Saturday afternoon’s race was in fact summed up fairly comprehensively in the quick race report, because in many ways it was quite a straightforward affair. There was very little on-track incident, which was a surprise to many of the drivers. There had been talk of taking risks to ensure progress, of cars of all classes doing very similar speeds on the straights and of everyone braking at more or less the same point too; but there was only one notable coming together and all cars survived with bodywork broadly intact. That says a great deal about the standard of driving in the series.
That is not to say it was a race of no incident, however. Certainly some of the quickest cars hit problems that took them out of contention. Most notable, and hardest hit, of these was Murphy Prototypes. Jonathan Hirschi put the nightmare start to his season firmly aside with a strong opening stint in the Oreca 03 Nissan, during which he held off, and at times pulled away from, everyone bar Turvey until the first pitstop. It was scarcely believable to see the car failing to start just like at Imola after the routine stop, a broken cable being the cause.
The consequences were even more severe because, just as they will for the remaining two races, the ELMS teams are running their cars out of their awnings in the paddock. Anything more than a routine repair therefore requires the car to be pushed down the pitlane, through the paddock (having had to notify the race director first), into the awning, repair, tell the race director it is coming back onto pitlane and then get back into the race. The reason for this is that the ELMS is a tag-on to the World Series by Renault championship for its last three rounds. It does seem rather perverse that cars taking part in short sprint races (where any mechanical issue, no matter how minor is effectively the end of the race) should have the benefit of pitlane garages to the expense of true endurance cars (where repairs are part and parcel of what to expect). Many teams were deeply unhappy about this, also saying it gave the appearance of ‘club racing’. Given the perilous state of where the ELMS was last year and the need to establish a viable calendar, it is almost forgivable for now to see them having to be the subservient ones. Had the organisers known then what a quality field it would be able to assemble, then its bargaining position might have been rather stronger. Certainly it should be next year.
Murphy lost 19 laps as a result of the broken cable and, despite blinding pace from Brendon Hartley, reportedly setting the 10 fastest laps of the race, all Murphy’s men could do was show what could have been and what doubtless will be soon.
Behind Hirschi in that opening stint, Morand’s Franck Mailleux had an early duel with TDS’s Mathias Beche but couldn’t quite make the move stick. 20 minutes in, he made it past and managed to gap the red and black Oreca 03 Nissan.
The SMP Racing Prototype was understandably not up to the pace of the others and Signatech Alpine and Boutsen Ginion lost out as a result, taking many laps to find a way through and try to hunt down the leaders.
The Alpine made its way past first, but not until the first 30 minutes had passed. Kraihamer struggled on somewhat longer, but Boutsen Ginion’s race was one to forget; a stop to replace the rear wing and bodywork section on the Oreca 03 Nissan, then a failed transmission putting them out of the race, the only non-finisher.
Race Performance had their best show of the season. Niederhauser made a move on Beche with around 40 minutes gone and it seemed as if TDS’s season might be unravelling to some extent. The team carried out a great first stop to dispel that impression, however, with some good in and out laps too, to see Beche return to second place after the stops. Niederhauser was still right in contention, just two seconds further back.
At around the halfway mark Oliver Turvey was forced to serve a 30 second stop-go penalty, after he had “engaged the pit lane speed limiter but it hadn’t worked. It didn’t slow me down but I was only just over. I thought the officials had realised that because at first they just asked us to adjust our limiter, but then we were told it was still a penalty.” Having served the penalty, his deficit to the leader was 36 seconds and his Jota Sport Zytek was now fourth.
This set up a new battle at the front, Niederhauser still only two seconds off Beche, Mailleux 14 seconds further back.
Niederhauser was first to stop, handing over to Frey, but Frey had a coming together with Montecalvo into the final corner, both cars coming to a halt and Frey taking some time to get going again.
Simon Dolan took over the Jota car in fifth place but seemed to struggle until the tyres were warmed up, losing time on his opening laps.
Thiriet took over the lead car but lost around 12 seconds as the car wouldn’t initially fire up. A mechanic reached into the dashboard twice, seemingly resetting something, and he was away into a lead that would have gone Race Performance’s way but for Frey’s incident.
Niederhauser: “I was about two seconds behind the leader when I came in and I had to go up to the race director because of a problem we had with our driver ID. I saw the problems for the TDS car not starting in the pitstop so I thought that we should be leading, but next time I looked [Frey] had spun, I really don’t know what happened. Without that we would have had P2 for sure and a win was possible, but it is an endurance race so these things happen and it is about more than just speed. It was a good race for me; I had a good fight with Beche and pushed through both my stints.”
Frey: “An LMP passed the white Ferrari [#53] and he went very wide so I thought he was leaving the door open for me too from out there, but then he closed the door. One of those things, but I suppose it is up to me to make the move really. We have made a big jump with the car, but as drivers too and having some decent seat time at Le Mans has let us move forward. We have tried some special setups this weekend and have made some good steps.”
Thiriet’s lead was still 32 seconds and was never really under threat. Panciatici, once in the Signatech Alpine, was the one that reduced that lead to 21 seconds by the end. Had he not been demoted to last place on the grid then Alpine may well have won this one too. The Alpine moved ahead of the Morgan to take the runner-up spot with around 70 minutes to go, after several laps of dicing with Natacha Gachnang. Morand Racing had another strong performance throughout, stayed out of trouble and earned another podium place. Dolan and Frey provided much of the entertainment in the closing hour and ultimately a move by the Englishman into Rindt with 49 minutes remaining, capitalising on Frey losing momentum behind a backmarker, resolved fourth place in Jota’s favour.
In LMPC, Ayari had an early stop after just eight minutes that dropped his car out of contention. Paul Loup-Chatin proved consistently quick and gave Hirsch a comfortable lead that Verdonck tried to erode in the closing stint, but couldn’t close beyond five seconds. Algarve Pro Racing team took a well-deserved debut podium and should be in the mix going forward.
GTE Pro saw an excellent start from RAM Racing’s Gunnar Jeanette, up to second place, ahead of team-mate Griffin as they both tried to work out how to get past an impressive Joel Camathias who led in the #66 JMW Ferrari.
The yellow car lost pace towards the end of the opening stint, reportedly slowing to a crawl at one point, and that was all it took to see the second RAM car through at Schlossgold; Griffin having already moved from third in class straight into the lead. The problem was a temporary one, though, and Bertolini drove a very strong stint to hunt down and pass Frankie Montecalvo to take second. #52 was untouchable over the race distance however, taking the win by over a minute.
Griffin: “I got edged out wide at Turn 2 of the start and lost a few places and had to come back from there. The characteristics of this circuit you’d think would suit Porsche, so it was a bit of a surprise that the Ferraris were so strong: hard braking and traction out of corners, that’s where the Porsche is strong. RAM Racing did a great job and Michelin gave us some fantastic tools to get the job done.”
Bachler drove well in the #88, helping Felbermayr father and son to a sixth-place finish, so his is a name that we might see in this type of racing again.
Like Murphy Prototypes, Proton’s #77 car was out of contention from the first pitstop, too. A broken seat belt in the first stop led to a three minute delay, lost them two laps and, despite great drives from all three pilots, they were on a hiding to nothing, only coming home eighth in class and still two laps down. Ried: “We had a problem with the seat belt on our first stop and lost two laps. That was it. Gianluca [Roda] was good today, Nick was fantastic but since Silverstone our luck in this championship has just been sh*t. Really sh*t, there is always something. The grid is so competitive that if you have even a small mistake or issue you are out, but I suppose that is how it should be.”
GTC was all about #62 and #69 in a three hour long duel that saw them clear of the rest with only thirty minutes gone.
Gai and Ladygin started it and ran in that order, but all the drivers kept this one going. It was advantage AF Corse and #62 until something rubbing on its right rear tyre on Case’s outlap with just 30 minutes to go necessitated an extra stop. To some extent, although it was fixed quickly, this gifted the win to the SMP Racing #69, but they were right there to inherit it. To the delight of the team that only debuted last time out at Imola, Babini, Shaitar and Ladygin now move up to third in the class championship and are certainly in contention now.
Fabio Babini: “It is a fantastic result to get our second victory in ELMS. We lost first position with a mistake at the first driver change, Viktor [Shaitar] drove very fast but I thought it would be impossible to close the gap. I started with new tyres and was a lot faster than #62 and it was possible to close the gap, then #62 had a problem with tyres and we could overtake.”
Ecurie Ecosse had a solid run to third in class and still hold the class championship lead for now.
Next stop Hungary, and it is unlikely that the winners of each class will be the same three races in a row…
PS
