R-ace GP’s #85 Duqueine of Hadrien David and Fabien Michel seized the Le Mans Cup LMP3 championship lead after scoring their first win of the season at Mugello this evening.
The pair controlled the unusually quiet Le Mans Cup race, which ran into darkness, from pole. Michal took the start and enjoyed a clean run to the round of stops before David took over and powered past the chequered flag 42 seconds ahead of the #62 Bretton Racing Ligier which took second.
“It’s our first win after four poles, and it feels like the right time to take the championship lead before Portimao,” said David, who along with his teammate, now holds a 5.5-point lead in the standings.
The #97 COOL Racing duo of David Droux and Adrien Chila, who led the championship heading into the weekend, now find themselves second in the standings with a hard-fought, but ultimately frustrating fourth-place finish.
Had the race lasted any longer, COOL’s Ligier may well have finished in the top three as Droux crossed the line half a second behind Wayne Boyd, who steered Nielsen Racing’s #7 JS P320 to third.
Behind the COOL Ligier, Team Thor took a fine fifth place after Colin Noble’s strong second stint in the second half of the race.
Further down the order, the #2 CD Sport Ligier which started the race second, dropped like a stone towards the end, falling out of the top three and down to 10th during Dan Skocdopole’s stint.
It was a similar story for Bretton Racing’s #26 Ligier. After qualifying third, they also struggled for pace and came home 13th.
In LMGT3, Matthew Kurzejewski and Alessandro Balzan’s dominant run through the season continued, the AF Corse duo scoring a third win of the season in their #51 Ferrari 296 GT3, sealing the title in the process.
For the two Americans it was a relatively comfortable race, in which Kurzejewski took the lead at the start and didn’t let up.
“Every race we’ve gone to this season has been about focusing on what we do, staying mistake-free and I think we did that here. Alessandro has done a great job at teaching me over the years, the work has paid off,” Kurzejewski said.
Adding to AF Corse’s big day on home soil, the #88 duo of Riccardo Agostini and Custodio Toledo made it a 1-2 by finishing second.
The fight for third, meanwhile, went down to the wire. High Class Racing’s Porsche recovered masterfully from 10th on the grid to take the final podium position, Sven Muller making a calculated move in the closing moments of the race on Steller Motorsport’s Sennan Fielding to seal the position.
The Steller Audi went on to take fourth ahead of the Iron Dames Porsche, which completed the top five.
Beyond the results sheet, something that shouldn’t go unnoticed in this race was the standard of driving on display. After a string of events marred by incidents and penalties, it was a welcome sight to see this field produce an entertaining race with zero safety cars and just three full-course yellows.
Long may it continue…
Next up on the schedule is the season finale at Portimao on October 19th.
