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For the first time, the European Le Mans Series has headed to the picturesque valley of Mugello.
Within the Northern Tuscan landscape lies the 15-turn, 5.245 km (3.259 mi) circuit which is set for a four-hour multi-class endurance race on Sunday 29 September.
At what is a new venue for all teams, free practice mileage and data served as crucial preparation.
Lamborghini LMDh driver Matteo Cairoli earned the Iron Lynx outfit their first pole position in his #9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca 07 LMP2.
Despite having claimed the honour, the top-10 of 14 Oreca 07 LMP2s were covered narrowly over 1 second.
The top class competition is close and tight ahead of the race, but it's from free practice where we can gain understanding about the odds.
During the opening free practice session, the #65 Panis Racing Oreca topped the fastest lap time sheets owing to Charles Milesi's 1:34.687 lap time set early on.
IDEC Sport followed in second, ahead of United Autosports' #23 Oreca.
Looking at the average top-20% of lap times, these three cars were both amongst the fastest in the field and separated by three-tenths of a second.
As for the pole-sitting #9 Iron Lynx Proton (IL Proton in the charts) team, they bettered all three of these cars, although AO by TF were definitively ahead of their competition.
They finished fifth in FP1 but showcased promising consistency with their top lap times.
Heading into FP2, the lap time were quicker and IL Proton and Panis Racing continued to shine as they led the way over their longer runs.
The pole-sitter reached four-tenths clear in their average run over Panis Racing, as the pair qualified on the front row.
Expect to see both teams fight at the front once the green flag drops in the race, as Panis Racing will need to capitalise on a strong getaway before the #9 IL Proton begins to lay down their potential.
Their four-tenths average pace advantage on Panis Racing could be deployed to build a gap before the first wave of LMGT3 and LMP3 traffic.
Speaking of which, Mugello proses various corner sequences which flow into one another and could make it difficult to overtake the slower cars unless they are on the 1.141 km (0.709 mi) start-finish straight.
Meanwhile the #23 United Autosports LMP2 struggled to replicate their FP1 form, even situated over three-tenths away from their #22 Pro/Am sibling.
Unfortunately for Paul Di Resta, he exceeded track limits at Turn 14 during qualifying which resulted in an unrepresentative lap time over 13-seconds away from the #9 IL Proton's pole, putting them in 32nd place overall – behind all 10 LMP3s.
Despite the significant speed advantage of the LMP2 machine over LMP3s, the #23 will contend with a rabid category ahead who will fight their own battles with no blue flag obligation to give way for the charging LMP2.
Having qualified third, Algarve Pro Racing stand a promising chance at taking the lead if the front-row pair jostle and cost their own outright lap time with the fourth-fastest average lap time in FP2.
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