PORTIMAO, Portugal — Charles Milesi became the first LMP2 driver to take two pole positions in 2024, claiming the important championship point ahead of Saturday’s 4 Hours of Portimao for the European Le Mans Series at Algarve Int’l Circuit.
Watch Saturday’s race on SPEED SPORT 1.
The early part of the session was led by the No. 37 COOL Racing of Malthe Jakobsen, the Dane being challenged by Job Van Uitert in the No. 28 IDEC Sport Oreca.Jakobsen was on a 1m31.139, 0.311 ahead of Van Uitert at the halfway point of the 15-minute session.
With six minutes left the No. 65 Panis Racing Oreca made a bid for the top spot, Milesi lapping in 1m31.195 and then posting a 1m30.727 on the next lap to go ahead of Jakobsen.
The No. 37 COOL Racing Oreca improved slightly at the checkered flag to. A 1m31.109 to finish 0.382s behind the leader.
The No. 27 Nielsen Racing finished at the head of row 2 with Will Stevens with a 1m31.174, just 0.032s ahead of the no25 Algarve Pro Racing of outgoing ELMS champion Alex Lynn.
The championship leading no14 AO by TF qualified in 7th with a 1m31.474 and their nearest rivals for the title, the no43 Inter Europol Competition, in 10thafter Tom Dillmann set a best lap time of 1m31.528.
The whole 14 car grid is separated by less than one second, setting the tone for an incredibly close final race of the 2024 ELMS season.
For the fifth time in 2024 Giorgio Roda claimed pole position in the LMP2 Pro/Am category for Proton Competition. The Italian driver’s time of 1m32.919 was six tenths ahead of the rest of the field.
Portugal’s Manuel Espirito Santo took the third LMP3 pole of the season for COOL Racing with a dominant display in qualifying for the 4 Hours of Portimao.
The LMGT3 session saw the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche claim the pole position for the final race of the 2024 season in Portugal by nearly a second ahead of the rest of the field.