Forestier Racing by Panis made a flying start to its European Le Mans Series title defence this afternoon, as the TDS Racing-run #29 ORECA 07 – Gibson triumphed in the 4 Hours of Barcelona.
ELMS debutant Louis Rousset, Oliver Gray and Esteban Masson had to overcome three time penalties, in a chaotic race which was punctuated by a red flag, multiple safety cars and a looming threat of rain which never materialised.
Masson emerged from the final round of pit stops in fourth position, but quickly carved his way through to the front of the field on fresher Goodyear tyres.
An opportune moment with 11 minutes to go allowed the Frenchman to pass Ben Hanley’s #22 United Autosports and Jack Doohan’s #24 Nielsen Racing in a single move in the final sector.
Masson then caught Reshad De Gérus’ #34 Inter Europol Competition entry, with De Gerus helpless to stop the #29 ORECA from passing up the inside at Turn 4 with nine minutes remaining.
The lead gap then rapidly expanded out to 13.398 seconds, as De Gerus and Bijoy Garg finished second, with the #22 United Autosports ORECA of Griffin Peebles, Grégoire Saucy and Ben Hanley completing the podium.
“It was a great race. The car was on rails; it was incredible. The pace we had was amazing. This partnership is only going to grow and I hope we can continue this success for the rest of the year,” said Gray. “It was super tricky managing tyre deg, but I managed it ok and handed it over to Esteban who went on to win.”
Masson added: “I think we made our lives slightly harder today. We started on a good foot now, but after the 20-second penalty, I wasn’t sure where I was. I think I was P7, and I didn’t have a clear view of where we were in the race. I just pushed, I didn’t even realise the passes I made were for position.”
The season got off to a dramatic start, with a pair of unrelated incidents in the opening sector seeing the race get red flagged almost immediately.
In LMP2, Jonas Ried spun into the middle of the road at Turn 2 aboard the #9 Proton Competition ORECA, after attempting to pass Vector Sport’s Ryan Cullen up the inside. The stationary #9 ORECA was then t-boned by Georgios Kolovos’ #47 CLX Motorsport ORECA, which in turn was collected by the #27 Nielsen Racing entry of Kriton Lentoudis.
Simultaneously, Antti Rammo lost control of his #4 DKR Engineering Ligier LMP3 whilst braking for Turn 1, collecting Nick Adcock’s #68 M Racing Ligier, which then hit Paul Lanchere’s #17 CLX Motorsport machine.
Rammo and Lanchere recovered to the pits, where both cars were pushed into the garage for lengthy repairs, whilst Ried, Kolovos, Lentoudis and Adcock all retired on the spot.
After exiting the car, Kolovos reported back pain, and as a precaution was evacuated on a stretcher and transferred to hospital for further evaluation, with medical examinations confirming a fracture of the L2 veterbra.
The time lost under red flag got added on, with pole sitter Garg restarting the race with three hours and 50 minutes still on the clock.
The star of the opening stint was Peebles, who surged from fifth on the restart to pass Garg for the lead 25 minutes later. The young Australian then pulled out a 27-second lead, before on off for Paul Lafargue at Turn 5 aboard the #28 IDEC Sport ORECA brought out a virtual safety car.
This reset came at the perfect time for Forestier Racing by Panis, which had fallen back after serving a drive-through penalty for a start infringement. News soon followed, however, of a pair of 10-second penalties, for disobeying the race director’s instructions and overtaking off-track respectively.
Gray passed Saucy, who had replaced Peebles, shortly before the halfway mark, but another VSC soon after prevented the Briton from making a significant dent into the 20-second margin he had to pull out.
This meant that when Gray handed over to Masson with one hour and 13 minutes to go, the #29 ORECA fell back to third, although successive passes on IDEC Sport’s Valerio Rinicella and Hanley returned the Forestier Racing by Panis machine to the front of the field before the final round of pit stops.
Once again, the French outfit would fall back, as it required more fuel than its closest rivals, and also elected to change left-side tyres, before Masson’s late-race charge delivered victory.
Behind, Nielsen Racing’s #24 ORECA was on course to finish fourth until the closing minutes, when a suspension failure for Jack Doohan forced the Australian to limp home, dropping to seventh in the process.
This meant that the #18 IDEC Sport ORECA inherited fourth, ahead of the #43 Inter Europol Competition and #10 Vector Sport entries, with the #43 ORECA having fought back after losing the lead lap following multiple delays to reset power steering.
The #37 CLX Motorsport ORECA was a podium contender early on, before the unfortunate timing of a VSC dropped the off-strategy Swiss squad off the lead lap, whilst Algarve Pro Racing’s hopes disappeared when Jake Hughes picked up a puncture aboard the #25 ORECA at the end of the second hour, following contact with the #63 Mercedes-AMG.
LMP2 Pro/Am honours, in eighth overall, went to the #20 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA of Michael Jensen, Enzo Trulli and Malthe Jakobsen, following a duel with the #30 Duqueine Team entry.
The #20 ORECA first moved to the front in the penultimate hour, when Jakobsen pounced on Duqueine’s Doriane Pin on the restart from a brief Full Course Yellow.
The French squad returned to the front during the penultimate round of pit stops, but a shorter final pit stop for Algarve Pro Racing enabled Jakobsen to comfortably emerge ahead of Duqueine’s Richard Verschoor.
“First race, first win. I feel really good with the team and car, it’s come naturally,” said ELMS debutant Trulli.
“I have a lot to improve, but we have everything we need to do well. I got unlucky in traffic early, but I managed to hand it over to Malthe in P4 who did such a stellar job to go on to win. It was a perfect day.”
A post-race time penalty then dropped the #30 ORECA to third, with the #83 AF Corse entry promoted to second position. It was a strong comeback drive from AF Corse’s François Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Antonio Fuoco, after Perrodo had fallen to the back as he avoided the opening lap melee.
AO by TF’s #99 ORECA finished 10th, four laps down, after an accident at the start of the third hour. Dane Cameron was collected by the #28 ORECA at Turn 11 whilst running second in class, with the contact leaving the reigning champion stranded in the gravel.
In LMP3, Rinaldi Racing made a successful start to life with its new #5 Ligier JS P325 – Toyota of José Fernandes Cautela, Alvise Rodella and Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen.
The #5 Ligier didn’t hit the front until after the final round of pit stops. But Gaarde Pedersen brought the car home 11.881 seconds ahead of the #85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 which dominated the opening half of the race, with the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier third.
“The disruptions helped us with the strategy, everyone did a great job in the pit box because we had a 10-second lead by the final stint. We couldn’t be happier,” exclaimed Fernandes Cautela.
“It was so difficult, coming from the Le Mans Cup, because I’m not the fastest anymore,” Rodella added. “It was also a tough race because my right mirror was broken, which made it hard in traffic to manage it. It took some getting used to. But the team delivered a perfect strategy. The team worked a lot on detail in the winter that paid off in the end.”
Fabian Michal was in control throughout the opening half of the race for ELMS newcomer R-ace GP, before the timing of a VSC at the start of the third hour saw the #11 Eurointernational Ligier take the lead. Both cars were then overcut by Rinaldi Racing at the final round of pit stops, with R-ace’s Hugo Schwarze rallying to close the gap, but not making the in-roads necessary to salvage victory for the pole sitters.
And in LMGT3, victory went to the #75 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) LMGT3 of Matt Kurzejewski, Richard Lietz and Thomas Sargent.
The pole-sitting #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 had been in control of the class for the majority of the race, as ELMS debutant Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi proved to be the class of the Bronze-rated field.
The final Safety Car period, however, bunched the pack, and placed the #75 Porsche on the bumper of the Mercedes-AMG. After Lietz stalked Julian Hanses throughout the penultimate stint, Sargent took on the same role against Adam Christodoulou, before pouncing around the outside of Turn 5 in traffic with 33 minutes to go.
The Australian then proceeded to pull away from the #62 Mercedes-AMG, before keeping a charging Garnet Patterson in the #23 United Autosports McLaren LMGT3 Evo at arm’s length in the closing laps to win by 3.004 seconds.
“It was well executed by the team,” Sargent said post-race.
“We hit our marks and they gave it to me in a position where I could finish it. It was good to get the move for the lead done. We worked very hard this week to put us in a position where we could do what we just did. We now look forward to Paul Ricard. I’ve never been there so I’ll have to get my eye in quick.”
The #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo finished third, with the #62 Mercedes-AMG falling to fourth, ahead of the #50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari.
TF Sport’s title defence got off to a difficult start, with its #33 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R retiring following contact with the #86 GR Racing Ferrari of Mex Jansen in the penultimate hour, which eliminated both cars. This incident brought to an end a strong comeback drive, after Blake McDonald had fallen to the back of the field at the start with a puncture.
Wayne Boyd’s hopes of the drivers’ championship, meanwhile, have effectively disappeared, with the United Autosports driver placed at an 18-point deficit to his teammates after failing to drive the 40-minute minimum required to be eligible for points.
The 2026 season will resume next month at Circuit Paul Ricard with the 4 Hours of Le Castellat on May 3rd.
