United Autosports survived a late scare to claim victory after a dominant performance in this afternoon’s 4 Hours of Le Castellet at Circuit Paul Ricard, the second round of the 2026 European Le Mans Series.
The Anglo-American team’s #22 ORECA 07 – Gibson LMP2 of Griffin Peebles, Gregoire Saucy and Ben Hanley held the lead from the moment Peebles passed the pole-sitting #29 Forestier Racing by Panis ORECA of Louis Rousset on the first racing lap.
Twice, a Safety Car caused the British outfit to lose a comfortable lead margin, with the second of these setting up a 57-minute sprint to the finish, and closing Forestier Racing by Panis’ Esteban Masson up to the rear of Hanley, with just a single lapped car separating them.
Masson, however, fell back shortly after the restart, then slowed dramatically due to an issue that forced the defending champions into retirement. This gave second place to the #34 Inter Europol Competition ORECA of Reshad De Gérus, and the Frenchman set off in pursuit of Hanley.
With 26 minutes to go, the gap fell below one second for the first time, and two laps later De Gérus challenged for the lead around the outside of Turn 8. The pair made contact, both spinning through the Mistral chicane, but Hanley rejoined quickly with his lead extended, as De Gérus fell back to fourth.
“I got held up by the traffic, he got a run on the inside, but I wasn’t going to give up the position that easily, so I tried to brake a bit deeper. I nosed in front as we turned in, he locked the inside front, and we collected each other. I managed to keep it going, I only lost three or four seconds,” Hanley explained post-race.
The Briton’s gap grew further through the final pit stop cycle, with Hanley coming home 3.569 seconds ahead of De Gérus, who fought back to second for himself and Bijoy Garg. The winning margin was then extended further post-race, with the #34 ORECA handed a five-second penalty for an unsafe release.
It is United Autosports’ first ELMS victory since 2023, when it won three of the final four races of the season. The #22 crew have also taken over the lead of the championship by three points over Inter Europol’s #34 pairing.
“Super impressed with all three drivers,” United team manager Max Gregory told DSC. “Ben did the job we all expected; that’s why he drives for us. What a star Griffin is turning out to be, a proper star of the future. And Gregoire has got confidence in the car now, and it shows. That’s about the best stint I’ve seen from him in an LMP2 car.
“It’s been a long wait to get back to the top step in the ELMS. Now we’re there, we want to stay there.”
The #28 IDEC Sport ORECA of Paul Lafargue, Job van Uitert and Paul-Loup Chatin completed the podium, ahead of the sister #18 entry and the #10 Vector Sport and #37 CLX Motorsport ORECAs.
Eighth overall went to the #27 Nielsen Racing ORECA of Kriton Lentoudis, James Allen and Alex Quinn, which won LMP2 Pro/Am at Circuit Paul Ricard for the second consecutive season.
Victory on the road went to the #83 AF Corse ORECA, but a post-race time penalty for a yellow flag infringement saw François Perrodo, Antonio Fuoco and Matthieu Vaxiviere drop to sixth.
The final Safety Car wiped out a commanding lead held by the #14 TDS Racing ORECA, after a strong stint by Sami Meguetounif saw the Frenchman pull a gap of almost 30 seconds over the rest of the field.
Vaxiviere then hunted down and passed Meguetounif’s co-driver Scott Huffaker, and looked on course for victory until a drive through penalty was announced in the closing minutes, with the Italian squad elected to face a post-race time penalty instead of trundling through the pit lane.
The penalty looked set to hand victory to the #47 CLX Motorsport ORECA, but Charles Milesi had to pit the Swiss entry for a splash of fuel with just three minutes to go.
Second went to the #99 AO by TF ORECA, with the #30 Duqueine Team entry fighting from the back of the grid to third.
Duqueine Team, one of only two squads to have started the year with consecutive top finishes, has moved into the championship lead, with the top five cars in LMP2 Pro/Am covered by just eight points.
LMP3 honours went to the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier JS P325 – Toyota of Alexander Bukhantsov, Chun Ting Chou and Henry Cubides Olarte, after both the #4 DKR Engineering Ligier and #85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 were afflicted by black-and-orange flags.
DKR Engineering’s Romain Favre had to pit from the lead with 36 minutes to go, to fix an open door. This handed first position to R-ace GP’s Hugo Schwarze, only for the Duqueine squad to be handed a 30-second stop-go penalty for being too slow to respond to a black-and-orange flag it had picked up earlier in the race.
Favre recovered to third, behind the #68 M Racing Ligier, with R-ace GP finishing fourth ahead of the #35 Ultimate Ligier.
The #13 Ligier has moved into the championship lead, nine points ahead of both the #85 Duqueine and Barcelona-winning #5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier, which finished seventh today after surviving an early scare when the car delayed the start by stopping on track during the formation lap.
And in LMGT3, Kessel Racing’s #57 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo triumphed, after Mathys Jaubert charged from third to the lead following the final Safety Car to claim victory for himself, Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra.
Jaubert passed the Barcelona-winning #75 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) LMGT3 of Tom Sargent on the first lap following the restart, before making his way past the damaged #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R of Charlie Eastwood for the lead.
The Genesis Hypercar driver then pulled out a 17-second margin over the field, as Eastwood finished second, with the #86 GR Racing Ferrari claiming third after both the #51 AF Corse and #55 Spirit of Race Ferraris were given 10-second post-race penalties, dropping them to fourth and fifth, respectively.
The win has given the #57 Ferrari the championship lead, 11 points clear of the #75 Porsche, which fell back to eighth in the closing stages.
“I had to manage a lot, like everyone. But we were very strong, the team did such a good job on pit lane, gaining us massive time. We were trying to fuel save as much as possible at the end. My Hypercar experience at Imola has helped quite a lot with that,” Jaubert said.
The defending LMGT3 winner at Circuit Paul Ricard, the #50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari, retired early after Custodio Toledo ended up in the barriers at Turn 10 following contact, triggering the first Safety Car.
Toledo was involved in a three-car incident with a pair of Proton Competition entries, as Bankcy in the #77 Porsche attempted to pass Toledo, whilst the #88 ORECA of Horst Felbermayr attempted to lap the pair. All three made contact with one another, with the Ferrari coming off by far the worst.
The second Safety Car, deployed at the end of the penultimate hour, was called after the #74 Kessel Racing suffered a failure on the rear right of the car, which forced Fran Rueda to stop out on circuit.
The European Le Mans Series now enters its traditional 24 Hours of Le Mans-induced break, with the season resuming at Imola, Italy, on 3rd to 5th July 2026.
