The no33 TDS Racing Oreca 07-Gibson of Matthieu Vaxiviere was the fastest car during qualifying for the 4 Hours of Monza. The young French driver set a 1m35.456 lap, 0.381 seconds faster than the nearest rival, the no21 Dragonspeed Oreca of Ben Hanley, in a session interrupted by a red flag to recover a stopped car.
However the Stewards issued a penalty (Decision no12), cancelling all of the times set during qualifying by the no33 Oreca-Gibson after the car was found not in compliance with the 2018 Technical Regulations for Prototypes LMP2 in post qualifying scrutineering. The technical delegate found tape on the bodywork which was in breach of FIA Endurance Committee decision n.18-D0025.
This decision promoted the no21 Dragonspeed Oreca-Gibson to pole position for tomorrow’s race and the no33 TDS Racing Oreca will start the race after the last LMP2 car on the grid.
The session also concluded with a red flag after the chequered flag was shown when the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier of Ate de Jong went into the barriers at Parabolica on his last flying lap. De Jong walked away from the car but left the marshals with a tyre barrier to repair and his mechanics with a long night to repair the car ahead of tomorrow’s race.
The no17 Ultimate Norma M30-Nissan of Mathieu Lahaye will start the 4 Hours of Monza at the head of the LMP3 field, the first ELMS pole for the French team. It will be an all Norma front row after David Droux set the second fastest lap in the no19 M Racing-YMR M30, 0.224s behind the 1m45.386 lap time recorded by Lahaye.
There were several cars challenging for the pole position during the qualifying session and tomorrow’s race will see plenty of cars challenging for the podium.
After securing the GT3 pole in the Michelin Le Mans Cup qualifying session, Italian squad Ebimotors claimed their second pole of the day when Riccardo Pera beat three former FIA World Champions to the LMGTE pole in the no80 Porsche 911 GTE. The 18-year-old Italian put in a 1m47.493 lap of the 5.7km Monza circuit, just 0.018s ahead of Gianmaria Bruni in the no88 Proton Competition Porsche 911.
JMW Motorsport had to miss the qualifying session to carry out repairs to the Ferrari 488 after the early accident in FP2. The team are confident that they will be on the grid for the race.
Source: ELMS Media Release
