Qualifying report
European Le Mans Silverstone
Silverstone ELMS: Hanley takes pole for DragonSpeed
Ben Hanley drew first blood in the 2017 European Le Mans season, putting the #21 DragonSpeed car on pole for the 4 Hours of Silverstone.
Jake Boxall-Legge
Edited: Apr 14, 2017, 2:49 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Oreca driver punched in a 1m 44.040s towards the end of the session, beating the #32 United Autosports Ligier of Filipe Albuquerque by 0.274s.
Albuquerque was nearly a second clear of third-placed Enzo Guibbert, piloting the #39 Graff Oreca, which starts ahead of the #22 G-Drive Oreca as Ryo Hirakawa managed fourth.
The #25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier qualified fifth ahead of the #34 Tockwith Motorsport entry, while Anders Fjordbach was the fastest of the Dallara runners, taking his #49 High Class machine to seventh.
The #23 Panis-Barthez car, the #28 IDEC Sport and the #29 Racing Team Nederland entry will also begin Sunday’s race in the top 10.
The session was red-flagged at the midpoint after Richard Bradley beached his #40 Graff at Becketts, just moments after Hirakawa made an off-track excursion in the same complex.
The #40 car will start from 28th place, right in between the LMP3 and GTE classes.
Jensen claims last-minute LMP3 pole
Mikkel Jensen put in a last-ditch lap of 1m 53.665s to take AT Racing’s first LMP3 pole in ELMS.
The #9 Ligier JS P3 pipped the #2 United Autosports car of Sean Rayhall to the top spot on his last lap of the session; Rayhall will start ahead of the #3 United Autosports, with the 2016 class winners enjoying a relatively strong session.
Yann Ehrlacher was the fastest of the two Normas, taking his #19 M.Racing car to sixth place, behind the #16 Panis-Barthez and the #18 M.Racing Ligiers.
TF Sport beats Beechdean to GTE pole
In the first qualifying session for the GTE class, Nicki Thiim claimed the fastest time in the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin, despite having a time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Thiim headed fellow Aston Martin squad Beechdean, which took second courtesy of Ross Gunn, 0.197s.
Matt Griffin was the fastest of the Ferrari runners, taking his AF Corse-run #55 Spirit of Race 458 to third ahead of the #77 Proton Porsche of Matteo Cairoli.
The two other Ferraris brought up the rear of the class, with the #51 car beating the #66 by just under 0.4s.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article United Autosports prepare for home ELMS race at Silverstone
Next article Silverstone ELMS: United Autosports pips G-Drive to victory
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jake Boxall-Legge
Mexico Grand Prix Driver Ratings 2026
Formula 1
Mexican GP
Mexico Grand Prix Driver Ratings 2026
More from
Ben Hanley
United Autosports confirms Ben Hanley for 2024 IMSA effort
IMSA
IMSA
Petit Le Mans Road Atlanta
United Autosports confirms Ben Hanley for 2024 IMSA effort
United signs Hanley as Albuquerque WEC stand-in
WEC
WEC
United signs Hanley as Albuquerque WEC stand-in
DragonSpeed reveals livery for IndyCar opener at St. Pete
IndyCar
IndyCar
St. Pete
DragonSpeed reveals livery for IndyCar opener at St. Pete
More from
DragonSpeed
Title battles and bittersweet farewells headline packed 54-car Petit Le Mans grid
IMSA
IMSA
Petit Le Mans
Title battles and bittersweet farewells headline packed 54-car Petit Le Mans grid
Sebastien Bourdais joins DragonSpeed Corvette lineup in GTD Pro return at Petit Le Mans
IMSA
IMSA
Petit Le Mans
Sebastien Bourdais joins DragonSpeed Corvette lineup in GTD Pro return at Petit Le Mans
Rolex 24, Hour 6: Porsche Penske leads over JDC-Miller
IMSA
IMSA
Rolex 24 Hours
Rolex 24, Hour 6: Porsche Penske leads over JDC-Miller
Latest news
NASCAR Cup Homestead finale to feature full field of 40 cars
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
35 min
NASCAR Cup Homestead finale to feature full field of 40 cars
Data reveals severity of Carson Hocevar's brake-check: "There's no denying it"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
1 h
Data reveals severity of Carson Hocevar's brake-check: "There's no denying it"
Honda Racing US echoes Porsche urgency over unified 2030 rules framework
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 4 h
Honda Racing US echoes Porsche urgency over unified 2030 rules framework
Toto Wolff: Two sponsors left Mercedes after promoting Kimi Antonelli into F1
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
4 h
Toto Wolff: Two sponsors left Mercedes after promoting Kimi Antonelli into F1
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe