CLX Motorsport’s #97 and #87 Ligier JS P325s finished in formation out front in an incident-packed Le Mans Cup season opener at Barcelona this evening, which was red-flagged after a huge incident for the Iron Dames Porsche in the second hour.
Reigning champion David Droux and Pierre-Alexander Provost cruised to the chequered flag for the Swiss team once the race restarted with 22 minutes on the clock, following a 27-minute delay for the aforementioned incident involving Marta Garcia.
“This year will be difficult, but this is a really good start. We managed to do a good pit stop, and it helped,” Droux said after celebrating the win with his teammate Cedric Oltramare.
Garcia was a passenger during the incident in question, which marred the series’ first race with the new-for-2025 LMP3 cars. The Spaniard was hit from behind by the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Eliseo Donno on the run to Turn 10 while defending the GT3 lead, firing her off the circuit on drivers’ right.
The impact with the barriers was huge, sending her spinning back onto the circuit along with a strip of tyres and her Porsche’s rear end ablaze. Thankfully, nobody from the train of cars behind collected her, and she was later able to walk away from the wreckage.
“Following a heavy incident on track during the Michelin Le Mans Cup race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Marta Garcia is currently on her way to the hospital for precautionary checks,” Iron Dames said in a statement. “She is conscious and undergoing all necessary examinations.”
Behind the two CLX Ligiers, Forestier Racing by VPS survived a 10-second time penalty for crossing the pit entry white line en route to third. It didn’t cost Romain Favre the final podium spot as the gap to the car behind was big enough for the team to retain its top-three finish.
The pole-sitting #50 23Events Racing Ligier finished the race fourth and just off the podium after a superb recovery drive. Lena Buhler was tapped into a spin at Turn 2 on the opening lap by Hugo Schwarze, setting off a chain reaction that led to incidents which eliminated both the #26 Bretton Racing and #27 P4 Racing Ligiers.
The 23Events team persevered after dropping to dead last and was rewarded handsomely for staying out of trouble for the remainder of the race. Matteo Quintarelli crossed the line a second ahead of the #86 R-ace GP Duqueine, which ensured a D09 finished in the top five.
Schawrze, who started from second in the sister #85 R-ace GP Duqueine, was handed a drive-through for the contact at the start. His teammate, Hadrien David, brought the car home eighth.
In the new LMP3 Pro/Am class, Rinaldi Racing also claimed a 1-2 finish with its #66 and #71 Ligiers, after a number of late-position changes in the class.
GG Classics, seemingly out of nowhere, led the category with Fraser Ross installed when the ANS Ligier ahead made a late pit stop, but the Australian team’s time out front wouldn’t last. Griffin Peebles and Felipe Fernandez-Laser both found a way through to clinch a perfect start to the season for Rinaldi, leaving GG to take third.
GT3 saw a lead change at the end, too, when the #51 AF Corse Ferrari was dealt a stop-go with three minutes remaining for its part in causing the red flag.
Donno dropped from first to sixth, promoting Kessel Racing’s #33 Ferrari of Murat Ruhi Cuhadaroglu and David Fumanelli to the top spot.
Code Racing Development inherited second with its #11 Aston Martin Vantage. The #17 Kessel Ferrari took third place and made it a double podium for the Swiss outfit after the Biogas Ferrari dropped to fifth at the end with a time penalty for a pit infringment.
The result remains very much provisional at the time of writing, as a number of investigations are ongoing post-race.
The Le Mans Cup season continues in France with a race at Paul Ricard on May 3rd.
