The Elite Motorsport Ferrari of Tom Emson and Tom Lebbon secured their fourth win of the 2026 International GT Open season at Circuit Paul Ricard.
The British squad bounced back from their driveshaft issue, which put them out of yesterday’s race on the opening lap.
In a case of déjà vu since the Hungaroring last time out, they again faced a challenging Saturday, leaving them without points in Race 1, before holding onto their championship lead with a victorious performance in Sunday’s Race 2.
The two Toms doubled their championship points lead from three to six points over the #71 Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo pairing of Maximilian Gôtz and Christian Mansell, both drivers delivering an ambitious effort to earn them another podium appearance.
“An unfortunate result yesterday with the DNF, but we got the car sorted overnight,” said Lebbon.
“Well, the team did, to be fair, not me. But yeah, it seems to be a bit of a trend to have a bad day and then a good day.
“But it was good overall, obviously with the win. Good first stint, good second stint from Tom [Lebbon]. It was all we could ask for really.”
“He made it easy for me at the end, so it was nice,” added Emson.
“We need to sort out the Saturdays, obviously. We don’t want to make a habit of it.
“But yeah, at least we’re getting results on the Sunday.”
ZRS Motorsport’s #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Pietro Armanni/Alex Fontana rounded out the podium after their win yesterday.
Lebbon retained his lead at the race start, which was much cleaner compared to yesterday’s Race 1 multi-car incident with no caution disruption in today’s 60-minute sprint.
During his opening stint, Lebbon built up a comfortable lead gap over the #96 AF Corse Ferrari of Lorenzo Ferrari, who was busy holding off Fontana.
Both Ferrari and Fontana exhibited similar race pace in their intense battle with 36 minutes remaining.
Ferrari increased his defence against Fontana until the #911 Porsche made its way into second place with a move on the inside line into the S de la Verrerie, Turn 1.
With Elite and ZRS Motorsport serving pit stop compensation time, the #96 AF Corse was in the lead. Unluckily for Yaroslav Vesalaho in the #96 Ferrari, his lead was short-lived.
Emson was already up to speed, whereas the #96 Ferrari had just exited the pits, allowing Emson to retake the lead at the Mistral chicane.
He went slightly wide so that the #17 and #96 Ferraris went momentarily door-to-door at Signes — before Emson kept his top spot.
Whilst Emson simply continued his way out front, a thrilling battle for the podium places ensued, putting Vesalaho under pressure from multiple drivers.
Vesalaho first fought with the #71 Mercedes of Mansell. Both outbraked themselves into the Mistral chicane, but Mansell got back at the Virage de Bendor into second place.
The #96 Ferrari driver was immediately tasked with holding off Armanni’s #911 ZRS Motorsport Porsche, whose switchback into T1 allowed him to take third into the Virage de L’Hôtel with just under 15 minutes remaining.
Vesalaho’s next rival was Leonardo Moncini’s #63 Scuderia Villorba Corse Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, which wrestled its way into P4.
In the final minutes, Vesalaho held off Ben Tuck’s #707 Al Manar by Dragon Racing Ferrari and Greystone GT’s #33 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Joseph Loake.
Tuck took fifth at the Virage du Pont with a well-executed and opportunistic dive, as Loake also seized the opportunity to go side-by-side with Vesalaho before overtaking.
Moncini and his #63 Lamborghini teammate Rodrigo Testa took fourth ahead of Tuck/Al Faisal Al Zubair’s #707 Ferrari, Greystone GT’s #33 McLaren of Loake and Zac Meakin and the #96 AF Corse Ferrari (Lorenzo Ferrari/Yaroslav Vesalaho).
Rinaldi Racing’s #15 Ferrari finished in eighth position in the hands of American duo Dylan Medler and Alessandro Balzan, who succeeded in their fight on the #28 Motopark Mercedes of Dominik Baumann/Marcelo Ramírez and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Rafael Durán/David Perel.
Blackthorn claimed a third Pro-Am class victory, and a second consecutively, by their #97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo pairing Jonny Adam and Charles Bateman.
The team ran in third position after the pit stop window as Adam’s rapid pace saw them take third place from Into Africa by Dragon Racing’s #25 Ferrari driver Xolile Letlanka after he made a mistake.
The top three of the Pro-Am fought as a trio with one minute remaining on the clock.
The #777 Olimp Racing Ferrari ran a strong opening stint at the Pro-Am lead in the hands of Karol Basz, and so his Amateur-graded teammate Marcin Jedlińksi did his best to retain their position.
Nevertheless, Adam passed the #54 CBRX by SPS Mercedes of Dexter Müller before snatching the lead from Jedlińksi at the final corner, Virage du Pont.
Determined still, the #777 Ferrari refused to yield to the #54 Mercedes of Müller and his teammate Yannick Metler.
Vincent Abril/Laurent De Meeus’s #55 AF Corse Ferrari took fourth ahead of the #75 Team ISR Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2 (Libor Milota/Filip Salaquarda) to round out the top five in Pro-Am.
Marcelo Hahn and Galid Osman won in the Am category for a second consecutive time and their third win of the season in the #16 AF Corse Ferrari.
They led from the very beginning, and Baron Motorsport’s #6 Ferrari of Adrian and Andrjez Lewandowski claimed second place.
Third went to the #79 Sendom Lamborghini of Sewyn Mazur, who only took the place just before the end of the race from Joel Monegro’s #12 Fach Auto Tech Porsche.
Despite running third earlier on, the #14 Good Speed Racing Aston Martin of Piotr Wira was the sole retirement of the race.
