Signatech Alpine loses Spielberg pole

The Signatech Alpine team has had its European Le Mans Series pole position taken away due to Nelson Panciatici setting his best lap under yellow flags at Spielberg.

Panciatici stole pole position from Jota’s Oliver Turvey in the dying seconds of qualifying on Saturday morning, but he did so while yellow flags were waving for a car in the gravel at Turn 6.

The stewards of the meeting have taken away all of the #36 car’s times and moved it to the back of the LMP2 field, meaning Panciatici and Pierre Ragues will line up eighth.

Panciatici’s team-mate Pierre Ragues said: “Nelson did a great job to put us on pole so it is disappointing to have suffered the penalty.

“Nevertheless, it has been a very good weekend for us so far. We will now focus on the race and putting the qualifying decision behind us.”

The revised grid means Turvey and Simon Dolan’s Jota Zytek-Nissan will share the front row of the grid with the Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan of Brendon Hartley and Jonathan Hirschi.

Five other cars were also penalised after qualifying for failing to respect track limits on the Austrian circuit – and all had their best three qualifying laps taken away.

Those affected were the #37 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan, the #47 and #49 Team Endurance Challenge LMPC cars, the #53 Ram Racing Ferrari, and the #60 Kox Racing Lamborghini.

Revised grid:

Pos Cl   Drivers                        Team/Car
  1. P2   Dolan/Turvey                   Jota Zytek-Nissan
  2. P2   Hartley/Patterson              Murphy ORECA-Nissan
  3. P2   Thiriet/Beche                  TDS ORECA-Nissan
  4. P2   Gachnang/Mailleux              Morand Morgan-Judd
  5. P2   Frey/Niederhauser              Race Peformance ORECA-Judd
  6. P2   Kraihamer/Holzer               Boutsen ORECA-Nissan
  7. P2   Mediani/Zlobin                 Oreca-Nissan
  8. P2   Ragues/Panciatici              Signatech Alpine-Nissan
  9. PC   Jones/Catsburg                 Algarve FLM
 10. PC   Loan/Verdonck                  Endurance FLM
 11. PC   Chatin/Hirsch                  Endurance FLM
 12. PC   Pons/Ayari                     Endurance FLM
 13. GTE  Ried/Roda/Tandy                Proton Porsche
 14. GTE  Bertolini/Camathias            JMW Ferrari
 15. GTE  Mowlem/Griffin                 Ram Ferrari
 16. GTE  Milesi/Vernay                  IMSA Porsche
 17. GTE  Perrodo/Collard                Prospeed Porsche
 18. GTE  Jeannette/Montecalvo           Ram Ferrari
 19. GTE  Perazzini/Cioci/Leo            AF Ferrari
 20. GTC  Markozov/Persiani/Frolov       SMP Ferrari
 21. GTC  Babini/Shaitar/Ladygin         SMP Ferrari
 22. GTC  Rizzoli/Gai/Case               AF Ferrari
 23. GTE  Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank       AF Ferrari
 24. GTE  Felbermayr/Felbermayr/Bachler  Proton Porsche
 25. GTC  Millroy/Smith/Twyman           Ecosse BMW
 26. GTC  Kox/Pronk                      Kox Lamborghini
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/signatech-alpine-loses-spielberg-pole

Dick Gibson Gimax Richie Ginther Yves Giraud Cabantous