Signatech Alpine come good in tricky conditions, all titles to be decided in final round
After the morning’s qualifying session the stewards decided that Boutsen Ginion’s John Hartshorne had not managed the minimum laptime (set by reference to the slowest of 110% of the class leader’s best or 125% of the average of the best 3 times set by 3 cars of different makes. The fact that an Alpine (badge), Orecas and a Zytek have been pushing hard all weekend won’t have helped but Hartshorne is more than capable of cracking the 2 minute barrier. With three drivers to work through in practice, two of them new to the series, it is not necessarily easy to get straight down to an acceptable time however. Whatever the circumstances were, the Race Director considered it was not reasonable for safety reasons due to the weather conditions and the weather forecast to allow him to participate in the race.
Whilst the Boutsen Ginion car did take the start with the two remaining drivers, the Kox Racing Lamborghini didn’t make the start at all. Nico Pronk lost control on the formation lap and put the car into the barriers hard enough to eliminate the car before it could even take up its grid slot.
The start was given on time and on a track where dry patches were starting to emerge, but it was very cold and gloomy and there was still a lot of surface water generally, as Pronk had found out the hard way.
When the red lights went out the leading cars fanned out across the track and Mediani emerged from the ball of spray into the first right hander with an audacious line and bit of late braking that put the SMP Racing Oreca briefly into the lead. Very briefly, because Hirschi held his nerve to stay alongside through ‘turn’ 2 (nothing more than a kink to the right really) and re-establishing Murphy’s lead.
Three cars limped away from early incidents, Ayari’s LMPC, the #1 Thiriet by TDS Oreca and the Race Performance car that had started second on the grid. Ayari was able to continue after a 16 minute delay, #48 having a lonely race to second in class as Hirsch and Chatin romped home to an ‘easy’ class win and an eigth place overall finish. Panciatici’s front end damage was more severe though, shedding the nose on the way round the team estimated a 45 minute repair was needed and in a 3 hour race that was simply too much and the class sadly lost what has become a genuine front-runner.
Niederhauser had perhaps sustained his damage on the first corner because he was trying to hold an unusually tight line which allowed Ragues and even Gary Hirsch in the #49 PC car through to third and fourth respectively. Turvey lost 12 seconds on the first lap and was looking very cautious as he waited for his tyres to come on song.
Ragues, on the contrary, had all caution thrown to the wind. He took Mediani with a strong move at turn three on lap two and was soon challenging Hirschi, the two were side-by-side through rather more corners than seemed possible but it did seem that the Michelins were really giving the Alpine a much more stable foundation to push from. Hirschi was wisely taking the wider wet lines to carry as much as speed as possible, rather than trying to defend, but Ragues seemed able to match the pace even on the tighter lines. The next lap, Ragues seemed to have taken the hint and stayed wide himself at turn 17, taking the lead on lap three.
Pierre Thiriet had also had a coming together on lap one (with the #72 Ferrari according to the timing screens) and lost 3:14 in the pits getting a new nose fitted to the Thiriet by TDS Oreca. The car resumed on intermediates but was nowhere near the pace of the wet-shod front-runners, losing time that was compounded by yet more mistakes from Thiriet. Beche took over the car rather later than the other pro driver’s did, but he was only able to bring the car home sixth in class, meaning their championship lead has now evaporated and they are now tied with Signatech Alpine on points.
Beche: “We had many troubles this weekend. In qualifying I didn’t get a clear lap and struggled to get heat into the tyres. At the start Pierre had contact with a car straight in front that he couldn’t avoid, we lost three laps and made the wrong tyre choice too. We were on intermediates at the start because we thought we could do something good with them, the track surface was maybe ready for them but the temperatures were so low it just didn’t work. We were 15 seconds off the pace for around an hour. For me it was just to try to finish the race and get some points so I wasn’t taking any risks in traffic, we had no threat from behind either.”
Ragues drove probably the stint of his career (all 107 minutes of it), faultlessly pounding round and round through difficult conditions and putting time on the competition almost throughout. Only Turvey, when the track was clear ahead of him, was able to lap at a similar or better pace (in the mid 50’s), but a left rear puncture on the Jota Sport Zytek right on the final corner just as he was ready to mount a challenge on Hirschi’s second place led to him having to complete a full lap at low speed to avoid damaging the car, so no-one was ever a real threat to Signatech Alpine.
Brendon Hartley didn’t see it like that though when he took over the Murphy Prototypes Oreca. The Kiwi is a genuine class act and is hugely motivated by the art of going fast. After an initial indiscretion as he tried to avoid going a lap down on the leader and gave it rather too much throttle, spinning into the right handed turn 1 at the end of the pitlane, he ate and ate into Panciatici’s lead. Once again he gave us his now almost trademark-like string of fastest laps but was simply coming from too far back to do anything other than pick off Zlobin’s SMP Racing and Dolan’s Jota Zytek and bring the team what is surprisingly their first podium of the season so far. Panciatici’s role was realistically to control his lead rather than set a blistering pace, so coming home with 38 seconds of lead remaining over the closing Murphy Prototypes car was certainly a job well done.
In GTE Vernay had pulled off a very strong start and had a comfortable lead for his first stint. Camathias lost his class pole immediately on the start and JMW, who had been full of promise all weekend, slipped (possibly literally on intermediate tyres) to and skulked at the back of the GTE field before an issue in the engine bay cost them nearly ten minutes and put them completely out of contention, dealing their championship hopes a fatal blow.
Speaking of championship, it seems very likely that the GTC title will go to one of #69 and #62. These cars seem to have a 200m tether between them at all times and a great rivalry has been brewing. SMP Racing copied AF Corse at the start, choosing slicks (!). The GTC runners only have a choice of wets or slicks, but it was plainly the wrong choice and they both dropped back for the opening 20 minutes of the race until AF Corse made the call for Rizzoli to go on to wets.
#72 hadn’t suffered as much as #1 in their coming together and led the class for the second half of the race, presumably on a split tyre strategy from the sister #69 car. Frolov was even able to take the scalp of the Morand Racing car, although this had also made the mistake of starting on slicks. #83 Easyrace’s Ferrari slumped to the back of the field having led the class early on, but managed to finish the race 18th overall and fourth in class after the demise of the EcurieEcosse BMW in the final 25 minutes of the race. Yannick Mallegol was judged to have taken the unlucky Brit (Joe Twyman) out, breaking the Z4’s steering. The stewards were very unimpressed and fined Mallegol and have threatened him with expulsion from the championship should he do anything similar again.
GTC resolved itself very much in SMP’s favour, an orchestrated 1-2 with the team clearly allowing the championship contending #69 through to win ahead of #72. At the halfway mark #62 had the upper hand over #69, Gai from Shaitar by around four seconds but then tangled with the #67 Porsche and lost the lead and around another 11 seconds. Worse was to come with #62 penalised for the incident with a 1 minute stop-and-go penalty. A third in class finish was therefore a rather good one in the circumstances.
Alex Kapadia was a safe pair of hands in the tricky opening conditions and had the Boutsen Ginion Oreca up to fifth overall within the first half hour, which became a genuine fourth place (he ran as high as second due to others pitting earlier) when Turvey had his puncture. It wouldn’t last though. Jota Sport sent Turvey back out on intermediates and, once they had gained a bit of heat, his pace was even stronger to the extent that his lap time improved by six seconds on two consecutive laps and after the race he was convinced that the switch to intermediates meant he recovered almost all the time lost due to the puncture.
Griffin, Leo and Reid started to come on song as the track began to dry and this trio started to move past the GTC leaders (running strongly initially thanks to ABS brakes) with around 20 minutes gone, in vain pursuit of Vernay who had been running as high as sixth overall.
Ried handed over to Tandy at 50 minutes from fourth in class. At the head of the class Vernay pitted around eight minutes later, promoting Griffin and Leo to a temporary Ferrari 1-2 in GTE.
Vernay’s early stellar work was about to become undone though, he was judged to have passed under a yellow flag leading to a one minute stop-and-go penalty for the car. But Griffin had himself lost ground, the team making the tactical call to leave him out for the full 1 hour 20 minutes that he must drive in a single stint. The tyres were past their best but it was judged the better call rather than bringing him in twice in quick succession. Tandy was 46 seconds further back, but Proton had of course completed a pitstop and a driver change already and in typical Tandy style, he was closing fast on those ahead.
Khaled Al Mudhaf had almost the worst possible start to his ELMS race career as he lost the rear end accelerating out of the pitlane and into turn one on his first outlap, spitting the car into a spin. He then had another spin moments later after, nerfing the barriers a glancing blow. Alex Kapadia had turned the traction control right down “because it had been annoying me”, but no-one had told Al Mudhaf that, and being a Dubai racer, racing in the wet is an altogether foreign experience anyway! With the car taped up and pointing in the right direction, the Kuwaiti drove a solid two stints to bring the car home seventh in class.
Turvey’s recovery drive finally saw him back on the tail of Hirschi where he had been before his puncture and with 73 of the 180 minutes gone he made his move, spurred on by the then fastest lap of the race the lap before, into the 1:42’s. Morand’s intermediate tyres were finally coming good too and into the halfway point Natacha Gachnang had recovered to join the other P2 cars at the top of the timing screen, albeit a somewhat distant fifth. Ragues’s lead at the halfway point was an impressive 84 seconds.
Mowlem, having taken over the #52, had left the pits with an air hose still draped over the right hand side wing mirror and the mirror sheared off, necessitating a return to have a new one installed. Perrazini, now in the #55, and Collard, who was absolutely on it in the #75 Prospeed, came through as a result.
With the #67 due to serve its stop/go, Tandy powered into a lead that Proton would not relinquish, Bachler doing a fine job in the car’s final stint. The victory was one which Tandy in particular relished, not least as the team is still mathematically in the championship hunt as a result. “It was a good stint, our victory today comes from a perfect strategy for the entire race. We started on wets and were one of the first to change to slicks. It was a great strategy and perfect pitstops and in the end we had a comfortable victory. We weren’t the fastest car this weekend, the Ferrari was quicker in the dry and when it was very wet, but when you have changeable conditions it gives you a chance to make a difference by being intelligent and makes for a more interesting race. I’ll be at Ricard and we fully intend to win the Championship!”
Behind him Jonny Mowlem made short work of Patrice Milesi in the #67 on the main straight and Cioci took over #55. Good stints by these two secured second and third places respectively, Milesi and Perrodo simply unable to compete with drivers of that calibre.
With around 40 minutes to go there was a fresh sprinkling of rain on the track, causing laptimes to fall by around six seconds but it soon cleared away so didn’t affect the status quo that had largely been set by that point in the race. It did lead to Gunnar Jeanette deciding wets might give him a tactical advantage in the #53 RAM Racing Ferrari, but it was the wrong call and he was soon back in the pits to change back, probably losing two or possibly three places by the chequered flag as a direct result and giving them an uphill struggle to finish second in the championships.
The possible winners of the team’s titles are as follows, the points are the same for those drivers who have taken part in each round. 26 points are up for grabs with a win and a pole at Paul Ricard.
P2: Thiriet by TDS Racing/Signatech Alpine: 73 points; Jota Sport: 55 points
PC: Team Endurance Challenge (#49): 96 points; Team Endurance Challenge (#48): 73 points
GTE: RAM Racing (#52): 88 points; Proton Competition: 65 points
GTC: SMP Racing (#69): 75 points; AF Corse: 70 points; Ecurie Ecosse: 55 points
Benoit Morand “We made the wrong tyre choice, with intermediates when it should have been wet. The car was so bad we thought there was something wrong with the tyres so we put more intermediates on but they were exactly the same. After about 10 laps they started to get some heat and Natacha did really well and moved into the top five. Then Klien got in but his tyres were for some reason completely the wrong tyre pressure so we had to change them again and went to slicks at the end. We take some points though and I am sure we will have a much better race at Paul Ricard.”
Alasdair McCaig “Joe got tapped by a GTE Ferrari that moved across on him and broke the steering, we’d had an awesome race up until then. I had a good first stint, I love changing conditions. I passed about eight cars off the start, our rivals started on slicks and that wasn’t the right thing to do. The speed of those Ferraris and the driver line-up they have though, I mean we just can’t compete. Yesterday their bronze driver, Shaitar, did a lap that was 3/10ths quicker than Babini, their platinum driver. Me and Joe are genuine Bronze drivers and we can’t beat guys like that. I just hope we are classified finishers because we did 70% of the race distance I think…” [the organisers decided that Ecurie Ecosse were not classified, so a championship lead has become a championship remote mathematical possibility]
Brendon Hartley “I thought we should go for inters at the start but it would have been the wrong choice. It was difficult to try to read the track and the weather as the sun was going down and there was a little bit of rain starting. We’ve not had a podium for a while so this is a big step for us and it was a classy job for the team to have no problems for the whole weekend. I did everything I could to catch Nelson Panciatici but I am happy with a second place.”
Oliver Turvey “It was a difficult day. Once the tyres were working the pace was stronger but I got a puncture on the wet tyre and it happened right on the last corner so I had to complete a full lap with it which was really frustrating and we lost a lot of time. We put the inters on and the pace was very strong and we made all that time back and got back up to second. Simon [Dolan] did a fantastic job and it is great to be back on the podium and I’m really pleased for everyone after a few issues in recent races and this morning.”
Gary Hirsch “We will have to wait a bit longer for the Championship but that will bring more suspense, today was a nice challenge, being able to battle with the P2s. I would really like to thank my [financial] partners to make it possible for me to be here because I work very hard to do a good job and stay with Paul and fight for the Championship. We get on really well together and have the same driving style which helps. I have been out of driving for two years so he is a good benchmark and I have been quick this weekend. For Ricard the main target will be to finish but of course we are racing drivers and we always looking for a gap and the best result, but it’s all about a balance and of course we have to start thinking about next year, where being a Champion will certainly help!”
Paul Loup Chatin “Ricard is one of my favourite circuits and we still need two points there to secure the Championship. The team, Gary and I did a great job this weekend. We could have finished a bit higher overall than we did even but the main goal was to finish top of PC.”
Fabio Babini “To take our third win in ELMS with these drivers, the team works really well. It was very difficult for Kirill [Ladygin]. He started on dry tyres, which was not the right choice but one we had to make because it was important to follow AF Corse’s strategy. Kirill did well to match them and then when we stopped for wets we could push and come through for the win. To have the second SMP car finish second after all the work the team did from its crash this morning is fantastic and I am pleased for them.”
PS
