Chatin Puts Panis-Barthez Compétition On ELMS Pole At Red Bull Ring (16.07.16)

Paul-Loup Chatin put the #23 Nissan-powered Panis-Barthez Compétition Ligier JS P2 on pole for the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring, completing a brace of poles for the French team in Austria.

Chatin lapped the Red Bull Ring in 1:20.700, .053 quicker than Mathias Beche in the #46 Thiriet By TDS Racing ORECFA 05 and over two seconds quicker than the pole time in 2015. Completing the top three for the July 17 race was the championship-leading #38 G-Drive racing Gibson 015S, driven by Harry Tincknell who put in a 1:20.826 on his fifth lap.

2014 European Le Mans Series champion Chatin was delighted with his first pole of the season.

“I’m really happy because the team did a really great job today and we improved a lot,” said Chatin. “It was important for us to show that we can be on pole.”

Panis-Barthez Compétition second pole position of the day came from Simon Gachet driving the #16 Ligier in the LMP3 class. Gachet put in a 1:26126 on his last lap to take pole from the #3 United Autosports Ligier JS P3 driven by Wayne Boyd. Third on the LM P3 grid for the four hour race will be the #19 Duqueine Engineering car which was qualified by David Droux with a 1:26.394.

The LMP3 championship leading #2 United Autosports Ligier JS P3 qualified eighth on the class grid with a 1:26.760 driven by Alex Brundle.

In LMGTE, Proton Competition took class pole with a 1:27.652 in its #88 Porsche 911 RSR 991 driven by Matteo Cairoli. Second on the grid will be the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari F458 Italia which, with Andrea Bertolini at the wheel, put in a 1:27.773 on Bertolini’s penultimate lap. Completing the top three in class was the #56 AT Racing Ferrari F458 Italia driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi with a 1:27.819.

Leaders in the LMGTE class, the #99 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage could only manage sixth in class with a 1:28.240 with Darren Turner driving.

The lights go out for then start of the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring at 14:00 local time on July 17.