The 2016 GT/Tourism/LMP3 VdeV Championships began in Barcelona this weekend with a healthy grid of twenty-four cars, including 11 prototypes: six Ligiers JSP3, four Ginettas G57 and one Pescarolo 02.
The qualifying session led fans to believe that the new Chevy V8 powered Ginetta G57s would dominate the competition during their inaugural race weekend. Gaetan Paletou in Ginetta #52 took the pole, while sister cars #57 and #55 respectively secured the second and third places on the grid. Graff Racing’s fastest Ligier JSP3 was 1.1s behind the pole sitter.
The race itself, however, offered a very different scenario. The cars started on a wet track, which quickly led to several race incidents and a brief safety-car episode.
At the end of the first hour, Paletou in Ginetta #52 was first, while sister cars were fourth, fifth and sixth. But soon after that, an off on the out lap for the #52 car lost the team time, and they dropped down to thirteenth position. They were never able to regain the lead positions, which, from mid-race onwards, were held by a trio of Ligier JSP3s belonging to Inter Europol Competition, Duqueine Engineering and BE Motorsport.
In the end, Duqueine Engineering’s Ligier #36 driven by Halliday/Droux/Lunardi won by a narrow 24 second advantage over Inter Europol Competition’s Ligier #13 driven by Smichowski/Hippe.
The Robertson/White duo’s first Ginetta finished third overall, two laps behind the winning car but first in the PVF category. “A class win and two cars in the overall top five on the Ginetta G57’s debut is absolutely fantastic,” said Ewan Baldry, Ginetta’s Technical Director. “Charlie and Colin did a sterling job, whilst Mike and Lawrence were on fine form as always. We’ve gathered some excellent data from the car which you can only really obtain in a racing situation, so overall, a really positive weekend.”
In the GT field, the VISIOM Ferrari F458 GT2 #1 raced by Pagny/Perrier/Bouvet won in the GTV1 category, ahead of the AF Corse Ferrari F458 GT3 #51 driven by Cordoni/Zanuttini. The RMS Porsche 911 Cup raced by Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank won in the GTV2 category, beating the exotic Mosler MT 900 #8 driven by Kanaroglou/Campos Hull.
The next race will be held in Le Mans on April 22-24, 2016.
Pics Copyright Hugues Laroche
Mat Fernandez (@matlemans)
