The #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier crew of Tom Dillmann and Alexander Matschull secure the LMP3 title in a race marked by multiple incidents at Spa on Saturday with the GMB Racing team from Denmark scoring a first-ever 1,2,3 in GT3, the team is now assured of the title and the accompanying automatic invitation to the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours after pre-race disaster for Bullitt Racing.
David Droux took the chequered flag in the #40 Graff Racing Ligier after passing the #76 Reiter Engineering Ligier of Mads Siljehaug on the last lap of a drama filled race at Spa-Francorchamps.
Just before the start of the race, heavy rain fell, and the decision was taken to start the race behind the safety car. The #99 Bullitt Racing Aston Martin went off the track on its way to the grid in the slippery conditions and wouldn’t take part in the race after suffering rear suspension damage.
After 15-minutes of circulating behind the Safety Car the race went green with the #76 Reiter Engineering Ligier in the lead, Freddie Hunt making the most of his pole position to pull away from the rest of the field as he had a clear track in front of him with no spray.
The #29 MV2S Forestier Racing Ligier of Jerome de Sadeleer moved ahead of the #40 Graff Racing Ligier of Luis Sanjuan for third and then took second place when the #11 WTM Racing Ligier of Torsten Kratz ran wide at Bruxelles.
However, the Safety Car returned after just five minutes of green flag racing when the #6 ANS Motorsport Ligier of Jonathan Brossard went off into the gravel, closing the field back up.
The Safety Car remained on track for 22 minutes before racing resumed with Kratz immediately challenging De Sadeleer for the second place he’d lost just before the Safety Car. At Les Combes Kratz took the position.
The GT3 field was still headed by the pole sitting #44 GMB Motorsport Honda of Jens Moller, with the #55 Honda of Kristian Poulsen in second place. The #61 AF Corse Ferrari of Gino Fiorgino caught and passed the #88 GMB Motorsport Honda for third place.
Meanwhile, the #3 DKR Engineering Duqueine, which had started in 27th position, was up to 6th in the hands of Laurents Hörr. The German driver then went past the #13 Hegeli by T2 Racing Duqueine and the #40 Graff Racing Ligier to move into 4th in short order. He continued to move up the field, passing the #29 Ligier at Raidillon and then made the same move on the #11 WTM Racing Ligier a lap later to move up to second place, before he pitted to hand the car over to Jon Brownson.
Freddie Hunt came into the pits to hand over the Reiter Engineering Ligier to Mads Siljehaug, the Norwegian driver rejoining the track with an 18 second lead, which extended out to 30 seconds. David Droux in the #40 Graff Racing Ligier was in 5th place but made rapid progress to move up to second place ahead of Leo Weiss in the #11 WTM Racing Ligier with 40 minutes left on the clock.
Another Safety Car period was declared with 33 minutes of the race remaining after the no9 AT Racing Ligier ended up beached in the gravel at T8, which took 10 minutes to clear. Luckily Siljehaug had three GT3 cars between him and Droux, so at the restart he was able to maintain a six second gap to his rival.
The GT3 train was led by Gustav Birch in the no44 Honda, ahead of Jan Magnussen in the #88 GMB run NSX and the #55 Honda driven by Kasper Jensen. The #61 AF Corse Ferrari of Andrea Montermini had latched onto the back of the ‘Dane Train’ and was putting pressure on Jensen for the final podium position.
Championship leader Tom Dillmann was moving up the field in the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier and caught and passed Louis Rousset in the #29 MV2S Ligier, his nearest rival in the championship battle, for 6th place. This was enough for Dillmann to secure the LMP3 title for himself, Alexander Mattschull and the Swiss team.
The #3 DKR Engineering Duqueine in the hands of Jon Brownson had fallen down the order and with less than 15-minutes left, the American spun off the track into the gravel, bringing out a Full Course Yellow, which last 5 minutes.
At the restart, the #40 Graff Racing Ligier rapidly closed the gap to the leading #76 Reiter Engineering Ligier, with David Droux challenging Mads Siljehaug at every turn with 5 minutes of the race remaining.
Siljehaug defended his position and Droux was forced to keep trying to find a way past the very wide Ligier. It looked like the Norwegian was going to hold his lead as the two cars started the last lap, however a minor mistake a few corners from home was the opportunity Droux had been waiting for and the Swiss driver took it, moving past the white Ligier to take the lead. Siljehaug tried to regain the advantage at the last corner but it wasn’t to be and after the no76 Reiter Engineering Ligier had led for the entire race, they had to settle for second as David Droux took the chequered flag to win the race.
The #43 Racing Spirit of Leman took the final podium position as Josh Skelton crossed the 7.3 seconds behind Droux. Colin Noble took 4th place for Nielsen Racing ahead of Malthe Jakobsen in the #69 Cool Racing Ligier. The #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier of Tom Dillmann finished 6th to secure the 2022 MLMC LMP3 titles.
The #44 Honda of Gustav Birch led a GMB Motorsport 1-2-3 to secure the 2022 MLMC GT3 team title for the Danish team and that all important automatic invitation to the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans next summer. Which one of the three crews will lift the drivers title will be decided at the final race in Portimão.
