VDS Panis Racing claimed its second successive European Le Mans Series victory at this afternoon’s 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, with the #48 ORECA 07–Gibson of Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson and Charles Milesi extending their championship lead.
The French squad were never outside of the top three during a chaotic race which featured three Safety Cars and three further Full Course Yellow (FCY) periods that constantly kept the strategists on their toes.
Having climbed from third to first during the opening stint, Gray had an early 12-second lead wiped out when the first Safety Car was called 50 minutes into the race.
The #48 ORECA then held the lead, except for a brief interlude from an off-strategy #10 Vector Sport ORECA, until a round of pit stops with 90 minutes to go. VDS Panis Racing elected to take tyres and fell back to third behind the #43 Inter Europol Competition and #24 Nielsen Racing ORECAs.
Inter Europol’s Nick Yelloly was pulling away from Masson until a well-timed FCY allowed VDS Panis to serve its penultimate pit stop whilst its rivals were circulating at 80km/h, promoting them back to the front.
The #18 IDEC Sport and #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECAs also pitted under this FCY, promoting IDEC’s Mathys Jaubert up to second overall, only three seconds behind Milesi.
The gap between the Frenchmen at the front of the field held stable during the penultimate stint, until another FCY deployed between their respective final pit stops caused the lead margin to extend to 11 seconds, and Milesi brought the #48 ORECA 10.089 seconds ahead of his nearest championship challenger.
“With all the safety cars today, strategy went in all directions,” Masson said. “We managed to keep our head cool and get that win after unleashing the pace. It’s different from the win at Imola as that race was rather about managing track conditions. Today was more about managing safety procedures.”
“We had our cleanest race so far,” added Milesi. “It puts us in a good position for the remainder of the season but it isn’t finished yet. Everyone is fighting and you never know what can happen. We need to keep our head down and focus on what we need to do and we will see where we land ultimately.”
There was drama post-race, however, when the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca was judged to have committed to pitting after the penultimate FCY was announced, and received a three-minute stop-go penalty. This dropped Jaubert, Jamie Chadwick and Daniel Juncadella to 18th overall, one place ahead of the #25 Algarve Pro entry which had been penalised in-race for the same infraction.
Yelloly, Jakub Smiechowski and Tom Dillmann were promoted to second in both the race and the championship, with Nielsen’s Cem Bölükbaşi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Filipe Albuquerque completing the podium.
LMP2 Pro/Am honours, in fourth overall, went to Algarve Pro Racing’s #20 ORECA of Kriton Lentoudis, Olli Caldwell and Alexander Quinn, who came out on top in a duel with United Autosports’ #21 ORECA. Algarve Pro was a key beneficiary of the final Full Course Yellow, which allowed Quinn to overcut United’s Marino Sato.
Fifth overall went to the #28 IDEC Sport ORECA, ahead of the #34 Inter Europol Competition entry. Both of these cars were able to complete one pit stop less than their rivals, after Job van Uitert and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer respectively were able to complete their 60-minute minimum drive time in a single stint.
The #21 United entry of Daniel Schneider, Marino Sato and Oliver Jarvis finished seventh, ahead of CLX Motorsport’s #47 ORECA and the #10 Vector Sport entry. The #99 AO by TF ORECA rounded out the top 10, and also scored third in LMP2 Pro/Am.
Multiple Pro/Am contenders will leave Spa ruing what could have been. John Falb crashed out of the class lead aboard the #27 Nielsen Racing ORECA in the second hour, whilst TDS Racing’s #29 Oreca had to pit from second position on the penultimate lap of the race and fell to fifth.
In LMP3, the #8 Team Virage Ligier JS P325-Toyota driven by Julien Gerbi, Daniel Nogales, Rik Koen claimed victory, 22 seconds ahead of the #15 RLR MSport shared by Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock and Gillian Henrion. It is the first victory for Team Virage this season.
Timothy Cresswick, Douwe Dedecker and Reece Gold took the third spot on the podium in the #88 Inter Europol Competition – 35 seconds behind the winning car.
The championship leader – the #17 CLX Motorsports Ligier – did not score a fourth consecutive victory. On the contrary, the Swiss team experienced a dramatic afternoon and even retired during the final thirty minutes of the race.
Pole sitter Paul Lanchere had a hectic start in the #17. An incident occurred with Georgios Kolovos in the #3 DKR Engineering ORECA at Turn 8 during the first lap. This had limited consequences as Lanchere regained the lead from Torsten Kratz in the #12 WTM By Rinaldi Racing Duqueine D09 on Lap 2.
The #17 then pulled away from the LMP3 pack while the #12 and Fabien Michal in the #11 Eurointernational Ligier fought for second place. The gap between the top three cars came down as the race went through three consecutive safety cars.
Just before mid-race, the #11 momentarily took the lead by taking the gamble of not performing its second pit stop under the Safety Car, unlike most of the other LMP3 contenders. Moments later, drama hit the LMP3 leading car as the #17 Ligier was inflicted a drive through penalty for a false start, just as it was back in the lead after overtaking the #11.
The #11 eventually took its second pit-stop and the #17 regained the lead ahead of the #8 Team Virage Ligier JS driven by Nogales and the #88 Inter Europol Competition Ligier.
The #8 tailed the #17 for multiple laps and even had a spin at the end of the Kemmel straight on Lap 48 while trying to take first position. With one hour left on the clock, the #17 led the category with the #8 in its slipstream.
Drama unfortunately hit the leader again with the infliction by Race Control of two consecutive penalties: the first one was a drive through for disrespecting the first drive through procedure while the second one was a 10-second penalty for overtaking off track.
Once the #17 took both of its penalties, four cars were in contention for victory: the #8 Team Virage, #11 Eurointernational, #17 CLX Motorsport and #15 RLR MSport. But with 20 minutes left on the clock, drama hit the #17 Ligier one last time: the car retired at Les Combes after visiting the gravel trap whilst chasing the #11.
That put the #8 Team Virage Ligier in a comfortable position where it could cruise safely to the chequered flag in first position, ahead of the #15 and the #88, with Eurointernational dropping to fourth due to a late Drive-Through penalty.
And in LMGT3, Racing Spirit of Léman scored the Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3’s maiden ELMS victory after a thrilling battle with Iron Lynx’s #63 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3.
Iron Lynx was able to undercut Racing Spirit of Léman’s #59 Aston Martin during the penultimate round of pit stops for the class lead, with Fabian Schiller successfully fending off Valentin Hasse Clot throughout the final hour.
Both were short on energy, however, and Schiller pitted with six minutes to go. Hasse Clot stopped two laps later, and was able to emerge ahead of the Mercedes-AMG to secure victory for himself, Clément Mateu and Erwan Bastard by 0.966 seconds.
“We had a fantastic car in the corners and a great balance but we did not have the top speed to try any moves on the Mercedes,” acknowledged Hasse Clot. “I had one or two opportunities but it was too risky. That car vanished during two laps during which I was able to push very hard in fresh air. With a little less fuel at the [final] pit stop, I was able to exit the pit ahead of them and pull away.”
20 seconds further behind, the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 LMGT3 completed the podium, ahead of the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 LMGT3 R (992) LMGT3 and #50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari.
The victory has given Racing Spirit of Léman the LMGT3 championship lead, although only 11 points cover the top eight with two races remaining.
The 2025 European Le Mans Series continues with the 4 Hours of Silverstone on 12-14 September.
Images © Jan Patrick Wagner, Marius Hecker / LMEM
