The final race of the 2016 ELMS championship was a nailbiting 4 hours spectacle. The 4 hours of Estoril saw drama for the championship leaders in LMP2 and GTE, with G-Drive Racing & Beachdean Aston Martin taking the title and invites for next years Le Mans 24 Hours.
Giedo
van der Garde had a blistering start, from the second row to the lead
into turn 1. Lapierre managed to get first position back when van der
Garde ran wide in the first corner. Both leaders were off for an hour
of close racing. Lapierre was able to get away from the Dutchman a
few times, but van der Garde always managed to fight himself back
into the slipstream of the #21 Oreca.
Behind both leaders, Nic Jonsson in the #40 Krohn Ligier, Vitaly
Petrov in the #32 SMP Raicng BR01 and Pierre Thiriet in the #46
Thiriet Oreca were in a tight battle for third position, Fabien
Barthez losing contact with the top 3 after a spin.
Just before the first round of pitstops, van der Garde passed
Lapierre. Simon Dolan took over the G-Drive Gibson from van der
Garde. Dragonspeed only came in for fuel, and managed to jump over the #38 again into the lead of the race. When Hedman went across the graveltrap in T3, Dolan
took back the lead of the race and started pulling away from the #21 which would eventually drop to fifth position.
The
#46 now was now lying fourth, right on schedule for the championship, 'till disaster struck when Thiriet came in for their second scheduled stop. Ryo Hurakawa took
over from Pierre Thiriet but the Oreca somehow refused to start up
again. The car was pushed back into the box, losing precious time and
falling down the order.
When
the safety car came out after the unfortunate collision between the
#2 and #66 car, Dolan's lead melted away and he had to do it all over
again. He nailed it at the restart and quickly built up a gap again
to the #21 Dragonspeed. Behind the leaders Julien Canal had to retire
in the #41 Greaves Motorsport Ligier.
As
the third round of pitstops approached, Dolan had a 50 second
advantage over the #32 SMP Racing BR01 which has passed the #40 Krohn
Ligier. The #21 DragonSpeed now was down to fourth position over a
minute behond Dolan but closing in on Coletti and Pla. The #33
Eurasia now was back up into fifth place, but already almost 2 laps
behind the leaders.
Thiriet
by Oreca saw their chances on the 2016 title melting away as they
finally got Hirakawa back out in track again, only to be pulled back
into the garage. In total the car spent more than 40 minutes in the
pitlane and finished 28th overall, 24 laps down.
Olivier Pla was the first to come in for the final round of pitstops
in his #40 Krohn Ligier from second place. Minutes later harry
Tincknell in the Mighty 38 came in for a fuel stop only, maintaining
his lead over the competition. Stefano Coletti who got up into second
place in the #32 SMP Racing BR01 was the third driver to come in for
fuel. Thanks to a very swift stop he managed to maintain his place,
but now had Oliver Pla in the Krohn Racing and Nicolas Lapierre in
the DragonSpeed all over him. Tincknell meanwhile had a comfortable
gap of over a minute, now just having to take the car home for the
win and the championship.
Lapierre was the only driver to take new tires at his final stop,
giving him a massive advantage over both cars in front of him. It didn't
take long for the fast Frenchman to take third place from Pla, minutes later leaving Coletti behind. Pla and Coletti got into a
ferocious fight for second that came to an end with about 5 minutes
to go when Pla had a spin losing him more than 5 seconds.
 |
| © Gabi Tomescu/AdrenalMedia.com |
Tincknell drove faultless, bringing the car home with a 51 second
advantage over Lapierre and 1.20 minutes over Coletti. Fourth place
was for Pla, followed by the #33 Eurasia of after recovering from
problems early in the race. Dark clouds gathered over the track in
the final stages of the race, but except from a few drops, the track
stayed dry. Minutes after the cars drove over the finish line though,
the rain started to poor down on the track.
 |
| © Gabi Tomescu/AdrenalMedia.com |
What a way to end the career of one of the most succesful prototypes
we've ever seen in LMP2. Over the course of 5 seasons the Mighty 38
had 23 race starts in the ELMS, drove 5 WEC races at Spa, 5 times in
the 24 Hours of Le Mans and scored 8 wins & won 1 championship.
Next to the ELMS title this season, the win at Le Mans in the LMP2
class in 2014 one of the highlights in its career. A great result for
the Jota Sport/G-Drive team too, after just missing out the ELMS
title in the past seasons.
LMP3
Chaos
at the back of the LMP3 grid at the start with cars spinning (one
even managed to spin in the warm-up lap) & going on and off the
track.
Alex
Brundle and Wayne Boyd in the United Autosports Ligiers had a perfect
start and quickly drove away from the other LMP3 cars. They even
managed to place themselves inbetween the back runners in LMP3, and
impressively in the overall top 10. Enzo Guibbert in the #9 Graff
Ligier got settled into third place behind Brundle & Boyd.
The
first series of pitstops saw both leading cars taking their long
pitstop and first driver change. Mike Guash took over the #2 Ligier,
Mark Patterson got behind the wheel of the #3. Not long after taking
over the #2, Mike Guash got into an incident with the #8 Race
Performance Ligier, losing him precious time. An incident in the
pitlane occured with the #17 Ulitmate catching fire during refueling,
but able to proceed in the race.
With
different pitstop strategies, three new cars emerged at the top of
the LMP3 ranking. Now the #11 Eurointernational was leading the #15
of RLR Motorsport and the #9 Graff Racing. Thomas Laurent in the M.
Racing-Yvan Müller Racing was now the fastest car on track. Just
before the second round of pitstops, about 2 hours into the race, he
was up to second place. Mike
Guash got caught in another incident when he got off the track at the
exit of turn 2, spun and went hard into the side of the #66 JMW
Ferrari which going slow off the racing line. The safety car came
out, triggering the start of the second round of pitstops.
When
the safety car came back in, the #18 M. Racing-YMR now had the lead,
the #3 United Autosport second and the #11 Eurointernational in
third. Simon Gachet now was in the #16 Panis Barthez Competition
Ligier, going into third position when the #11 got caught up into
traffic and fell down the order. Laurent had a spin when he got
caught by oil on the track but managed to keep on to his lead. Behind
him Gachet got into second, but had to retire when technical problems
emerged on the Ligier.
The
#18 drove a strong race and even got into sixth overall with an hour
to go, eventually finishing in seventh place. The final hour of the
race saw a battle between the #9 Graff Racing and the #3 United
Autosports for second place. Bell ultimately won the plot, finishing
one lap down to the #18.
During most of the race, the LMP3 class was a festival of cars
spinning, going off the track or through the gravel traps. Not
exactly showing the driving standards you might expect in a
championship like the ELMS. With the addition of LMP3 to the Michelin Le Mans Cup, the ACO has a
tool in hand to select team, cars and drivers which will be allowed
to race in either the ELMS or the Le Mans Cup. New teams and drivers
with less or none experience in prototype and/or endurance racing
will be able to have a “learning” year in the Le Mans Cup before
getting into the highly competitive European Le Mans Series.
GTE
In GTE Christian Ried didn't have the best start behind the LMP3
chaos. Rui Aguas in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari Alexander Talkanitsa Jr
in the #56 AT Racing storming past Ried when the green flag fell.
Talkanitsa however suffered from a puncture early in the race, and
dropped down the order.
When Ried had tyre damage after a collision
with an LMP3 and Aguas made contact with the #38 Gibson of van der
Garde, both championship contenders came to the front of the field.
Alex Mc Dowel now lead in the #99 Aston Martin, closely followed by
Rory Butcher in the #66 JMW Ferrari. By the end of the first hour,
Johnny Laursen parked his #60 Formula Racing Ferrari at turn 7,
electrical problems forcing the Danish team to retire from the race.
The #66 JMW Ferrari was the first car into the pits but lost a lap to
the leading cars. Disaster struck for the championship leaders when
seeing smoke at the back of the Ferrari. Butcher managed to keep the
car running and back into the pits where the car was rolled in with a
gearbox issue. After long repairs, Robert Smith brought the car back
out. Smith almost immediately got intro trouble again, going round at
low speed off the racing line when Mike Guash spinned in his #2
United Autosports Ligier and hit the Ferrari in the flank. Smith
somehow managed to get the car back into the pitlane, only to retire
after the mechanics tried everything possible to get the car back on
track.
With the #66 out of contention, the #99 Beachdean Aston Martin had
just one mission for the remainder of the race: win it. Turner was
now in the lead, but the safety car brought the whole field back
together. Rui Aguas in the #51 Ferrari was right on his tale, with
the #56 AT Racing Ferrari behind him, despite an incident in the
pitlane with spilled fuel. Aguas lost contact with Turner when he
lost valuable time after a spin of an LMP3 just in front of him.
Darren Turner now was flying around the track, building up a
comfortable gap over the #56 AT Racing Ferrari and both AF Corse's
#51 and #55.
Alex MacDowell took over the Aston Martin Vantage at the final round
of pitstops, with a comfortable lead around 30 seconds over the #56
who still had both AF Corse Ferrari's behind him. In the final hour
of the race MacDowell drove one of his best stints ever, bringing the
car home with a 1 lap advantage over the #56 AT Racing Ferrari of
Alessandro Pier Guidi and the #55 AF Corse Ferrari. The #51 Ferrari
excluded itself from the batlle for third when ... got a
drive-through penalty late in the race for causing a collision with
the #8 LMP3 car.
The Aston crew did what they had to do to secure the championship by
winning the race and getting their entry for Le Mans next year. A
very harsh outcome for the JMW team which dominated the whole season
in GTE. At the end of the year, their lost win at Silverstone due to an illegal front splitter ultimately did cost them the championship.
