#34 Inter Europol gets in-race time penalty
The #34 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson will have to serve a five-second time penalty during its first pit stop in tomorrow’s race.
Luca Ghiotto was found to have rejoined the track unsafely when he went off at turn eight, then rejoined directly in front of the #47 CLX Motorsport ORECA. Enzo Fittipaldi still qualified the #47 car in ninth place, four positions ahead of Ghiotto in the #34.
Duquiene Team was found not to be in breach of the sporting regulations for using three wet tyres in qualifying which were not on Goodyear’s declared list; these tyres had been carried forward from a private test.
A Goodyear representative explained that the three tyres in question could not be added to its list due to a software problem, but confirmed to the Stewards that they were fully compliant in terms of specification.
Ultimate hoping for a change of luck
The French LMP3 team Ultimate had a complicated first half of the season. “We got our brand new Ligier relatively late. That prevented us from doing much private testing,” said Matthieu Lahaye.
“The good news is that we were always quick and in a position to compete for a spot on the LMP3 podium. Unfortunately, we’ve had several misfortunes. In Barcelona, we were in the lead when we had a sensor issue followed by a loss of power. In Le Castellet, we had another sensor issue telling us that we were running out of gas whereas we weren’t. It’s a shame because again, we were fighting for a podium finish.
“Then finally at Imola, we had an issue with one of our doors. We had to repair and that cost us 10 minutes in the pits. So we are now hoping that lady luck will finally be on our side.”
The two Lahaye brothers are now on a mission to coach their new bronze driver Louis Strern in ways similar to what they did for Francois Heriau over several seasons.
“Louis still has a lot to learn. It’s only his fourth motorsport season and his first at such a competitive level. He never did any mistakes. He’s improving his lap times by being extremely disciplined and attentive to what we are telling him,” said Lahaye.
“We are ready to support him or anyone interested in competing at the highest level in Motorsport, including the 24 hours of Le Mans.”
Team Virage looking towards the Asian Le Mans Series
Team Virage driver and Team Manager Julien Gerbi is a very busy man. “We have cars entered in the Ligier European Series, the Michelin Le Mans Cup and the ELMS. There is very little time for me to breath but I like it!” he said.
The Frenchman has high hopes for this weekend: “Throughout this season, we have shown we had speed. We qualified on front rows in the ELMS at Barcelona and Le Castellet. Yet the results are a little underwhelming. The start of this race weekend has been promising. Let’s hope we can keep it up.”
Gerbi is already thinking about 2026. “We will continue to compete with LMP4s in the Ligier European Series and LMP3s in the Michelin Le Mans Cup and the ELMS. I have not rulled out either a possible return in the LMP2 class just yet. Until then, we will very likely compete with one LMP3 in the Asian Le Mans Series. Again, I am working on a possible LMP2 entry as well.”
Feature image © Marius Hecker
