Drayson on Asian Le Mans Series pole

Date published : 30 Oct 2009 - 13:44:26

Jonny Cocker gave Drayson Racing its first prototype pole position with a sensational performance in qualifying for the inaugural Asian Le Mans Series races at Okayama.The 23-year-old Briton, who is sharing the Lola-Judd LMP1 car with team owner Paul Drayson, set a time of 1m19.143s to take a surprise pole. With the single session setting the grid for both races this weekend, it was a double success for the team."With the nature of the circuit and the big steps we made with the car at Laguna Seca [in the ALMS race there], we knew that we had a good chance this weekend to be quick," said Cocker."It's just an unbelievable feeling for me as a driver to get the pole but everybody deserves this so much."Christophe Tinseu was just a tenth of a second slower in the Sora Racing Pescarolo he is sharing with ex-Formula 1 racer Shinji Nakano, while the works ORECA of Nicolas Lapierre/Loic Duval will start third. Stefan Mucke could do no better than fourth in the works Lola Aston Martin following a trip into the gravel, while Britain's Oliver Jarvis qualified his Kolles Audi sixth on his maiden weekend in a prototype.Mathieu Lahaye took pole for the LMP2 class in seventh place overall in the Oak Racing Pescarolo that he is sharing with Jacques Nicolet and Richard Hein.Lahaye's lap was almost three seconds quicker than nearest rival Jose Ibanez, who was two places further back on the overall grid in his Ibanez Racing Courage.Aston Martin cars were quickest in both the GT1 and GT2 categories thanks to the efforts of Takeshi Tsuchiya and Tomas Enge. However, following the end of the session, both cars were found to have rear wings that did not comply with the regulations.As a result, both were sent to the back of the grid, handing pole in GT1 to the Larbre Saleen of Carlo van Dam/Roland Berville/Stephane Lemeret, and the top spot in GT2 to the Marc Lieb/Wolf Henzler Felbermayr-Proton Porsche. Pos Drivers Cl Car Time 1. Drayson/Cocker LMP1 Lola-Judd 1m19.143s 2. Tinseau/Nakano LMP1 Pescarolo-Judd 1m19.249s 3. Lapierre/Duval LMP1 Courage-ORECA-AIM 1m19.548s 4. Mucke/Primat LMP1 Lola-Aston Martin 1m19.747s 5. Cressoni/Noda/Albers LMP1 Audi 1m20.165s 6. Jarvis/Bakkerud LMP1 Audi 1m20.297s 7. Nicolet/Hein/Lahaye LMP2 Pescarolo-Mazda 1m23.790s 8. Wakisaka/Mitsuyama LMP1 Courage-ORECA-YGK 1m25.847s 9. Toulemonde/da Rocha/Ibanez LMP2 Courage-AER 1m26.647s10. Berville/Lemeret/van Dam GT1 Saleen 1m29.827s11. Yogo/Iiri GT1 Lamborghini 1m30.679s12. Lieb/Henzler GT2 Porsche 1m30.847s13. Yamanishi/Sakamoto GT1 Lamborghini 1m30.873s14. Tanaka/Hiranaka GT2 Ferrari 1m31.283s15. Ried/Holzer GT2 Porsche 1m31.515s16. Muller/Milner GT2 BMW 1m31.665s17. Aoki/Fujii GT2 Ferrari 1m31.733s18. Robertson/Robertson/Murry GT2 Ford 1m31.746s19. Farnbacher/Simonsen GT2 Ferrari 1m31.877s20. Kinoshita/Kageyama GT2 Porsche 1m32.258s21. Kojima/Hori/Kimura GT2 Porsche 1m39.442s22. Tsuzuki/Tsuchiya GT1 Aston Martin23. Lee/Ma/Enge GT2 Aston Martin