SUMMARY: Nissan has taken its first-ever overall Blancpain Endurance Series win after a nail-biting final stint that saw Alex Buncombe in the #23 GT-R hold off pressure from Steven Kane in the #7 Bentley. The podium was completed by the #46 Marc VDS BMW.
The final sequence of pit stops at the Blancpain Endurance Series Paul Ricard 1000 went smoothly for the front-runners. While Kane stayed aboard the second-place Bentley (the #7’s drivers having double-stinted throughout the race), Buncombe took the leading #23 Nissan over from Reip for the final stint.
With Bentley not doing a driver change, the gap between the #23 and the #7 as the final stint unfolded stood at just five seconds once the #46 Marc VDS BMW and #99 ROWE Mercedes had made their final stops – the latter car electing to make a late final stop for a short final stint on old tyres. The Mercedes finally came in with just 35 minutes remaining on the clock for Nico Bastian to take it to the flag – seven seconds in arrears of the third-place Marc VDS BMW.
The Pro-Am battle had stabilised with Lyons leading in the #11 Ferrari, Johnston second in the #18 Mercedes depsite the earlier drive-through penalty and Vasiliev third in the GT Russian Mercedes.
With 25 minutes remaining, there was finally confirmation that there would be no stewards’ action against the #7 Bentley for the earlier contact with the #75 Audi, leaving the way open for a clear battle to the flag – the gap between first and second now having stretched slightly to seven seconds.
As the leaders negotiated traffic, the margin dropped below three seconds with 17 minutes to go. It continued to drop as the minutes ticked by, hitting 1.6 seconds with just 10 minutes to go as Kane relentlessy chucked the big Bentley around in the darkness in pursuit of the win. He chucked it a bit too far wide on lap 166, giving the tiniest bit of breathing room to Buncombe up front – the gap back to 3.9 seconds.
However, Kane made a bigger mistake with just four minutes to go, spinning the Bentley and almost losing third place to Martin in the Marc VDS BMW behind. Buncombe could finally relax the tiniest bit and took the car across the line for Nissan’s first-ever overall BES win.
Full report here.
Stephen Errity
