Turvey gives Jota ELMS pole at Paul Ricard

Jota Zytek driver Oliver Turvey took his fourth European Le Mans Series pole position of the season at Paul Ricard.

Turvey claimed pole and the single championship point that comes with it aboard his Zytek-Nissan Z11SN after a fierce battle with Brendon Hartley in the Murphy Prototypes ORECA. A best lap of 1m48.043s put the Jota car almost exactly one tenth ahead of Hartley's ORECA-Nissan 03, although Turvey posted two laps good enough for the pole.

Turvey, who shares the Jota Zytek with Simon Dolan, said: "Brendon and I were trading fastest times. I was only four hundredths ahead at one point, but I really wanted it and was able to go a little bit faster."

The two entries that go into this afternoon's three-hour ELMS finale equal on points share the second row. TDS Racing ORECA-Nissan driver Mathias Beche pipped Nelson Panciatici in the Alpine-liveried Signatech version by just two tenths of a second to take third position.

Matt Griffin took GTE pole position for the Ram Racing Ferrari squad after edging out Andrea Bertolini in the JMW Ferrari by just one tenth of a second.

Mika Salo was fastest in the GTC class for GT3 machinery aboard the best of the SMP Racing Ferraris, while Paul-Loup Chatin topped the times in the one-make LMPC prototype division.