Driver change at Bretton Racing, withdrawals confirmed
Alex Gnos has replaced Szymon Ladniak in the Rebellion Racing art car liveried #62 Bretton Racing Ligier JS P320 for this weekend’s Le Mans Cup race.
This driver change comes after the safety concerns were expressed to the team by the race director after the Collective Test on Wednesday.
Ladniak was the slowest driver in the field during the test. However, no specific details were given on the reasoning for the concerns.
Elsewhere, the #6 ANS Motorsport Ligier has been officially withdrawn from the meeting. DSC believes this was due to an incident in testing at Spa ahead of this week’s meeting that prevented the team from making the journey to Spain.
Meanwhile, both the #90 and #91 Blackthorn Aston Martins have been handed suspended 5,000 Euro fines after the team’s withdrawal from the Barcelona event.
The team explained that it was unable to attend “due to a supply shortage from the manufacturer” with “critical parts of the car not available for the event.”
TF Sport and Formula Racing hit the track
Both TF Sport’s #97 Aston Martin Vantage and Formula Racing’s #50 Ferrari 296 made it out for Free Practice 1 earlier today.
TF Sport’s Aston Martin, a loan car from fellow customer team Comtoyou Racing to replace its original car that was crashed in the test, arrived at the circuit on Thursday Morning, the team spending the day converting it to LMGT3 spec.
The car has been running in the green factory livery rather than the pink and blue colour scheme the team was set to run for the season. The team told DSC that it will remain in green for the rest of the weekend.
Formula Racing meanwhile, made it out for the first time today after the Danish team spent yesterday repairing its car following its recent testing shunt. It completed 35 laps during Free Practice 1, and a further 10 in the Bronze Test.
Unlike TF’s Aston Martin, Formula’s Ferrari will race in the team’s full livery for the opener.
Sales tops Bronze Test
Richard Mille by TDS’ Rodrigo Sales topped this afternoon’s Bronze Test session, with a 1:31.270. This was almost three-tenths up on Giorgio Roda’s best in the #77 Proton Competition ORECA.
All eligible cars took part in the session, which was heavily interrupted by a red flag caused by the #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Alex Mattschull.
The #88 Inter Europol Ligier of Alex Bukhantsov led the way in LMP3, while the #83 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini topped LMGT3 with a 1:42.448 from Hiroshi Hamaguchi.
Late addition to Ligier European Series field
Joining the already-named Logan Hannah (Nielsen Racing) and Cindy Gudet (M Racing) in the Ligier European Series this weekend is young Belgian female driver Sita Vanmeert, who will share the #86 Les Deux Arbes Ligier JS 2R with Jacques Nicolet.
This means there are now three female drivers in the field, the most in series history.
TV crew confirmed
That commentary team for the 2024 European Le Mans Series and Le Mans Cup season will be led once again by Jonny Palmer, supported by the DSC editor Graham Goodwin in the booth.
Steph Wentworth also returns after she made her debut last year as the series’ pit reporter.
All six ELMS Qualifying sessions and races will be streamed live and free on the series’ YouTube channel.
The ELMS and LMC broadcasts are also being made available on the FIA WEC TV platform for the first time HERE >>>
Liveries on parade
The ELMS YouTube channel has uploaded videos showcasing the liveries of the entire 2024 field.
