Inter Europol Competition scored its first-ever overall ELMS victory today in the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. Sebastian Alvarez, Vladislav Lomko and Tom Dillmann in the #43 ORECA 07 Gibson produced a near-perfect run in a race that was filled with drama in the closing stages, after a safety car in Hour 3 led to a change of lead in all four classes.
The triumph is a real milestone result for the team, which will head to the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours full of confidence. It’s a bitter-sweet outcome though, as it looked on track for a 1-2 finish after the sister #34 vaulted to the lead with a shorter final stop. But Clement Novalak stopped on track with 19 minutes remaining when the car got stuck in second gear, letting Dillmann through to the lead.
Dillmann, who earlier in the final hour had fought to the lead with a daring move on Job van Uitert on the inside at Signes, came home 14 seconds ahead of Paul Loup Chatin.
“I felt bad after a bad Qualifying, to start 12th and win on strategy was unexpected. It’s a testament to the job the team did. It’s a shame it wasn’t a 1-2 because of the bad luck to the sister car,” Dillmann said after the race.
Chatin salvaged a strong finish for COOL Racing in the #47 ORECA, which looked on course for a victory after the safety car restart when Malthe Jakobsen led the race in the #37 sister car that won the season opener in Barcelona. The Dane stopped close to the pit entry though, and retired the car, setting up a duel between Inter Europol’s ORECAs and the IDEC Sport example.
After the race Jakobsen told DSC that he lost second gear a couple of laps before stopping. He believes the g-force through Signes jammed the gearbox with the debris from whatever had broken earlier.
Like the #34 and #47 crews, IDEC Sport didn’t finish on the podium either, as a 10-second time penalty was handed to van Uitert for weaving down the Mistral straight, which resulted in contact on the entry to Signes with the hard-charging Dillmann. This dropped the IDEC ORECA to fourth after the race. Despite the weaving and subsequent touch at high speed, Dillmann described it as “hard and fair racing” in the post-race presser.
The penalty promoted the AO by TF ORECA to the final podium place. It was a far better race for Jonny Edgar, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz, but it wasn’t perfect. Edgar led the race overall early after finding a way past pole-sitter Paul Lafargue, before Luca Ghiotto made a charge to the front in the #34. The car lost time later on too with a penalty for overtaking with all four wheels off the circuit and a tyre related issue.
The #22 United Autosports ORECA would take fifth behind the penalised IDEC car after Ben Hanley was unable to hang on to a podium place late in the race. He also suffered a late-race tyre issue.
TDS wins P2 Pro/Am battle
In LMP2 Pro/Am Richard Mille by TDS took an unexpected victory. Rodrigo Sales, Mathias Beche and Gregoire Saucy overcame an early setback and got the better of the DKR ORECA which ran an alternate strategy, and the #83 AF Corse example which spent much of the race fighting to the lead, before losing places right at the end – it was another car that suffered with an issue with tyre wear.
“The start was more eventful than I’d like, we had a couple of guys go for aggressive moves that meant I was pushed into the #83 and I damaged the front end which made the rest of the race a challenge. We just focused on keeping our heads down,” Sales explained.
The #77 Proton Competition ORECA which started from pole, had a quiet run to second, ahead of the #21 United ORECA.
The #83 crew that led the standings heading into the weekend will leave disappointed with fourth after Matthieu Vaxiviere dropped out of the top three and came home fourth.
DKR will be frustrated too. It opted to leave Andres Latorre Canon’s stint until the end of the race, which meant they spent much of the first half of the race in the lead. But the safety car cost the team dearly, their advantage out front evaporated for (Bronze-ranked) Latorre’s stint against higher-ranked drivers in the end. He came home eighth after a clash from his car saw Alex Lynn’s #25 Algarve Pro Racing car tumble down the order.
RLR M Sport victorious in topsy-turvy LMP3 encounter
LMP3 was won by the pole-sitting #15 RLR M Sport Ligier, but it was far from a simple lights-to-flag victory for Nick Adcock, Michael Jensen and Gael Julien.
The car dropped to seventh at the start and later lost time to a penalty for an infringement before the start on the grid. The team recovered well though, benefitting from the safety car and superior pace at the end, coming seemingly out of nowhere to take the victory. Julien managed to put together a stint in the final hour that saw him save fuel and pace the field, finishing three seconds clear of the chasing pack.
“We had an issue with the gearshift into Turn 1, after that, we fought back, Nick had a strong stint and Gael was in the last double stint and did an amazing job,” Jensen said.
DKR’s Duqueine took second, ahead of the Ultimate Ligier that completed the podium.
Eurointernational’s finishing outside the top three was arguably the biggest surprise of the race. Matthew Richard Bell led early and put the team in a strong position even though the car dropped down the order due to serving its longer stop before their rivals.
Adam Ali, in for the end of the race, was unable to get the team back to the sharp end after losing time to the timing of the safety car (called for the #88 Inter Europol Ligier stopping at the final corner) and FCYs.
WTM By Rinaldi also had a chance at victory and led for a lengthy chunk of the race before retiring. The car was unable to continue after its master relay burnt out.
Perel late-race heroics scores Spirit of Race win
Spirit of Race’s trio of Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and David Perel scored their first win as a trio in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari, recovering from an early spin caused by contact which cost Cameron 55 seconds.
LMGT3 looked rather static up front for much of the pre-safety car action with Iron Dames leading from pole position and building a comfortable lead ahead of the Iron Lynx Lamborghini that held second. But once again the Iron Dames crew of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting would fail to convert an early lead into a victory.
The safety car bunched the field up and on strategy, the #85 car fell down the order. Spirit of Race and GR Racing became unlikely contenders by taking fuel-only stops at the end to gain track position, while Iron Lynx through Andrea Caldarelli and Racing Spirit of Leman’s Aston Martin found pace in the final stint.
Perel, following bold strategy calls from the pit wall and strong drives from Cameron and Matt Griffin, was masterful late in this race. On older tyres, he kept Caldarelli at bay en route to the chequered flag.
“For a moment I thought the tyres were falling away, but the car came alive when the fuel was low. It was sliding but it felt good,” Perel told DSC after the race.
“It was a really hard race,” added Griffin. “Duncan had an amazing qualifying and got turned around in the stint and lost 55 seconds. We changed strategy, and the main thing was we were all fast and made things happen. We kept grinding, made strategy calls, gained from the safety car and David brought it home like a champ!”
Iron Lynx took second, with Racing Spirit of Leman claiming third. For Iron Dames, fourth place will feel like a crushing blow, but at least Bovy, Frey and Gatting have points on the board after retiring from the lead in Spain.
GR Racing fell to fifth after running as high as second in Davide Rigon’s stint at the end, the car handed a late drive-through for an FCY infringement.
Across all four classes today there was a remarkable change in fortunes for podium sitters. Of a potential 12 podium slots, only two (the #29 ORECA and #63 Lamborghini) have scored podiums in both races to start the season. The title battles are wide open!
Next up on the calendar is the 4 Hours of Imola on July 7th after the break for the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Image courtesy of Inter Europol, RLR & TDS
