Franck Mailleux has made an auspicious start to the Red Bull Ring 3 Hours with a competitive fifth place in this morning’s qualifying session, setting a best lap time of 1m24.318s, a gap of just 0.6s from the pole time. His position was elevated to fourth after the provisional pole setter was demoted after a yellow flag infringement.

 

Franck, together with the Morand Racing squad, have enjoyed a lot of track time at the 4.326km circuit since Friday’s opening practice sessions, which has been especially important as Red Bull Ring is a new venue for the European Le Mans Series and for most teams and drivers.

 

Alongside his team-mate Natacha Gachnang, Franck completed a total of 62 laps across Friday’s two practice sessions, allowing the team to find a decent set-up for the Morand Racing Morgan Judd LMP2 car, and to carry out evaluations of the Dunlop tyres.

 

The weather has been hot and dry so far this weekend so Franck will now be looking to get a good start in this afternoon’s three hour race and to convert his fifth place on the grid into another podium performance to follow the team’s third place at Imola back in May.

 

Franck Mailleux said: “It has been an enjoyable start to the 3 Hours of Red Bull Ring for me personally and for the Morand Racing team. This is a new venue for us so it has been important to focus on getting lap time and preparing the car in the best way for this afternoon’s race. We completed over sixty laps yesterday which gave me the confidence to attack in qualifying. It was a competitive session and I felt quick from the start. We were just over half-a-second from the pole time but I am sure we could have done even more if we hadn’t encountered yellow flags on the final run. A top three was possible but I am still very happy with our pace and confident we can have a strong race. From fifth, our sights are very much set on the podium. It’s an interesting circuit layout but a short lap so I expect it to be tough challenge with 30 cars on track at the same time.”