Having come up just short in the championship last year, Inter Europol Competition’s #43 ORECA 07 – Gibson LMP2 of Jakub Smiechowski, Nick Yelloly and Tom Dillmann entered the 2026 European Le Mans Series amongst the title favourites.
Across the opening half of the season, however, the now two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class-winning trio was unable to hit its stride, and after finishing second in each of the last five races of 2025, it had put only 17 points on the board in the first three rounds of this year.
With a 41-point deficit, the focus therefore seemed to have shifted to claiming the Polish squad’s second-ever ELMS victory, something it achieved over the weekend at the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in front of an event record crowd of over 33,500 spectators.
In a chaotic race, which saw the overwhelming majority of the LMP2 field involved in at least one incident, the #43 ORECA managed to keep its nose clean and avoid any penalties, as a rapid pit stop in the second hour vaulted the Polish outfit into an effective lead it held to the finish.
The win has come as a major relief to Smiechowski in particular, with the 34-year-old finally claiming an outright ELMS victory on his 21st top class start, even if he wasn’t satisfied with his own time behind the wheel.
“First [LMP2] race win for me, other than Le Mans,” reflected the Polish racer, who has triumphed in the LMP2 class at the French classic three times. “I really wanted to win in the ELMS as well.
“It was a long time coming, but it was a hectic race. I don’t know if it was difficult for me, it was pretty easy. I just went from one Safety Car to another Safety Car, so for me it was pretty boring to be honest, but these guys [Yelloly and Dillmann] did a great job when the track went back to green. They had great pace, and they were able to either close the gap or create a bigger gap to the guys behind.”
Yelloly, who like Smiechowski was able to secure his “missing” maiden ELMS win, was able to establish Inter Europol into the prime position for victory, with the Briton adopting a safe approach as the race finally started to settle down after its incident-filled opening.
“I had a fantastic tyre warmer in Kuba,” the Acura GTP driver joked.
“We started and stopped quite a lot just before I got in, and then once we went green, I felt that we had very good pace. We got by one of the Pro/Am cars that had jumped up in that period by pitting before us, and then it was about trying to control the gap to behind.
“I think there was a lot of times where I could have been much more aggressive and tried to muscle my way through an LMP3 or a GT, but the risk versus reward was not there for me today, and playing it safe was definitely the right way.”
The chase of the #43 ORECA was led by a surprise source, with Vector Sport following up its LMP2 Pro/Am win in Imola with arguably its best LMP2 ‘Pro’ performance in its five-year history, and finishing second on the road, under four seconds back.
On an alternate tyre strategy, Pietro Fittipaldi kept Dillmann under pressure throughout the final hour, closing out the race with fresher Goodyear rubber, and therefore well-placed to mount a challenge on any potential late-race restart.
Unfortunately, however, it would all unravel for the British outfit post-race. Vladislav Lomko had, whether due to a mistake, traffic or radio problem, pitted one lap later than scheduled at the end of the penultimate hour, with this meaning that Fittipaldi came up one minute and 15.791 seconds, less than one lap, short of his minimum drive time.
The associated penalty dropped the #10 ORECA down to 17th overall, as for the second round in a row, following its now-reassessed disqualification in Imola, a competitive outing has been soured post-race.
“The Vector seemed to be very fast, so they challenged us really hard all day,” Yelloly acknowledged. “But I knew what my job was in terms of being able to get the right fuel number, also look after tyres as well, and get through that double stint. And then, passing it to Tom, I knew it was in very safe hands.”
Dillmann, who was also part of the line-up for Inter Europol’s last ELMS victory at Circuit Paul Ricard in 2024, continued: “Today we had really good pace, especially when double stinting.
“We had to just manage the tyre, manage the gap to the Vector, and have that buffer in case things are a bit unlucky in traffic, which is what I did.
“And maybe there would be a late Safety Car, so I needed to keep a bit of tyre life for that, but I think the whole team really managed it well. There was a lot of calls to make, strategy-wise, so well done to everybody in the team.”
After Vector Sport’s penalty was applied, and the points adjusted accordingly, things couldn’t be closer in LMP2 with two races remaining. The #29 Forestier Racing by Panis and #22 United Autosports efforts are tied at the top, on 70 points apiece, with the French squad ahead courtesy of having achieved two wins to United’s one.
IDEC Sport’s Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory Programme-backed #18 ORECA, meanwhile, is only 18 points behind in third after finally achieving its first podium of the season, with Vector’s relegation ending its run of three, and briefly four, consecutive fourth-place finishes to start the campaign.
And with its gap to the top of the table cut to 28 points, a “good test” at the next stop on the schedule, Silverstone, under its belt, and re-found optimism, the #43 crew isn’t counting itself out of an unlikely title comeback just yet.
“I don’t know if we will be back in the championship with the last races, but for sure we’ll push until the end to get as many results as we can,” Smiechowski said.
Dillmann concluded: “It’s certainly the goal to win the last two races, and who knows where we are in the championship then.”
Images courtesy of David Lord and Inter Europol Competition
