European Le Mans Series season debutants R-ACE GP were ecstatic to deliver the first ELMS LMP3 class win for a Duqueine D09 – Toyota at Silverstone.
Fabien Michal, Pierre-Alexandre Provost and Hugo Schwarze claimed victory in Sunday’s rain-affected four-hour endurance in their #85 car. They stood out against the nine other teams who use the Ligier JS P325, both cars part of the ACO’s third generation of LMP3, which entered racing last year.
Provost snatched the lead in the penultimate hour after the pole-sitting #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier spun in increasingly wet conditions on the exit of Village Corner, enabling R-ACE GP to capitalise on CLX’s 45-second time loss.
Louis Iglesias, the 18-year-old Frenchman who took pole in the #17 Ligier, turned up the pressure during the closing hour of an action-packed race and — despite initially turning much quicker lap times than Schwarze’s #85 R-ACE GP Duqueine — was 14.401 seconds away at the finish.
“We are very happy with the result,” said Michal, who undertook the opening stints from second position on the grid behind the #17 CLX Ligier of Paul Lanchere.
“First season for R-ACE GP in ELMS and the first win for the lineup, and we are happy for everyone.
“At the beginning of the race, the weather was clear, and after one hour, the track was wet, and we chose to change the tyres for Pierre. I think it was a good idea for the strategy.”
CLX’s late form meant they retained the championship standings lead by nine points on R-ACE GP, keeping the title fight alive for the Portimão season finale on October 8-10.
The rain struck intermittently across the Grand Prix Circuit, the United Kingdom’s largest racing venue. It meant that as the rain began and steadily increased, drivers would hold out as long as they could on the slick tyre compound.
In challenging conditions, CLX and R-ACE GP joined others in switching to wet tyres after navigating the hectic transitional phase of incoming rain, surviving various incidents and other drivers’ errors.
“Very special to win at Silverstone,” added Provost. “Honestly, I think it’s my favourite track on the calendar, so I’m really happy to win here.
“It’s also good news for all of us and for the championship to sustain the battle. The suspense will remain in Portimão now, but yeah, the race was really hard.
“Even with the strategy, we thought we would have a bit less rain during the two final stints with Hugo, and so we took some risk on the tyres and the pressures.
“And so I tried to push a lot to overtake the CLX, but it was really difficult because at the beginning of my stint, I just ran out of a lot of grip, and at the end, when it started raining again, it was not good news for us.
“So we just survived a bit, and it was quite tricky conditions for us.”
“I had the same issue as Pierre with the tyre pressures,” confirmed Schwarze, R-ACE GP’s 2025 Michelin Le Mans Cup champion.
“So when the engineer told me the gap [behind] was 26 seconds, my only thought really was to bring the car home safely, not too much risk of course.
“Iglesias was very fast behind me, so I started to put in a lot of pace, but just kept it clean and brought the car home.
“I pushed the same from the start and at the end, it started to dry up slightly, which helped us a bit with our tyres.
“And that’s when I could really push the tyres to their limit, and that helped me to maintain and even increase the gap.
“Happy to bring it home with a big gap as well, so over the moon!
“We don’t mind (the rain). I think we’re happy with any weather (in Portimão). We’ll just have to give it our all as we have been doing all season and fight for the championship.”
Two back-to-back wins for CLX at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps played a crucial role in giving them the upper hand in their title defence.
They have faced more pressure in 2026 since last year’s unparalleled dominant campaign in which they took five wins and five pole positions from six race meetings, achieving title glory before the 2025 Portimão finale.
CLX’s performance so far in 2026 has left them keen to become the first LMP3 team to win a fourth ELMS teams’ and drivers’ title in Portimão.
R-ACE GP meanwhile became the fourth different crew to reach the top of the LMP3 class podium this year.
R-ACE GP now have the opportunity to snatch CLX’s crown in Portugal next month in pursuit of their first ELMS LMP3 championship after securing a second consecutive Le Mans Cup title at Silverstone.
