SUMMARY: Thiriet by TDS Racing has won the Red Bull Ring round of the European Le Mans Series from Eurasia Motorsport and G-Drive Racing after an eventful four hours of racing at the Austrian track.
While a series of early dramas put paid to the challenge of the polesitting Panis-Barthez Ligier, a racy opening stint from Tristan Gommendy put the fourth-place-qualifying Eurasia Oreca into contention, and it remained at the sharp end right to the flag thanks to the efforts of co-drivers Pu Junjin and Nick-Peter de Bruijn.
Third place and the fastest lap of the race were small reward for G-Drive, after Giedo van der Garde had to recover from an early puncture in the first hour and Harry Tincknell was forced to make an extra pitstop for repairs in the closing stages when a backmarker spun right in front of him.
The result sees the TDS crew move to within eight points of G-Drive’s championship lead heading into the next round at Paul Ricard in August.
In LMP3, the #19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier initially emerged victorious after several other cars had held the lead but hit trouble – but post-race it was penalised for a too-short pit stop, handing victory once more to the #2 United Autosports car.
The GTE class saw the #66 JMW Ferrari lead pretty much from lights to flag – although there were moments of drama here, too, including a coming-together with the Panis-Barthez LMP2 car early in the race.
LMP2
Timothe Buret streaked away from pole in the Panis-Barthez Ligier at the start, while van der Garde managed to move up to second. Some close racing in the early corners left the G-Drive Gibson with a front-left slow puncture, however, necessitating an unscheduled early visit to the pits that dropped the car down to ninth.
“I was struggling with tyre temps in the first two or three laps, then in the battle with Tristan I think maybe the valve broke, causing the slow puncure,” the Dutchman explained afterwards. “After that it was maximum attack, pushing really hard – we were flying.”
Dragonspeed’s Nicolas Lapierre managed to get from fourth to fifth off the grid, while Gommendy went from fourth to third – then second when he passed van der Garde before the G-Drive car headed for the pits. Front-row starter Pierre Thiriet had a conservative opening few laps, eventually settling in fourth behind Lapierre and comfortably ahead of Andreas Wirth in the SMP Racing BR01.
“It wasn’t very easy – I had a bad start, I think I must have been asleep!” said Thiriet later. “But the pace wasn’t so bad after that.”
Up front, Gommendy kept the pressure on Buret as the clock approached 30 minutes, looking close to a passing attempt several times as they scythed through traffic. But in the end it wasn’t a pass that got Eurasia the lead – instead it was contact between Buret’s Ligier and the GTE-leading JMW Ferrari of Rory Butcher through the last turn on lap 27.
That dropped the Panis-Barthez car to fourth, so it was Gommendy, Lapierre and Thiriet now making up the top three. Buret’s misery was shortly after compounded by a drive-through penalty for not respecting the formation at the race start, and then an off-track moment at turn six that cost even more time.
First of the frontrunners to come in were the #21 Dragonspeed and #33 Eurasia cars, with Lapierre handing the former to Henrik Hedman and Gommendy ceding to Pu Junjin in the latter. Buret also pitted after recovering from his off, and stayed aboard the former race-leading car.
Thiriet pitted the TDS Oreca a lap later than his competition and stayed in the car at the stop, while out on track van der Garde was lapping the G-Drive Gibson very quickly indeed to claw back the time lost to the early stop and moved temporarily into the lead as the rest of the field made their scheduled pit visits. Thiriet emerged from his stop in second, ahead of Junjin in the Eurasia Oreca.
With just under an hour run, G-Drive’s regular driver change stop took place, with Simon Dolan taking over from van der Garde and slotting into sixth, behind fourth-place Julian Leal in the SMP car and Nathanael Berthon in the Greaves Ligier. The G-Drive stop also promoted Thiriet, Junjin and Hedman to first, second and third, with Thiriet holding a 25-second lead on Junjin and Hedman just a few seconds behind the Eurasia driver.
Halfway through the second hour, Thiriet came into the pits to have a faulty right-hand headlight seen to and hand the TDS car to Ryo Hirakawa, dropping the car to fourth and out of sequence with the other front-runners. The car ended up running in a ‘hybrid’ colour scheme for this phase of the race, as the replacement nose section was finished in the colours of another Oreca-running LMP2 team, KCMG!
Following stops for Eurasia, Dragonspeed and SMP in quick succession, and G-Drive a short while afterwards, Hirakawa led in the TDS from Leal in the SMP, with G-Drive’s Dolan emerging third. Nick-Peter de Bruijn got aboard the Eurasia Oreca at that car’s stop and came out fourth, ahead of Julien Canal in the Greaves Ligier and Ben Hanley in the Dragonspeed Oreca. Around 15 minutes before half-distance, a full-course yellow was called when the Villorba Corse LMP3 car became stranded in the gravel at T5.
Just after half-distance, De Bruijn squeezed past Dolan to move into third, while ahead of him, Hirakawa continued to peg the gap to second-place Leal in the SMP car at around 25 seconds. Both then stopped on the same lap with about 90 minutes to go, Beche getting into the leading TDS Oreca and Coletti taking over from Leal in the SMP.
With Dolan pitting to hand over to Harry Tincknell (who’d take the car to the flag) the true top three emerged as Beche from De Bruijn and Coletti, with Tincknell fourth about 30 seconds off the leader. Coletti then got involved with two lapped cars in the last corner and spun around, but still had about 15 seconds in hand over the G-Drive car – the top four just about all on the lead lap at this point.
There was bad news also for one of the early frontrunners, the Dragonspeed Oreca, which suffered rear-left suspension failure after hitting the barrier while exiting the pits, forcing Ben Hanley to complete an entire lap at greatly reduced speed to bring the car back for repairs – but the damage proved terminal.
Tincknell took third from Coletti early in the final hour as the SMP car faced the prospect of an unscheduled pit stop to fix faulty rear lights caused by loose rear bodywork. Next in Tincknell’s sights was the #33 Eurasia car of de Bruijn, which he passed at T2 just as the TDS car was making its final stop. Starting driver Pierre Thiriet got back on board, and the car’s front clip was changed for a second time due to the replacement part’s headlight having worked loose during Beche’s stint.
With 40 minutes to go, Tincknell made a final fuel-only stop in the G-Drive. All was going smoothly when he rejoined until he reached turn two, where Remy Streiberg in the several-laps-down Pegasus Morgan spun on the exit of the corner directly in front of him, leading to contact that wrecked the front-left corner of the Gibson.
“It was just terrible driving,” a clearly disappointed Tincknell said after the race. “We were on for second, but at the point of impact, I thought I’d take a podium if it was offered to me. The only bit of luck was that they called a full-course yellow so we were able to pit without losing too much time. There was a lot of vibration and porpoising when I got back out, so there was no chance of challenging for second, I just had to nurse it home.”
Tincknell recovered to the pits for new bodywork as the FCY was called. The incident saw the #38 Gibson rejoin in third, with Thiriet now back in the lead and Gommendy once again aboard the Eurasia Oreca, running second.
The last 10 minutes saw another full-course yellow due to Tracy Krohn beaching the Krohn Racing Ligier at T5, but the order at the top of the field remained unchanged at the flag, with Coletti coming home just off the podium following the SMP’s bodywork issues. Memo Rojas in the Greaves Ligier was passed by Andrea Pizzitola in the Algarve Pro Ligier for fifth on the final lap, however.
The Panis-Barthez car would eventually finish seventh in the hands of Paul-Loup Chatin following Buret’s first-hour dramas, ahead of the Murphy Prototypes Oreca – the final P2 runner not to have encountered major issues.
“We have a new setup and a lot of new stuff this weekend, so it’s really great to take the win,” said Beche after the podium. “It almost feels like my first ELMS race of the year after I didn’t drive in Silverstone and only got a few laps in Imola. We had a great car and great balance all weekend so, hopefully we can learn from this and score every point we can for the rest of the year.”
Second-place Gommendy added: “It’s Eurasia’s first time on the ELMS podium, which is great, because so much is new for the team this year. We had to manage things a bit in the other races and at Le Mans, because we needed the mileage, but here I could push from the start.” And Gommendy’s co-driver Pu Junjin reckons there’s more to come from the Eurasia combination, as both he and Nick-Peter de Bruijn could have managed their tyres better in the course of their stints.
LMP3
Poleman Valentin Moineault had a troubled start, with two consecutive contacts including one with #11 Eurointernational Ligier of Giorgio Mondini at T3 (lap two) and one at T9 with #10 Graff Racing Ligier of Sean Rayhall (lap 10). The Frenchman took a black/white warning flag for the latter.
Despite these events, he managed to stay in third position during 28 laps, behind Alex Brundle in the #2 United Autosports Ligier and the leading car of David Droux (the #19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier.
From second on the grid, the #3 United Autosports car of Mark Patterson also had a hectic start, with a punctured tire eventually detaching from his car on the third lap. It lost six laps for repairs.
At the top of the first hour, cars went though a first round of pit stops. The #19 Duqueine Ligier had a driver change and lost the lead to Mondini in the #11, but also second and third places to #12 Eurointernational car of Roman Rusinov and #10 Graff Ligier of John Falb.
Mondini consolidated his lead to nearly 30 seconds by lapping significantly faster than the sister car of Rusinov. In third position, it was a fierce battle between the #6 360 Racing Ligier of James Swift, the #19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier of David Halliday the #18 YMR Ligier of Thomas Laurent and the #10 Graff Ligier of John Falb.
The #11 and #12 Eurointernational cars eventually lost the lead positions during their second pit stops, which included driver changes.
Two hours into the race, following a full-course yellow for the stranded Villorba Corse car, the #18 YMR Ligier of Laurent/Ehrlacher/Cougnaud led, followed by the #6 360 Racing Ligier of Swift/Kaiser/Woodward (-20s) and the #19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier of Halliday/Lunardi/Droux (-32s).
It wasn’t to last, however, as the #18 YMR Ligier lost significant ground following rear bodywork repairs lasting seven minutes.
Right after all cars went through a second pit stop, the #11 Eurointernational Ligier returned in the lead with Marco Jacobini at its wheel, followed by the #19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier and the #6 360 Racing Ligier.
The Italian built a 40-second gap before retiring in cruel fashion, following contact in T9 with two LMP2 cars: Remy Striebig in the #29 Pegasus Racing Morgan and Stefano Coletti in the #32 SMP Racing BR01.
At the top of the third hour, the #19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier of Hallyday/Lunardi/Droux led by 28 seconds, ahead of the #9 Graff Ligier of Trouillet/Petit/Winslow and by 37 seconds ahead of the #2 United Autosports of Brundle/Guasch/England.
The #19 Ligier remained in the lead after a third round of pitstops, while the #2 and #9 swapped positions. Right before the second full-course yellow, the #6 360 Racing Ligier driven by Ross Kaiser took over third position from the #9 Graff Ligier.
The gap between the top two cars dropped significantly but in the end, Duqueine scored its first victory in the ELMS with #19 Ligier of Hallyday/ Lunardi/Droux. The #2 United Autosports Ligier of Brundle/Guasch/England finished second, only 3.5 seconds behind the lead car. Third was the #6 360 Racing Ligier of Woodward/Kaiser/Swift.
“We did everything we could to avoid traps,” said Hallyday afterwards. “I had it easy, as I did not get much traffic. The difficult piece was keeping it together while battling with other silver drivers. The three of us know each other very well, as we compete together in other championships. This is really rewarding to finish first here.”
Lunardi added: “I had one of the most horrific stints in my career. I really don’t know what happened to the car, it was undriveable. I even lost my two mirrors at some point so it was pretty hard to manage traffic!”
After the race the winning Duqueine car was penalised and United inherited the win.
GTE
Second-place qualifier Butcher had a strong opening few laps in the JMW Ferrari, passing the polesitting Porsche (started by Gianluca Roda) and despatching several of the slower LMP3 runners in the process. Further back, a coming-together between the #4 Oak Racing LMP3 and Aaron Scott in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari left the latter on the back foot initially, but he soon recovered to fifth.
Ahead of Scott, third-place qualifier Alexander Talkanitsa Jr held station in his 458, but the man on the move was Proton Porsche driver Marco Seefried, up to third in class inside the first half hour.
Up front, Butcher had a side-by-side coming-together while being lapped by the leading P2 car on lap 27, sending both cars temporarily off but then back on to the track. The JMW Ferrari kept going and appeared not to have suffered significant damage, allowing Butcher to continue lapping until the scheduled pit-stop time, when he handed the car to Robert Smith.
“Car 23 caught me by surprise,” said Butcher later, “as I was paying attention to the other cars around me. It could have been much, much worse for us.”
Seefried stayed aboard the #77 Proton Porsche for a second stint, allowing him to leapfrog the Talkanitsas’ Ferrari, which was handed from son to father at their stop. The German was around 10 seconds behind the JMW machine as the second hour got underway.
Another moment for the #66 Ferrari saw it spin at turn one while being passed around the outside by the SMP Racing LMP2 machine. That handed the GT class lead to Seefried and put Smith within 20 seconds or so of third-place Talkanitsa.
The full-course yellow at almost half-distance saw most of the GT field dive for the pits to get a scheduled stop in. Once green-flag running resumed, Seefried continued to lead the class, ahead of Andrea Bertolini (who’d taken over the JMW Ferrari from Smith) and Darren Turner in the Beechdean Aston Martin.
While Seefried led without incident, Bertolini and Turner were scrapping furiously over second – although the Beechdean Aston still hadn’t made its second scheduled stop and was effectively further down the order than it appeared.
Stops for both Turner (handing to Alex MacDowall) and Seefried (handing to Mike Hedlund) saw BertolinI move to the head of the class with an hour and 45 to go, while star of qualifying Matteo Cairoli was now second in the polesitting #88 Porsche, having taken over the wheel from Gianluca Roda.
The relatively quicker Marco Cioci and Alexander Talkanitsa Jr had the #51 and #56 Ferraris into third and fourth as the second half ticked by, with Alex MacDowall also showing good pace in the Beechdean Aston Martin, catching and passing Mike Hedlund for fifth.
With an hour and 10 minutes to run, Bertolini pitted from the lead, handing the car back to starting driver Butcher. Cairoli came in on the same lap, staying aboard the second-place Porsche.
The final hour saw the final stops, with Reid getting back aboard the #88 and falling back to fifth in class, with Ferrari runners Rui Aguas in the #51 AF Corse 458 and Alessadro Pier Guidi in the #56 AT Racing car came through to second and third. Alex MacDowall brought the Beechdean Aston Martin home fourth, the late full-course yellow possibly helping the car to get around in one fewer stop than the rest of the GTE runners.
After the race, a satisfied Bertolini said: “The ELMS championship is fun. The key for always being on top positions is to run without any problems and to respect other drivers. Take car 23 for example, they are not here tonight! What is also key is the driver line-up. I have the best bronze and silver drivers in the ELMS. They made the difference and so did our team.”
At the time of writing, several cars were under investigation for potential full-course yellow violations: the #2 United Autosports Ligier (second in LMP3), the #6 360 Racing Ligier (third in LMP3), the #56 AT Racing Ferrari (third in GTE), the #60 Formula Racing Ferrari (seventh in GTE) and the #66 JMW Ferrari (winner in GTE)
