Privateer Lola stuns works teams
The privateer Lola of the Rafanelli team shocked the ALMS paddock this afternoon by claiming provisional pole for the European Le Mans Series round at Silverstone. Panoz looked to be the quickest team, but Mimmo Schiateralla put in a storming lap at the end of the session to go fastest
The Panoz of Jan Magnussen and David Brabham had looked strong all afternoon, but was only able to secure second after the Rafanelli car's impressive performance. The second Panoz of Johnny O'Connell and Katoh was third.
The top Audi was the Allan McNish car. The Scotsman held provisional pole for a time before the Panoz and Lola cars moved it out of reach for the 1999 vintage R8R.
The Sebring winning crew of Frank Biela and Emmanuele Pirro was beaten into being second Audi unusually, aided by McNish's local knowledge.
A further surprise was the Riley and Scott of the Pole team, who managed to qualify the ageing chassis ahead of the BMW of JJ Lehto and the works Cadillac prototypes.
GTS provisional pole was taken by ORECA and the Dodge Viper, unchallenged in the absence of the GM-entered Corvettes.
Fastest GT car was the Dick Barbour run Porsche 911 GT3R.
For full times and qualifying notes see separate stories.
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.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.
Top Comments