A spectacular lap by young driver Leo Roussel has given him his debut ELMS pole position in the no22 G-Drive Racing Oreca07-Gibson. Roussel lapped the Red Bull Ring in 1m18.435 to take the pole ahead of the experienced Nico Lapierre in the no21 DragonSpeed Oreca.
The no32 United Autosports Ligier of Filipe Albuquerque will start from third only 0.399s behind the pole sitter.
Australian driver James Allen will start from sixth on the grid in his Graff racing Oreca that he shares with Richard Bradley and Colombian Gustavo Yacamán.
Enzo Guibbert in the no39 Graff Oreca was also a challenger for a top position but track limit violations pushed the French driver down the order, with the position on row 2 going to the no23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier of Nathanael Berthon at the chequered flag
David Droux scored a debut pole for Duqueine Engineerings Norma M30 when the Swiss driver posted a 1m25.657 lap in a session that was interrupted by an early red flag. The no6 360 Racing Ligier of Ross Kaiser lost a left rear wheel putting the British driver into the gravel trap at T4.
The session resumed with 7 minute 30 seconds on the clock which meant a frantic rush by the remaining 16 cars to set a lap. David Droux in the no7 Duqueine Engineering Norma M30-Nissan was an early contender for the pole position but was soon pushed down the order by the no9 AT Racing Ligier of Mikkel Jensen and the no19 M.Racing-YMR Norma of Yann Ehrlacher.
As the clock counted down it was a fight between the no9 Ligier and the no8 Norma but a track limit violation for Jensen put the Dane in second place behind Droux at the chequered flag. Yann Ehrlacher was third with the no3 United Autosports Ligier of Wayne Boyd in 4th, 0.027s behind the French driver and 0.4 seconds behind the pole position holder.
It was a tough day at the office for Melbourne driver Ricky Capo who will start further down the field back in 25th position, 12th in LMP 3.
While there are just six cars in the LMGTE class the grid were covered by just 0.6 seconds in qualifying for the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring. Andrea Bertolini in the no51 Spirit of Race Ferrari F488 took the first pole of the season for the car, just 0.179s ahead of the no55 Spirit of Race F488 of Matt Griffin.
Matteo Cairoli stopped Ferrari taking the top three spots on the LMGTE grid for tomorrow’s race when the Italian posted a 1m28.606 lap in the no77 Proton Competition Porsche, just 0.107s ahead of the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Jonny Cocker.
The two Aston Martins were 5th and 6th with Nicki Thiim in the no90 TF Sport Vantage posting a 1m28.862, 0.044s ahead of Darren Turner in the Beechdean AMR Vantage.
The 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring will get underway at 13h00 (9:00PM AEST) on Sunday 23 July.
With ELMS Media