Forestier Racing by Panis’s pole-sitting #29 ORECA 07 took a commanding victory in today’s ELMS 4 Hours of Imola. Louis Rousset, Oliver Gray, and Esteban Masson recovered from an early loss of track position to win by 51 seconds after a messy, incident-packed contest in punishing 35-degree heat trackside.
The victory is the trio’s second win of the season so far, and vaults them to second in the points standings halfway through the campaign.
Rousset took the start from pole, but fell to third after Adrien Closmenil in CLX Motorsports’ #37 ORECA found a way through in traffic, and Griffin Peebles later pounced in United Autosport’s #22 car at the first of three Safety Car restarts in the race. The team executed its strategy perfectly, though, and through Gray and Masson’s stints, clawed its way back to the top of the timing screens.
Gray spent much of the middle stint piling on the pressure to United Autosports’ Gregoire Saucy ahead for the lead, after CLX’s #47 crew plummeted down the order with two penalties.
The eventual winning move came at the end of the third hour when the team orchestrated a stop three seconds quicker than United’s #22 ORECA, giving Masson clear air ahead of Ben Hanley, which the Frenchman used to his advantage, building up a 25-second lead before the final stops.
“We knew we had the car under us; we just had to deliver, and we did. The team were incredible this weekend with pit stops and strategy,” race winner Gray said.
“It was a big strategy game today. When I exited the pit lane, I had used tyres from Louis, Gregoire (Saucy) had new ones, but I managed it well. It was the most fun I’ve had on track, but it was frustrating, because United was on a different strategy, but Gregoire put the car in the perfect place each time to hold me off.
“This win, though, is slightly better than Barcelona. We had all the tools to achieve this.”
The win also came on an emotional day for the Panis Racing team, as news filtered through during the race that Marc van der Straten, a key part of the team’s ELMS title last year, had passed away.
“I’m really sad. A big thank you to him for the amazing journey. He did an incredible job for us. We will pay him a big tribute within the team,” Masson said.
Hanley went on to finish second in United’s #22 ORECA. It wasn’t a second consecutive win for the championship-leading trio, nor the dream result in the Anglo-American team’s 500th race. But valuable championship points were banked by Hanley, Saucy and Peebles, who head to Spa-Francorchamps with a six-point buffer.
The #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA completed the top three, after a clean run from eighth on the grid for Matthias Kaiser, Tristan Vautier and Jake Hughes. The #18 IDEC Sport and #10 Vector Sport 07s were classified fourth and fifth in the top class, with the latter receiving a late time penalty that saw the two cars switch positions.
A tough day for Le Mans class winner Inter Europol Competition saw the #34 – which went into the weekend second in the standings – lose a sixth-place finish late on when the team was dealt a lengthy 65-second stop-go penalty for pit lane speeding. Nielsen Racing’s #24 car inherited the position.
LMP2 Pro/Am was topsy-turvy but produced a memorable result. British outfit Vector Sport followed up its standout performance at Le Mans with a first-ever LMP2 win. Jens Reno Moller, Cem Bölükbaşı and Lorenzo Fluxa emerged as the winning trio after a late shakeup in the order.
“We had a very good strategy, and our pit stops were flawless. It’s such a challenging race because the track is so technical, and you have to be extra cautious. At the end, watching Lorenzo drive to the finish was tough. It’s way easier to drive because time passes quickly! Time didn’t pass at all in the final 30 minutes!” Said Bölükbaşı.
There were incidents aplenty throughout the four hours involving cars in the class, with several drivers hitting tyre barriers or taking trips through the gravel traps.
The list included Duqueine’s pole-sitting #30 car, which lost the lead when Giorgio Roda had an off into the tyres at Tosa in the opening hour, and Algarve Pro Racing’s #20 ORECA, which took rear-end damage when Michael Jensen had a similar moment.
Remarkably, the APR team went on to finish second, with Malthe Jakobsen crossing the line four seconds back, adding a second set of trophies to the team’s Sunday afternoon haul. The #21 United Autosports 07 Gibson took third.
LMP3 saw late drama. Duqueine customer team R-ace GP looked on course to take a dominant win in the closing stages before rear-end contact with the #18 IDEC ORECA of Pierre-Alexandre Provost forced the team to pit from the lead, the rear smoking as bodywork rubbed.
This handed the win to CLX Motorsport’s #17 Ligier of Paul Lanchere, Alex Jacoby and Louis Iglesias, which started the race from pole and burned through its long stops during the first Virtual Safety Car in the opening hour. That gamble paid off as the team gradually picked up positions over the remaining stints.
Rinaldi Racing’s Ligier took second, with Virage’s #8 JS P325, which also got through its mandatory long stops early, slotting in third.
TF Sport made it two LMGT3 wins at Imola in a row with its #33 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R, via a combination of speed and strategic nous.
It was a challenging and complex race for the Le Mans LMGT3 winning team, which had to fight through the field twice en route to victory.
Its first fightback came after it dropped to fifth from the lead in the opening hour, behind four cars that didn’t pit under the first VSC of the race, prompting Goodyear Wingfoot Award Winner Blake McDonald to go on a charge to retake P1 before Alec Udell climbed in.
Then, in the final hour, the last round of stops saw Charlie Eastwood slip from first to fourth when the team opted to spend longer on pit lane and take four fresh Goodyear tyres. It proved to be a masterstroke, as Eastwood made short work of Tom Sargent, Maxime Martin and Klaus Bachler ahead.
“This was perfect teamwork; we put together a good weekend, finally. This is what it looks like,” McDonald, who, along with fellow American Udell, took a lot of pride in winning on the 4th of July weekend in a Corvette, said.
Eastwood, after his late push to, which ultimately handed the team the class points lead, added, “It was tough to work out strategies. We were thinking about taking a half set at the end, but we opted to take all four and a couple of guys in front didn’t. We had more grip coming through, so I had to dispatch them as quickly as I could and manage it from the front to seal it.”
Martin, driving the #62 Team Qatar Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3, cemented second place to cap off a strong weekend for the team. The #77 Proton Competition Porsche ended up third, with the #75 sister car of Tom Sargent dropping out of the podium places to fourth.
Klaus Bachler in High Class Racing’s 911 GT3 R fell to fourth, with the Danish team gambling at the end with a fuel save run to gain track position that didn’t quite pay off.
LMGT3 wasn’t without its fair share of incidents.
It was a disastrous outing for Kessel Racing and its points-leading Ferrari, which lost multiple laps when Takeshi Kimura ended up stranded in the gravel at Turn 9. It finished 11th in class.
Iron Lynx’s other Mercedes-AMG GT3, plus Racing Spirit of Leman’s Aston Martin, crashed out of the race at the Tamburello Chicane. Clement Mateu missed his braking point while trying to make a pass on High Class’s Porsche and piled into the side of an innocent Ameerh Naran while battling for top-five places.
Next up on the ELMS schedule is the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on August 23rd.
