Written by Aaron Carroll, Edited by Julia Bissessar
When you hear the term ‘greatest qualifier’ in motorsports, the names that come straight to mind would be Ayrton Senna, Lewis Hamilton or Jim Clark. But what about Giorgio Roda?
Giorgio Roda is an Italian sports car driver currently racing in the WEC (World Endurance Championship) in LMGT3 machinery, and in ELMS (European Le Mans Series) and ALMS (Asian Le Mans Series), in LMP2 machinery. But what makes him so special?
In Roda’s last 12 qualifying sessions in LMP2, across ELMS and ALMS, he has claimed no less than 11 pole positions, giving him a 91% pole record in that time period. An absolutely monumental statistic, especially for a driver not well known by your average motorsports fan.
Roda’s electric qualifying run began back in April of 2024, with the opening round of the European Le Mans Series season in Spain at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Roda would be competing in Proton Competition’s No.77 Oreca 07 in the LMP2 Pro-Am class alongside Bent Viscaal and René Binder. It was crucial for Roda to qualify because of the rule in ELMS and ALMS where the LMP2 cars must be qualified by the team's bronze driver.
When LMP2 Pro-Am qualifying rolled around, Roda jumped in the car and set a laptime of 1:30.8, half a second quicker than anyone else in the class. He’d put it on pole again in France, this time by just under four tenths of a second. Following a two month break in the season before the round at Imola, nothing had changed, and Roda was on pole again by half a second.
Roda’s only blip was in round four at Spa-Francorchamps, where the Italian missed out on pole by a mere 0.033 seconds. But Giorgio was back in front again in Mugello, putting the Proton LMP2 on pole by three tenths, and a full second ahead of third place. At the season finale in Portimão, Roda inevitably took pole by six tenths of a second, sealing his season in ELMS with five poles from six races.
It’s also worth a mention that Roda competed in five races in the LMGT3 class in WEC with Proton Competition in the No.88 Ford Mustang, but didn’t see the same success as he did in LMP2 machinery, save a podium at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
With the main part of the season coming to a close, it was time for the winter series to begin. On the seventh of December, the ALMS grid rolled onto the track in Malaysia for rounds one and two of the championship.
ALMS qualifying consists of just one session on Saturday morning before race one, where your fastest lap sets the grid for race one and your second fastest lap sets the grid for race two.
Giorgio Roda - now in the No.22 Proton LMP2 alongside Tom Dillmann and Vladislav Lomko - picked up right where he left off, setting a pole time two and a half tenths quicker than anyone and his second fastest time being half a second quicker than the rest of the grid. A change of scenery to the deserts surrounding the Dubai Autodrome for rounds three and four didn’t affect Roda as he set both his best laps faster than the competition.
Heading into the final two rounds in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina circuit, Roda looked unstoppable in the LMP2, and he made sure it stayed that way. Roda took pole by a massive eight tenths of a second on his best lap and over a second clear of the field on his second fastest lap.
A statement qualifying session from the 30-year old Italian who managed to complete the sweep of qualifying poles in ALMS, and complete his LMP2 season with 11 out of 12 pole positions - just 0.033 seconds away from 12 out of 12.
Surely, with the stellar qualifying laps from Roda, you’d think the race results are there to show as well, right? Unfortunately for Roda, that isn’t the case. Roda stood on four podiums in ELMS, just one of which being a win, and in ALMS, one third place finish in round five at Abu Dhabi.
A multitude of issues and mistakes for Roda and Proton in both series meant the success in the qualifying runs never really translated to the races. For example, in round four of ALMS, the No.22 car was leading with just over 10 minutes remaining before a spin for Tom Dillmann dropped them out of contention and into fourth.
Similarly in Abu Dhabi for race five, the No.22 received a drive through penalty for a collision with another LMP2 while controlling the race out in front. The team were able to stay in the fight though, due to the large gap they had built before the penalty. But ultimately, they would finish on the bottom step of the podium in third.
The main thing to point out here is that the mistakes and issues were largely not Roda’s fault, and mainly mistakes from one of his teammates or an issue completely out of Proton’s hands. Whatever the case may be, Giorgio Roda’s 2024 qualifying performance is certainly one for the history books. This only begs the question now, can he keep it going in 2025?
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