Silverstone ELMS: Oliver Turvey starts prototype career with pole

The former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner took pole for Saturday afternoon's three-hour race with a 1m48.032s lap aboard the Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan Z11SN.

That time put him eight tenths of a second ahead of Brendon Hartley in the Murphy Prototypes ORECA-Nissan 03.

Turvey, who shares the Jota Zytek with Simon Dolan, said: "I'm delighted to get pole for my first prototype race. I felt comfortable in the car and had three laps good enough for pole."

Third place went to Nelson Panciatici in the Signatech Alpine ORECA-Nissan with a time a further two tenths back on Hartley.

AUTOSPORT's 2013 ELMS season guide

Pole in the GTE class was claimed by the new Ram Racing Ferrari team and Johnny Mowlem.

The Briton, who shares the fastest of the two Ram Ferrari 458 Italias with Matt Griffin, set a pole mark of 2m02.358s, which put him three tenths of a second ahead of Nick Tandy in the Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3-RSR.

Formula Renault graduate Paul-Loup Chatin was fastest in the LMPC class for the one-make Formula Le Mans ORECA-Chevrolet FLM09 prototypes, while Porsche Supercup race winner Kuba Giermaziak set pole in the GTC class for GT3 cars aboard the Momo Megatron DF1 Audi R8 LMS.

Pos  Cl   Qualifying Driver    Team/Car                     Time       Cl.gap
 1.  P2   Oliver Turvey        Jota Zytek-Nissan            1m48.032s
 2.  P2   Brendon Hartley      Murphy ORECA-Nissan          1m48.863s  + 0.831s
 3.  P2   Nelson Panciatici    Signatech Alpine-Nissan      1m49.063s  + 1.031s
 4.  P2   Patric Niederhauser  Race Performance ORECA-Judd  1m50.010s  + 1.978s
 5.  P2   Frank Mailleux       Morand Morgan-Judd           1m50.139s  + 2.107s
 6.  P2   Jonathan Hirschi     TDS ORECA-Nissan             1m50.157s  + 2.125s
 7.  P2   Bastien Briere       Boutsen ORECA-Nissan         1m52.072s  + 4.040s
 8.  P2   Chris Dyson          Greaves Zytek-Nissan         1m52.529s  + 4.497s
 9.  PC   Paul Loup Chatin     ORECA FLM                    1m54.102s
10.  PC   Soheil Ayari         ORECA FLM                    1m54.721s  + 0.619s
11.  P2   Olivier Porta        DKR Lola-Judd                1m55.634s  + 7.602s
12.  PC   Alex Loan            ORECA FLM                    1m58.310s  + 4.208s
13.  GTE  Johnny Mowlem        Ram Ferrari                  2m02.358s
14.  GTE  Nick Tandy           Proton Porsche               2m02.653s  + 0.295s
15.  GTE  Francois Perrodo     Prospeed Porsche             2m02.685s  + 0.327s
16.  GTE  Federico Leo         AF Ferrari                   2m02.731s  + 0.373s
17.  GTE  Andrea Bertolini     JMW Ferrari                  2m03.015s  + 0.657s
18.  GTC  Kuba Giermaziak      Megatron Audi                2m03.484s
19.  GTC  Andrew Smith         Ecosse BMW                   2m03.737s  + 0.253s
20.  GTC  Lorenzo Case         AF Ferrari                   2m04.233s  + 0.749s
21.  GTE  Franck Montecalvo    Ram Ferrari                  2m04.412s  + 2.054s
22.  GTE  Yannick Mallegol     AF Ferrari                   2m05.198s  + 2.840s
23.  GTE  Patrice Milesi       IMSA Porsche                 2m08.745s  + 6.387s