Status Grand Prix made a strong start to its first sportscar race when Dutch ace Yelmer Buurman qualified the team’s new Lola LMP2 sports prototype on the front row for the opening European Le Mans Series race at Paul Ricard.

In the build up to qualifying, the Silverstone-based team’s new Judd-powered Lola B12/80 Coupe ran reliably through Saturday’s two free practice sessions, despite only undergoing its first shakedown test five days before the ELMS event in southern France.

The team’s drivers, Buurman, Alexander Sims and Dean Stirling all took exploratory laps in the first 90-minute session, as all three familiarised themselves with competing in a closed-cockpit car for the first time.

Buurman and then Sims took turns to set the fastest time in second practice in the sleek Coupe car. British driver Sims’ best lap of 1m48.740s remained unbeaten, with the ex-GP3 Series ace topping the timesheets by 0.001s as he impressed on his competitive sportscar debut.

Stirling also had a second opportunity to complete more laps in the car and the 25-year-old Briton, who raced in the LMPC class at the Sebring 12 Hours two weeks ago, acquitted himself well as he dialled into the 450hp car.

Buurman then took over for the 20-minute Qualifying session, buoyed by the immediate performance of the car. Despite having just 12 laps under his belt in a prototype sportscar, the former Superleague Formula star brought his Dunlop tyres up to temperature and produced a series of rapid laps to end up second fastest, his best time of 1m48.482s just 0.3sec behind the pole-winning TDS Racing Oreca of Matias Beche.

The Lola will therefore be on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s six-hour race, which starts at 1100hrs GMT.

DRIVER QUOTES

Yelmer Buurman

“It’s fantastic to be on the front row of the grid with this Lola-Judd which had only had a brief shakedown before this weekend. For me, being my first time in a prototype, it’s a very satisfying result, and also a tribute to the work by my co-drivers and the huge efforts made by the Status GP team. In the beginning of the session we were able to make some small changes, and we are also getting a good race set-up on the car. We should be in good shape for the race.”

Alexander Sims

“I felt very comfortable in the car from the beginning, and being fastest in second practice made us quite confident we could qualify well. To be on the front row represents a superb effort by Yelmer and all on the Status GP team. A six-hour race is still a huge challenge, but we’re looking to perform well and learn as much as we can.”

Dean Stirling

“It’s been a very productive day for us all. All the team have achieved with the Lola in a short space of time is very good, and Yelmer did a great job in qualifying. Tomorrow we need to stay out of trouble and get a result.”

Source : Status GP