The first 20-minute qualifying session of the Road To Le Mans event was for the silver and gold drivers. The weather was dry with the air temperature at 16 degrees Celsius.
The no87 COOL Racing Ligier of Adrien Closmenil set the early pace with a 3m48.111 lap, one second ahead of the no20 High Class Racing Ligier of Tommy Foster and the no50 Reiter Engineering Ligier of Miklas Born.
On the next lap Daniel Keilwitz went up into second spot in the no66 Rinaldi Racing Ligier, the German posting a 3m48.281, 0.17s behind Closmenil. The no77 Team Thor Ligier went up to third after Colin Noble posted a 3m48.628.
In GT3 the early pace setter was the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Fran Rueda Mateos, with David Cleto Fumanelli in the no12 Kessel Racing Ferrari 0.2 seconds behind in 2ndplace and the no18 High Class Racing Porsche of Sven Muller in third.
A collision between the no99 More Motorsport and the n43 Inter Europol Competition Ligiers in the final sector of the track brought out the red flag with 7m25s left on the clock. The marshals worked quickly to clear the cars and repair the barriers in just 15 minutes so the session could resume.
With 7 minutes remaining the drivers were going to get just one flying lap and they all tried to make the most of it. Closmenil didn’t improve his time, but his COOL Racing teammate David Droux posted a 3m48.133 in the no97 Ligier to end qualifying in second place, just 0.022s behind the no87 Ligier to form a COOL Racing front row for this evening’s 55-minute race.
Leo Weiss also moved up the order to finish the session in 4thplace in the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine 0.260s behind Daniel Keilwitz in the no66 Rinaldi Racing Ligier.Colin Noble will head row three in the no77 Team Thor Ligier, with Alexandre Cougnaud finishing in 6thin the no13 MRacing Ligier.
In GT3 it looked like a Kessel Racing 1-2 but Valentin Hasse Clot in the no95 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage spoilt the Swiss team’s celebration as he took the chequered flag in 3m55.271 to claim pole position, 0.542as ahead of the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.
Championship leader Alessandro Balzan will join the no12 Kessel Racing Ferrari on row 2, with David Cleto Fumanelli’s earlier time just 0.074s ahead of the no51 AF Corse 296 GT3s time of 3m55.994.
The no18 High Class Racing Porsche will head row 3 of the GT3 grid, with the no23 Biogas Motorsport Ferrari joining the Danish team.
The first Road To Le Mans race will take place at 18h30 this evening.
CLICK HERE for the results from Qualifying 1
