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Matthieu Lahaye takes Donington Park European Le Mans Series pole for OAK

OAK Racing driver Matthieu Lahaye claimed the first pole position of his sportscar career at the Donington Park round of the European Le Mans Series

The 27-year-old Frenchman topped the times in his OAK Morgan-Judd 2012 LMP2 at the end of a closely-fought qualifying session on a 1m20.921s. That was just over one tenth clear of second-placed Mathias Beche in the TDS Racing ORECA-Nissan 03.

Lahaye, who shares his OAK Morgan with team boss Jacques Nicolet, said: "I'm very happy to get my first pole in sportscar racing but I'm also very happy for the team after the disappointment of Le Mans 24 Hours."

Eight of the nine LMP2s on the entry at Donington were separated by a shade over a second. The Jota Zytek Z11SN driven by Sam Hancock was just over a tenth behind Beche, while Olivier Pla was another tenth in arrears in fourth place aboard the Nissan-powered OAK Morgan.

Jonny Cocker ended up fastest in the three-car GTE field aboard the JMW Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia. His team-mate for Sunday's six-hour race has yet to be officially confirmed after regular co-driver James Walker had to leave the track in the small hours of Saturday morning when his wife went into labour.

Pos  Cl       Drivers                       Team/Car              Time
 1.  LMP2     Nicolet/Lahaye                OAK Morgan-Judd       1m20.921s
 2.  LMP2     Beche/Thiriet                 TDS ORECA-Nissan      1m21.063s
 3.  LMP2     Dolan/Hancock                 Jota Zytek-Nissan     1m21.192s
 4.  LMP2     Pla/Baguette/Enjalbert        OAK Morgan-Nissan     1m21.226s
 5.  LMP2     Ordonez/Kimber-Smith/Brundle  Greaves Zytek-Nissan  1m21.238s
 6.  LMP2     Sims/Jousse/Jousse            Status Lola-Judd      1m21.293s
 7.  LMP2     Marroc/Minassian/Sarrazin     Loeb ORECA-Nissan     1m21.539s
 8.  LMP2     Firth/Hughes/Hartley          Murphy ORECA-Nissan   1m21.971s
 9.  LMP2     Perez Companc/Ayari/Kaffer    Pecom ORECA-Nissan    1m22.879s
10.  LMPC     Dagoneau/Battut/Hartshorne    Boutsen Ginion FLM    1m28.737s
11.  GTE Pro  Walker/Cocker                 JMW Ferrari           1m29.328s
12.  GTE Am   Perazzini/Cioci/Griffin       AF Corse Ferrari      1m29.733s
13.  GTE Am   Armindo/Narac/Pons            Imsa Porsche          1m30.183s

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