Still to play for
After a tricky, wet but drying race into the gloom that saw a number of lead changes in three classes, the preliminary maths suggests that we still don’t have any ELMS champions before the last round in a fortnight’s time. Could the organisers have planned it better?
Gary Hirsch and Paul Loup Chatin had an excellent peerless race at the sharp end of the field and won LMPC comfortably, coming home eighth overall.
In LMP2 Morand and Thiriet by TDS went the wrong way with tyres at the start, choosing intermediates based on the drying track but then unable to get the necessary heat into them and falling away. Worse still for TDS, Thiriet then made a number of mistakes putting them out of contention, although a solid stint from Beche saw them safely home in sixth with some useful points scored. Morand finished fifth.
The winners didn’t have it easy by any means, but the Michelin tyre on the Alpine excelled in early conditions and Ragues was unstoppable and very impressive. He handed over a big lead to Panciatici who made no mistakes and kept the pace high.
He couldn’t let the pace drop too far because Hartley was keen to claw as much lead back as he could after a solid stint by teammate Jonathan Hirschi. It wasn’t to be but it was fun to watch and Murphy finished 38 seconds down the road, the only other car on the lead lap.
Jota Sport came home third with time lost after a full lap with a right left puncture. SMP Racing were an impressive fourth, having led the race out of the first corner.
GTE went the way of Proton who made some excellent tactical decisions to see off the challenge from IMSA, Proton, AF Corse and RAM. RAM’s #52 recovered from a tactical decision to stay on wet tyres rather too long but that allowed Matt Griffin to only make one stop, leaving Mowlem to run to the end. They were second in class and AF Corse’s #55 third. Collard had a great stint where he was back at his very best and Vernay was impressively fast, but not so impressive at spotting yellow flags, leading to a penalty and falling further out of contention when Milesi took the wheel. The JMW promise never materialised, Camathias sinking straight down the field at the start and no recovery was possible when they lost further time in the pits with a problem.
GTC was three wins out of three for the SMP Racing #69 and their championship position was boosted by #72 coming home second (rather artificially, having handed the win to their sister car). AF Corse’s #62 was third but a guaranteed fourth place for Ecurie Ecosse became a non-classified when they were eliminated 25 minutes from the end in a clash with the #54 AF Corse Ferrari.
An interesting and difficult race then, setting the championship resolution up nicely for the last round.
PS
