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 final 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 No. 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 teammate 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 FLM10. PC Loan/Verdonck Endurance FLM11. PC Chatin/Hirsch Endurance FLM12. PC Pons/Ayari Endurance FLM13. GTE Ried/Roda/Tandy Proton Porsche14. GTE Bertolini/Camathias JMW Ferrari15. GTE Mowlem/Griffin Ram Ferrari16. GTE Milesi/Vernay IMSA Porsche17. GTE Perrodo/Collard Prospeed Porsche18. GTE Jeannette/Montecalvo Ram Ferrari19. GTE Perazzini/Cioci/Leo AF Ferrari20. GTC Markozov/Persiani/Frolov SMP Ferrari21. GTC Babini/Shaitar/Ladygin SMP Ferrari22. GTC Rizzoli/Gai/Case AF Ferrari23. GTE Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank AF Ferrari24. GTE Felbermayr/Felbermayr/Bachler Proton Porsche25. GTC Millroy/Smith/Twyman Ecosse BMW26. GTC Kox/Pronk Kox Lamborghini
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