with a 2:16.741 in the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche. Cairoli was the only GTE driver to set a sub 2 minutes 17 seconds time during the session.

Two Ferrari 488 GTE Evo are following with #50 Formula Racing driven by Nicklas NIELSEN and #66 JMW Motorsport with Jon LANCASTER at the wheel.

Bronze drivers collective test

📷 Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. Salih YOLUC with #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca.

The 30 minutes afternoon session for bronze drivers saw Salih YOLUC with #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca topping the ranking in 2:06.415. Giorgio RODA in #99 Proton Competition Oreca was second, 1.017 second slower and François PERRODO with #83 AF Corse Oreca third.

in LMGTE, Aston Martin Vantage AMR bronze drivers Arnold ROBIN (#72 TF Sport) and Jens MOLLER (#44 GMB Motorsport) were the only drivers to set a sub 2 minutes 20 seconds time.

Live streaming of qualifying and the race is still available on the official ELMS website at www.europeanlemansseries.com, and is available to view free of charge.