Rossi Bounces Back With Paul Ricard Pole

Matteo Rossi would secure his second pole position of the season for Gulf Racing AMR at the Round of France Qualifying session at Paul Ricard.

The factory Aston Martin driver would be nearly a tenth clear of the fastest car throughout the two practice sessions in the Fabian Rei and Ryota Wong Lister Storm. This pole position comes as a boost to the team after they suffered a heartbreaking retirement from second place at their home round in Silverstone. He would be the only driver to break into the one minute forty-six second barrier in the twenty minute session.

Within the top five would be cars from five different Manufacture’s Trophy teams, with runner up from Silverstone Evgeny Restov sharing the second row with Joey Alliot and Chris Winter rounding out the top five for Racing Team Solvalou. Starting alongside the Solvalou Lamborghini on the third row is Gia van Dycke. The leading Independent Class qualifier also looking to bounce back from a retirement at the RAC Tourist Trophy.

The top nine qualifiers were all within a second of the pole time set by Rossi, with James Douglas being the first driver more than a second out, qualifying tenth and third of the Independents. A further three tenths behind Douglas would be the race winner from last time out in Silverstone in Li Qi, starting thirteenth and nine tenths off the pace set by teammate Joey Alliot. The Chinese driver lead a group of five drivers who all set times that were within half a tenth of a second apart from each other, with Russian Alexi Melvanov sharing the seventh row with Qi putting in a time eight thousandths behind the factory Chevrolet driver.

Qualifying Results – Round of France

Pos#ClassDriverTeamTime
16MMatteo RossiGulf1:46.925
214MFabian ReiGerald Pereria+0.081
328MEvgeny RestovScuderia Italia+0.256
463MJoey AlliotCarson+0.418
502MChris WinterSolvalou+0.425
621IGia Van DyckeBelgio+0.559
727MDenis van WalwijkScuderia Italia+0.862
831ISam WintonWinton+0.961
941MPaul TravesenGerald Pereria+0.979
1055IJames DouglasTom Douglas+1.060
1177INathan ScottMinarae+1.134
1203MMorgan Le FaySolvalou+1.212
1364MLi QiCarson+1.338
1409IAlexi MelvanovChris Short+1.346
1570INikov TimeAstana+1.359
1645IHelena BertinelliEuromotor+1.379
173IMelanie BourneBoutsen Ginion+1.385
1811ISimon MestachBest In The World+1.481
1988IHarrison WilkinsonLKM+1.559
2025MAnton RobishaudPagani+1.613
212IAkinori KikkawaBoutsen Ginion+1.630
22007MJohn MagnusFalken+1.687
2399IDaniel EinfeldtPeople's Republic+1.719
2424MAmato AgostiniPagani+1.725
2532IKjeld AxelsenRMR+1.776
2644IDiego VercuisseEuromotor+1.791
2730IPaul JenkinsGlobex Scorpio+1.983
28555IAntonio Reyna-SanchezTom Douglas+2.021
2956IMarkus JacobsonCommonwealth+2.032
3089IEmma PescatoreLynxe+2.040