UPDATE: The #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari has lost its GTE podium, after the stewards handed the team a 35-second time penalty for Gregory Huffaker’s collision with the #16 Proton Porsche at Turn 4 late in the race.
The change to the result has seen the #95 TF Sport Aston Martin claim the third and final podium position. The #57 meanwhile, has dropped from third to fourth.
Algarve Pro Racing’s #25 ORECA 07 Gibson scored a memorable 4 Hours of Le Castellet win this afternoon, after a dramatic final hour which saw the overall lead change three times.
James Allen, Alex Lynn and Kyffin Simpson combined to score what was APR’s first ELMS overall win (under its own banner). All three drivers were fast throughout and leave Paul Ricard rewarded for their efforts.
This was a thriller of an ELMS race, which came down to a race between multiple front-running LMP2 cars in the second half, and kept everyone guessing until the very end.
After the final set of scheduled stops, it was IDEC Sport’s race to lose. Paul Loup Chatin had inherited the lead from second when the team opted for a fuel-only stop with just over half an hour to go, while the #30 Duqueine ORECA that was leading into the final hour took tyres and dropped to fourth.
But the gamble wouldn’t pay off, as Chatin would have to come in for an unscheduled stop for a slow puncture. This handed the lead to the LMP2 Pro-Am #34 Racing Team Turkey ORECA which had risen to second after a push from Charlie Eastwood and later Louis Deletraz following the one and only safety car of the race. The neutralisation called for debris on track just before the halfway mark bunched up the field, bringing multiple cars into play, including the RTT ORECA.
Racing Team Turkey’s lead wouldn’t last either though, as Deletraz, battling to save the front-left tyre which had de-laminated on the inside edge some 10-12 laps from the end, shredding the bodywork and dislodging the front left headlamp, was caught and passed by James Allen in the winning APR ORECA, which like IDEC’s car, didn’t take tyres at its final stop.
Deletraz didn’t go down without a fight, forcing Allen to work for a pass at Turn 1 after the pair ran side by side down the pit straight with six minutes left. This left Deletraz a sitting duck for the recovering Neel Jani in the Duqueine ORECA.
Jani would follow Allen through with four minutes remaining, making use of his fresher tyres and to take second (and retain the LMP2 championship lead), relegating Team Turkey to third overall. Had the race been a couple of laps longer, it would have been a struggle for Allen to hold the lead too, as Jani was just a second behind by the end.
“I was doing my best, I was told to manage the tyres as much as I could. I did a late move for the lead around the outside at the final corner. The strategy was amazing, so great job by the team,” said Allen after the race.
“I feel like whoever is in car with our line-up, we will have strong pace. We had a great race car and backed it up today,” added ALex Lynn. “There was a different dynamic than we expected, as there were tyre troubles for everyone. I’m proud of the team though, we bounced back perfectly after disappointment in Barcelona.”
For Team Turkey, third overall is still an impressive result for the LMP2 Pro/Am-entered, TF Sport-run team, which has two class wins from two races, an overall win and two overall podiums to start the season.
Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and at the end, Deletraz, combined for another superb all-round performance, helped by a safety car which closed the gap to the leaders that grew during Bronze-graded Yoluc’s drive time.
It was a dominant win, which extends their lead in the LMP2 Pro/Am standings. During the four hours the car looked almost untouchable and only lost the Pro/Am lead briefly at the start when Giorgio Roda found a way through to the lead in the #99 Proton ORECA.
Had Deletraz – who had to deal with tyre wear (below) and a faulty radio – hung on for a second overall win, it would have made for a perfect weekend.
“It was a complicated finish. I could hear the team but they couldn’t hear me,” explained Deletraz. “We tried to win overall here, we were on for that after IDEC’s puncture. Luckily pressure stayed in our tyres though, because in the end I had no pace to defend. Perhaps if there was two or three fewer laps then we would have made it.”
Just off the overall podium was the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA, which spent almost the entire race off-strategy after the team opted to pit the car early in the first hour. Jonathan Aberdein, who was in for the finish, ended up crossing the line just two-tenths off Deletraz and five seconds ahead of the pole-sitting #47 COOL Racing ORECA.
The #47 spent the opening stint of the race in the lead with Vladislav Lomko in the car. The lead wouldn’t last though as Reshad De Gerus dropped back when Alex Lynn was installed in the APR ORECA following Kyffin Simpson’s efforts to keep close to Lomko after the start.
With an hour to go, quick pit work saw Jose Maria Lopez rise up to second, but the Toyota Hypercar driver didn’t have the pace to hold off the hard-charging Deletraz and who made a move on him at Signes with 51 minutes remaining.
Lopez then lost further time to a slower final stop, emerging fifth before rising to fourth when the IDEC ORECA hit trouble and fell from first to fifth, where Chatin would finish.
COOL Racing did, however, finish second in LMP2 Pro/Am with its #37 ORECA after an impressive performance in the closing stages from Malthe Jakobsen to secure the place and keep the recovering #65 Panis Racing ORECA at bay in the final minutes.
The #65 Panis Racing (LMP2 class) ORECA was another car that needed an unscheduled stop for a puncture. Tijmen van der Helm, just like Chatin late in the race, was forced in for a stop from the lead, dropping down the order with an hour and 40 minutes to go.
With a ninth-place overall finish, the #83 AF Corse ORECA completed the LMP2 Pro/Am podium with a quiet run.
In LMP3 Racing Spirit of Leman’s #31 Ligier JS P320 of Jacques Wolff, Jean-Ludovic Foubert and Antonie Doquin took a victory that for much of the race, seemed unlikely.
The first half of this one was dominated by the pole-sitting WTM by Rinaldi Duqueine, which built a huge lead of 46 seconds during Torsten Kratz’s opening stint before the safety car.
WTM’s chances of victory eventually ended though in the second half, when Leonard Weiss found himself locked in a battle with the #10 Eurointernational Ligier, which started from the back after being disqualified from Qualifying. Weiss lost a lot of time, and the lead, during scraps with Matthias Luethen and later Glenn Van Berlo, before Doquin caught and passed Weiss with the final hour approaching.
Doquin, who lives just 30 minutes from the Paul Ricard circuit, then held on for the win, much to the delight of his fellow countrymen he shares the #31 with.
“I am so happy to bring this win home for the team. The car was mega and we had no issues, after struggling in Qualifying yesterday,” said Doquin.
Oscar Tunjo held onto second for the WTM by Rinaldi squad, finishing ahead of the #17 COOL Racing Ligier. The #10 Eurointernational JS P320 dropped down to 10th after being called in by race control for repairs.
GTE like the other classes was action-packed throughout the four hours. However, out front, the winning #77 Proton Porsche had a relatively comfortable outing.
Christian Ried, Giammarco Levorato and Julien Andlauer led almost the entire race from pole, leading a Porsche 1-2, Andlauer crossing the line 11 seconds ahead of the #60 Iron Lynx 911 RSR 19. The #60 was a surprise contender, which benefitted from an opportunistic pit stop just as the safety car period was called, which was completed before the pit lane closed.
In the end, the #77 looked almost untouchable, especially in the closing stages after Ried burned his drive time early. It came down to a chase between Andlauer and Matteo Cairoli, but the Italian was unable to reel in the Frenchman and settled for a nonetheless impressive second-place finish.
The result means Cairoli, Claudio Schiavoni and Matteo Cressoni in the #60 now lead the GTE championship heading into Round 3 at Aragon.
The #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari took third, after a lengthy battle with the #16 Proton Porsche in the final hour which ended with Greg Huffaker getting past Alessio Picariello after a head-turning drive.
Unfortunately for Picariello, the #16’s chances of a podium ended when the car was handed two penalties, one for hitting the #28 IDEC ORECA and another for contact with the #57 at Hotel that resulted in the Belgian spinning backwards into the tyres.
The #16 finished, but after its penalties, down in ninth place. The #95 TF Sport Aston Martin took fourth, with the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari fifth after a rollercoaster race.
The #93 Proton Competition Porsche was arguably the unluckiest car in the field. Michael Fassbender, in what was by far his best GTE drive, rose to second early in the race, before being hit at Hotel by the #16 (driven by Ryan Hardwick at the time) and later at the final corner by the #50 Formula Racing Ferrari of Johnny Laursen.
Laursen’s rather clumsy move, which turned Fassbender into a spin, damaged the right-hand side of the Porsche significantly, spreading debris across the track, causing the safety car.
Fassbender, Martin Rump and Richard Lietz looked on for a podium before their race was ruined by the two incidents. The trio left France with a 10th-place finish.
A potential first-ever 100% finish for the ELMS was spoiled on the last lap when the #19 Team Virage Oreca crew chose to take a drive through st the flag rather than taking the time penalty – that meant that the car did not cross the line and was not classified!
The next round of the 2023 ELMS season is the 4 Hours of Aragon on August 26th.
