UPDATE: After the race the #19 Lepiert Motorsport Lamborghini was handed a 30-second time penalty from race control, dropping it from fourth to sixth in GT3.
The penalty was dealt because Patrick Kujala “constantly abused track limits even after receiving the black and white flag.”
As a result, the #55 GMB Motorsport Honda has inherited fourth place, and the #65 Team Parker Porsche has risen to fifth.
The #48 Nielsen Racing Duqueine M30 of John Melsom and Matt Bell claimed their second Le Mans Cup victory of the season from 19th on the grid this afternoon at a sun-soaked Motorland Aragon.
Both drivers played their part in the victory in what turned out to be a heavily interrupted 110-minute race that featured three safety cars.
Melsom took the start and managed to keep out of trouble on the opening lap, which saw multiple cars spin or run wide at Turn 1 in avoidance of contact between the #13 Inter Europol and #97 COOL Racing Ligiers, climbing the order in the process. From there he managed to fight his way from 10th to seventh before pitting for the driver change.
Bell emerged fourth when the order shook out from the pit stops and went on to fight his way past 360 Racing’s Belen Garcia, Cedric Oltramare from COOL Racing and eventually Team Virage’s Gillian Henrion, with an opportunistic move at Turn 1 on the third restart.
In the end, Bell would cross the line with a comfortable winning margin of 5.8 seconds, much to the delight of Melsom in the garage, who was thrilled with the result.
“We’ve had good pace all week but I stuffed up qualifying and was P19. Luckily I managed to avoid the melee at the start, brought it in P7 and Matt did the rest.” Melsom said after the race.
“I had some great battles,” Bell added. “Belen Garcia put up a great fight, she did a great job and it was traffic that caught her out before I picked off the last two. Good job for John making up 12 places in his stint, I just had to do two or three more when I got in.”
Completing the podium in the end was Henrion in the #16 Virage Ligier and the #77 Team Thor JS P320. A hard-charging Colin Noble made up multiple places in the closing laps in the recovering Team Thor Ligier, which included a textbook overtake up the inside at Turn 16 on Cedric Oltramare, who would eventually finish fourth in the #87 COOL Racing example.
For the two teams that started on the front row, they will leave Spain wondering what could have been. The pole-sitting #22 United Autosports Ligier of guest duo Garnett Patterson and Josh Caygill looked odds on for a win or at the very least a podium in the opening stint. Caygill, who took the start, held the lead throughout his stint, comfortably managing the gap to the cars behind.
A lengthy pit stop of over three minutes would prove costly though. The car refused to start, eventually emerging 22nd with Patterson at the wheel, who would eventually fight his way to 11th by the end of the race.
The Murphy Prototypes Duqueine meanwhile, started second but finished unclassified. Torsten Kratz took the start and had to come in for a left-rear tyre change after contact with a Team Virage Ligier at Turn 1 in the opening seconds of the race caused a deflation.
The team then made a costly error concerning the drive time of its drivers. Regulations state each driver must complete at least 45 minutes, but Will Bratt was left with just over 40 when he emerged from the pits after Kratz climbed out, having fought his way back into contention from dead last after his unscheduled stop.
Nielsen Racing may have enjoyed two strong results too had its #7 Ligier not been forced into retirement in the Turn 1 incident at the start which broke Tony Wells’ steering arm.
The GT3 category saw the HCR by Caffeine Six Porsche cross the line first, but the win would eventually go the way of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 driven by Koizumi Hiroshi and Kei Cozzolino after a post-race time penalty was applied to the Porsche.
Anders Fjordbach and Tim Creswick, who started from pole and spent much of the race in the lead would finish up second in class after the five seconds were added for overtaking beyond the white lines. It was a disappointing outcome, but valuable points were scored in the title battle, with the championship-leading Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin finishing third.
“There was lots of traffic to navigate but fortunately there was a penalty to the Porsche ahead when I was in the car so there was no pressure, I just had to bring it home.” Cozzolino said after the victory, which in turn is the first for the 296 GT3 in Le Mans Cup competition.
Just off the podium, Patrick Kujala forced Simon Birch into a mistake and secured fourth in the #55 GMB Motorsports Honda. Birch would come home fifth as the sole-remaining GMB Honda, after the sister car suffered a misfire in the second half of the race that forced Jan Magnussen to retire the car.
Next up for the Le Mans Cup is the penultimate round of the season at Spa-Francorchamps on September 23rd.
Featured image courtesy of Nielsen Racing
