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Le Mans: P1 Motorsport qualifying report

VAN DER GARDE PUTS P1 MOTORSPORT ON THE FRONT ROW P1 Motorsport's Giedo Van der Garde put in a solid performance to take another deserved front row grid position in Formula Renault 3.5, lining up in second place for the first race from the French ...

VAN DER GARDE PUTS P1 MOTORSPORT ON THE FRONT ROW

P1 Motorsport's Giedo Van der Garde put in a solid performance to take another deserved front row grid position in Formula Renault 3.5, lining up in second place for the first race from the French round of the World Series by Renault at Le Mans. Having made it through into the Super Pole session, Van der Garde looked like he had pole position sewn up, but unfortunately for the Dutchman, Ultimate Signature's Esteban Guerrieri came through in the last seconds of qualifying to snatch pole position by a couple of tenths.

Reverse grid regulations will see the championship leader start from seventh in the first race, then take his guaranteed second position in Sunday's feature race. Commenting on the result, Van der Garde said: "We were unlucky with traffic as we went out a little early, so to be honest I am pleased that we managed to get second. Front row for tomorrow's race is good for us, and we'll have to see what happens in Race One."

Team mate Pippa Mann however had another frustrating qualifying session - the young Brit finding herself down in 11th place in group, unable to better her time and therefore forced to accept a lowly 22nd position for Race One.

Mann said: "I'm really disappointed with that - I actually thought we might have enough pace to challenge for a place in Super Pole, but I just couldn't get the car working across an entire lap. We've had a problem in the slower corners, so changed the set-up in an attempt to combat whatever was causing the issue. The car responded much better in the slower turns, but we compromised the overall performance - we'll have to look at our options for the race."

Back on the 11th row Mann will have a lot of ground to make up, but knows anything is possible, "As Race One from the Nurburgring demonstrated, a lot can happen across a race distance and it doesn't matter so much where you start from, but where you are at the end. We'll give it our best shot - every point counts for the championship right now so we have to approach it with that in mind."

-credit: p1

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