Hugo Schwarze and Hadrien David took a lights to flag victory in the #85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09-Toyota to claim the French team’s first Michelin Le Mans Cup victory since Mugello last year.
The LMP3 Pro/Am win went to the only home team on the grid with Belgium’s Eric De Doncker and former MLMC Driver’s Champion Gillian Henrion taking the win. It was a nail biting finish as Henrion had to finish at least 5 seconds ahead of his nearest rival due to a penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement, but the French driver crossed the line over ten seconds ahead to secure the win, de Doncker taking his first Le Mans Cup victory since 2017!
The #33 Kessel Racing Ferrari took its second win of the season after starting on the back row of the grid. Murat Çuhadaroglu steered around the chaos at the start to move into third and hand over the car to David Fumanelli, with the Italian moving to the front and finishing over 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the GT3 field at the chequered flag.
The drama began before the start when there was a collision at the final corner as the field prepared for the start involving four of the leading GT3 cars with the pole sitting #17 Kessel Racing Ferrari and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari colliding as they rounded the final turn to take the start, with the#95 Ebimotors Porsche and the #23 Biogas Motorsport getting caught up.
The #17 Ferrari was judged to be a fault, and Lorenzo Innocenti was later given a drive-through penalty.
The main beneficiary of the incident was the #83 Iron Dames Porsche, with Vanina Ickx weaving past the two cars ahead of her to take the GT3 lead, and Murat Çuhadaroglu also avoiding the debris to move from the back of the grid to third in class.
In another incident, after the start, the #4 Nielsen Racing Adess went off into the barriers at Les Combes, and the Safety Car was deployed for the first time to clear the debris left by the accident. Mikkel Kristensen was able to get the car back to the pits for repairs before rejoining.
The race went green again after 10 minutes with the #85 R-ace GP of Hugo Schwarze leading from his teammate Antoine Doquin in the #86 Duqueine, with Oscar Tunjo keeping the pressure on Doquin in the #70 Gebhardt Motorsport Ligier. However, Tunjo’s Ligier was involved in contact with another car, dropping the Colombian back to 10th. This later resulted in retirement when the car had to pit to repair the damage.
The second Safety Car was deployed when the #30 CD Sport Duqueine of Arthur Rogeon pulled off the track at Eau Rouge with smoke pouring from the back of the car, with flames seen beneath the engine. The Duqueine had dropped oil on the track, and the marshals spent over 25 minutes dressing the spillage to allow race to resume safely.
The #84 ANS Motorsport Ligier, which had started on the LMP3 Pro/Am pole went off at Eau Rouge before the Safety Car was deployed, possibly due to the oil dropped by the stricken CD Sport Ligier. This dropped Julien Lemoine back to 11th place in class behind the Safety Car.
The #55 GG Classics was another retiree during the Safety Car period, the Australian team’s Ligier suffering a power steering failure.
The race went green after 45-minutes of racing with the two leading R-ace GP Duqueines split by 3.5 seconds and Schwarze pulling away from his teammate on every lap.
Shahan Sarkissian had moved into the lead of LMP3 Pro/Am in the #31 CD Sport Duqueine and was just 1 second ahead of Romano Ricci in the #88 R-ace GP Duqueine.
Vanina Ickx was holding off a determined challenge by the #11 Code Racing Developments Aston Martin of Philipp Sager, but the Iron Dames Porsche was still leading when the cars started to head into the pitlane for their mandatory 160-second pitstop.
After the pitstops, David Fumanelli had emerged in third place in the #33 Kessel Racing Ferrari. He quickly caught and passed the #11 Aston Martin with Rory Van Der Steur now behind the wheel and then caught and passed the #83 Iron Dames Porsche driven by Marta Garcia on the same lap. Fumanelli then started to move away from the chasing pack of GT3 cars to build a substantial lead.
Garcia lost second to the #65 Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG after putting up a spirited defence of her position. The Spaniard put two wheels into the gravel at T9 and Lukas Dunner pounced to take the position.
At the front of the field the#86 R-ace GP Duqueine of Edgar Pierre had been passed by the #92 and #29 Forestier Racing by VPS Ligiers, with Theo Micouris in the #16 Team Virage Ligier catching and passing Pierre before challenging Louis Rousset for third.
Debris had been dropped at the exit of Raidillon and a Full Course Yellow was deployed to retrieve the item from the racing line. After six minutes, the race resumed with no further interruptions to the chequered flag.
The LMP3 Pro/Am battle was led by the #77 Reiter Engineering Ligier driven by Horst Felix Felbermayr, four seconds ahead of the #88 R-ace GP Duqueine of Fabien Lavergne, with the #31 CD Sport Duqueine in third. However, Gillian Henrion in the #98 Motorsport98 Ligier was on a charge.
The French driver caught and passed Kevin Rabin in the #31 Duqueine and then closed the gap to Lavergne.
With 23 minutes left on the clock, the #98 Ligier moved into second place but a 5-second penalty added to the next pitstop for a FCY infringement meant Henrion not only had to pass Felbermayr’s leading car, but he had to be at least 5 seconds ahead at the chequered flag.
Henrion accepted the challenge and was soon challenging for the lead. Felbermayr held off Henrion for several corners, but the inevitable happened at the end of the Kemmel Straight with 15 minutes left on the clock.
At the head of the field Hadrien David had built up a 14 second lead over the #92 Forestier Racing by VPS Ligier of Charles Roussanne, with Theo Micouris chasing hard in third place seven seconds further up the road.
The #33 Kessel Racing Ferrari had continued to pull away, and as the chequered flag approached Fumanelli was over 30 seconds ahead of Marta Garcia in the #83 Porsche, who was being challenged by the #65 Mercedes-AMG of Lukas Dunner, who had just served a drive through penalty for exceeding track limits.
Dunner took the place with 5 minutes left on the clock and took the chequered flag with Garcia holding on to claim the final podium position in GT3.
However, several post-race penalties saw the #51 AF Corse Ferrari promoted to second place ahead of the #83 Iron Dames Porsche, with the #65 Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG dropping back to 5th behind the #23 Biogas Motorsport Ferrari.
All eyes were on the LMP3 Pro/Am battle, with Gillian Henrion continuing to pull away.
Griffin Peebles had moved up to second place in the #66 Rinaldi Racing Ligier but was over 10 seconds behind Henrion, with the French driver needing to maintain a five-second gap to win the race due to the penalty.
The Motorsport98 Ligier crossed the line to win, with the Rinaldi Racing Ligier in third ahead of the #31 CD Sport Duqueine. A post-race penalty for the #31 though, saw the #34 Inter Europol Competition promoted to third place ahead of the Spanish team.
The #77 Reiter Engineering Ligier of Horst Felix Felbermayr and the championship-leading #71 Rinaldi Racing Ligier of Felipe Fernandez-Laser stopped before they had crossed the line and were not classified, both believed to be out of fuel.
The next race will be in the UK with the Silverstone Round on 13th September, the penultimate race of the 2025 Michelin Le Mans Cup and the first round ever of the Series at the UK circuit..
