Once again, there was plenty of drama in the Michelin Le Mans Cup with significant incidents, multiple Safety Car interventions and some post race penalties adding to the general sense of unpredictability and confusion!
After two hard fought hours of racing, United Autosports took its maiden victory in the Series with the #22 Ligier JSP320 Nissan shared by Gerry Kraut and Scott Andrews.
The GT3 category went, on track, to the #97 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 driven by Ben Keating and Ross Gunn that victory though would initially not be rewarded with championship points (the Aston a one-off entry), and later would lose the win altogether, the car excluded for a rear wing that was found to be too high in post race scrutineering.
That left the win to the #8 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3, the championship leading car driven this weekend by Paolo Ruberti and Gabriele Lancieri, the team opting to rest Rino Mastronardi who would have attracted a substantial Bronze ‘success penalty’ at the pit stop had he raced.
When the green flag was waved, the pole sitting car (the #5 Phoenix Racing Ligier JS P320 driven by Finn Gehrsitz) took the lead and stayed ahead of Thorsten Kratz in the #11 WTM Powered by Phoenix Duqueine M30 D08 Nissan.
As the #5 pulled away, drama occurred on lap 4: a huge incident involving multiple cars occurred at the exit of Ascari – first, Patrice Lafargue in the #17 lost control of his car, had a touch with the barrier (drivers left) and ended up back in the middle of the track.
With cars in frantic avoidance, the #33 CD Sport Ligier of Michael Jensen found the IDEC car right across his bows – he jinked sharply to the right in avoidance but made significant contact with Mathias Luethen in the #16 Team Virage Ligier, pitching the luckless German into heavy contact with the Barriers on the right, the Virage car then thrown back across the circuit into the path of the #20 Grainmarket car driven by Mark Crader. This, unsurprisingly, triggered a first safety car episode with damaged cars and a significant amount of debris on track. Mercifully all drivers involved are reported to be basically OK.
SAFETY CAR – A huge accident happened at the exit of Ascari for the #16 @groupvirage and the #20 Grainmarket racing.#LMC #MonzaRound pic.twitter.com/ejA4uzdGob
— Le Mans Cup (@LeMansCup) July 10, 2021
When the race resumed, the #5 pulled away from the #11 but things became messy again on lap 16 when Klaus Abbelen spun the #30 Frikadelli Racing Team Ligier JSP320 Nissan, and eventually stopped on track after trying to recover to the pits.
Moments later Antoine Doquin in the #37 Cool Racing Ligier JSP320 and Freddie Hunt in the #21 Muhlner Motorsport Duqueine M30 D08 Nissan collided as the latter carried too much speed while entering turn 1. A second safety car took to the track and the race leader stopped for a driver change. After the #11 also stopped, the #18 Muehlner Motortsport Duqueine M30 D08 Nissan lost its rear left wheel after exiting its pits. This triggered a 3rd safety car episode and supported further pit stops and driver changes.
At the top of the 2nd hour of the race, the #71 Team Virage Ligier JSP320 Nissan took the lead briefly, ahead of the two United Autosports Ligiers: the #22 driven by Gerald Kraut and Scott Andrews and the #23 shared by John Schauerman and Wayne Boyd. After the #71 came in for its pit stop on lap 47, the #22 took the lead and cruised to the checkered while the sister car dropped in the ranks. “Gerald gave me the car in a great position” said Andrews after the checkered flag. “United Autosports had a great strategy and we had real good pace. That is what helped us in the middle of the stint on top of keeping our pace up.”
The #7 Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan shared by Anthony Wells and Colin Noble took second position while the #66 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine N30 D08 took the last spot on the podium. Both cars though would receive post-race penalties relating to their pit stops – that would see their positions reversed in the results – The #66 would finish second, the #7 third!
Meanwhile, in GT3, the two Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 (the #9 driven by Sarah Bovy ahead of #8 driven by Gabriele Lancieri) took the lead from Turn 1 onwards and kept it essentially until mid-race, the Belgian driving a very impressive stint indeed to see off the challenge of the experienced Italian.
During the first round of driver changes, the two Ferraris dropped positions as Ross Gunn took the #97 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 into the lead after excellent pit work from TF Sport, and kept it until the checkered flag.
Behind there as a great scrap, the #9 and the #8 tried to stay in touch with the Brit but the two Italian cars were soon overtaken by Julien Andlauer in the #2 Pzoberer Zurichsee By TFT Porsche 911 GT3R. The Porsche pitted very early in the race but would be yet another squad to fall victim to an apparent misinterpretation of the rules, an attempt to ‘burn’ the required lengthy mandatory stop under an early safety car looked like paying off but a further Safety Car spoiled the plan and then Race Control delivered the final blow, the Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT crew having not realised that they were not permitted to refuel the car outside the mandatory stop – A drive through would see them drop to fourth ahead of the #51 and #61 AF Corse Ferraris which had a going together at T1 early in the race that delayed both cars.
Doriane Pin struggled to stay with the lead battle, hampered in part by the seeming reluctance of the lapped Matteo Cressoni to cede position.
That left the Iron Lynx squad to take a 1-2, the Porsche promoted to the podium in the wake of the exclusion of the Aston Martin.
