UPDATE: Overnight the results have been changed, following a post-race penalty that was handed to the #26 360 Racing Ligier which finished third in LMP3. The team was dealt a 10-second time penalty for running over 80kph at the end of an FCY procedure.
As a result, the Team Thor Ligier has been promoted to third and the 360 Ligier has dropped to sixth.
Team Virage’s Julien Gerbi and Gillian Henrion scored an emphatic Le Mans Cup victory in this afternoon’s two-hour encounter at Paul Ricard, extending their championship lead in the process.
Gerbi took the start and managed to steer the #6 Ligier JS P320 from fifth to second before the round of stops, which took place under Full-Course Yellow conditions, called for debris on track and the #59 Virage Ligier ending up stranded.
When the race went green at the start of the second hour, Henrion was down to third after being installed and was tasked with fighting his way to the front. He wasted no time and went on to take the lead off the pole-sitting #87 COOL Racing Ligier with 44 minutes remaining in the race.
“It became a race of tyre management,” said Henrion, who along with Gerbi, now has two Le Mans Cup wins to his name this season after winning at Barcelona.
For the run to the flag it was a case of managing the gap for Henrion, which he did, finishing 4.9 seconds ahead of Cedric Oltramare in the #87, who managed to hang with Henrion and secure second spot.
After a messy start to the race, in which there were multiple spinners and a pair of collisions heading into Turn 1 on Lap 1, this afternoon’s Le Mans Cup race settled down nicely and came alive in the second hour. It was by no means a clean race, but it was significantly less chaotic and more entertaining than the races at Barcelona and Le Mans prior to this weekend.
The battles at the front of the field in LMP3 from third place down were thrilling, with the top eight all within 10 seconds of the lead for most of the second hour.
In the end the #26 360 Racing Ligier ended up third, after Tommy Foster spent much of the race battling for places in the top five with a handful of cars around him. The podium finish moves Foster and his teammate Terrence Woodward to second in the championship.
Off the podium, Colin Noble steered the Team Thor Ligier to fourth. The Scot was rapid throughout and after taking over from Audunn Gudmundsson in the second half of the race, looked to be a real contender for the win.
Lap after lap Noble reduced the gap to Henrion out front, bringing it down to under six seconds after starting his stint 13 seconds back. But Noble would suffer a significant setback when he was hit by the #2 CD Sport Ligier of Kirill Smal, costing him around 10 seconds, dropping him to seventh.
From there Noble pushed hard to regain the lost time, but was unable to nab a podium, coming home frustratingly just 5.9 seconds off the lead, minutes after pulling off a daring lunge up the inside of James Winslow at the final corner.
Winslow, who was part of the multi-car battle at the head of the field throughout his stint, ended up fifth in his #3 DKR Duqueine, which was the only M30 to finish in the top 10.
Smal meanwhile, was penalsied for the collision with Noble and would finish a lowly 19th overall.
Another front-runner that finished far dow the order was the #29 MV2S Racing Ligier of Matthias Luethen and Emilien Carde. Luethen had a strong start to the race, holding second until the end of his stint was in sight when a loss of power dropped him down the order. The car did finish after the hiccup, but down in 16th.
Outside the top five, Wayne Boyd came out of nowhere to finish sixth, a remarkable effort after starting Hour 2 down in 12th and a minute off the leader. The #11 CD Sport Ligier ended up seventh.
In GT3, there was late drama after a relatively quiet run through the opening 110 minutes for the 13 runners in the category.
Racing Spirit of Leman looked to have the race wrapped up, after Arnold Robin stormed to the front at the start from second on the grid, and held the lead until the round of stops when Valentin Hasse-Clot climbed in.
Hasse-Clot held station throughout his stint, until a Full-Course Yellow in the final 20 minutes for the #27 247 Motorsport Ligier stopping on track proved costly.
The Aston, instead of slowing to the 80kph FCY speed limit, stopped entirely, Hasse-Clot appearing to accidentally hit the Aston’s kill switch rather than the limiter. This allowed the second place #19 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to drive past and take the lead.
Patrick Kujala then held on to take win after the race went green with nine minutes to go, finishing 3.2 seconds ahead of the chasing Vantage, scoring the German team’s first win of the season.
“They told me my pace was good to win the race. The gap to the Aston was 12 seconds, then it was nine, I pushed because you never know what might happen. And something happened!” Kujala said after taking the victory, which he shared with teammate Gabriel Rindone.
The #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini made it a double-podium for the Italian make with a third-place finish. It was a rollercoaster race for Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Vincent Abril, who ran as high as second but dropped to fourth in the second hour after being handed a 1-second stop-go penalty for not respecting the minimum pit stop time.
The #63’s run to third was aided by the championship-leading HCR with CaffeineSix Porsche dropping from third to ninth before the end of the race after two penalties, one for abusing track limits and the other for an FCY infringement.
Anders Fjordbach and Tim Creswick’s ninth-place finish means Racing Spirit of Leman head to the round at Aragon next month as the new leaders in the GT3 title race, which will help soften the blow for the Aston Martin team after its late-race frustration.
The Michelin Le Mans Cup returns to action at Aragon on August 25th.
