The 2026 European Le Mans Series qualifying session at Silverstone brought the Goodyear 4 Hours of Silverstone weekend into sharp focus, with LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, LMP3 and LMGT3 contenders all chasing the clean lap that could define Sunday’s race. LMP2 pole was achieved by Inter Europol Competition, with Tom Dillman at the wheel.
There was extra energy around the event because Saturday tickets were sold out. That mattered for qualifying: rather than feeling like a quiet pre-race formality, each session had a visible audience following the build-up, watching the timing screens and reacting as the four classes took their turns to fight for pole.
Class-by-class qualifying headlines
The qualifying results gave Silverstone four clear class stories. In LMGT3, Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi put Team Qatar by Iron Lynx on pole in the #62 Mercedes with a 2m00.011sec lap, 0.251 seconds ahead of Blake McDonald in TF Sport’s #33 Corvette and 0.380 seconds clear of François Heriau in Racing Spirit of Leman’s #59 Aston Martin.
In LMP3, Louis Iglesias claimed pole for CLX Motorsport in the #17 Ligier JS P325 with a 1m53.144sec, beating Hugo Schwarze’s R-ACE GP Duqueine by less than a tenth, with Matteo Quintarelli third for Team Virage. LMP2 Pro/Am produced a first ELMS pole for American driver Steven Thomas, who put the #14 TDS Racing Oreca on top ahead of Georgios Kolovos in the #47 CLX Motorsport entry and Giorgio Roda in the #30 Duqueine car.
The outright LMP2 pole went to Tom Dillmann in the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca, ahead of Adrien Closmenil in the #37 CLX Motorsport car and Oliver Gray in the #29 Forestier Racing by Panis entry.
Converting pole into victory
Sunday’s Goodyear 4 Hours of Silverstone, at midday, will show whether the pole-winning crews can convert qualifying pace into a full endurance performance. The key factors will be tyre degradation, pit-wall timing, driver-change execution and how efficiently each crew manages mixed-class traffic.
