ELMS: Second win in a row for G-Drive in Barcelona

G-Drive Racing raced their way to their second consecutive European Le Mans Series (ELMS) win tonight at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with Roman Rusinov, Job van Uitert and Jean-Eric Vergne putting in a faultless drive in the Aurus 01 Gibson.

A decision by the TDS run team to double-stint its Dunlop tyres saw it take an early lead while the cars in front opted to change tyres and spent longer in the pits at the first pit stop helping the Russian team to a 1 lap lead over the #39 GRAFF by the end of the race.

“It’s a couple of good weekends I’m very happy,” said Vergne. “There was not a single mistake from my teammates. It was a straight forward race for me, but I had fun pushing.”

Behind the Aurus, it was a thrilling race for the remaining podium spots. The #39 GRAFF of Gommendy, Cougnaud and Hirschi eventually took second place after an epic tussle with the #30 Duqueine Engineering Oreca in the closing laps of the race in total darkness, which came to an end after Gommendy made a move stick and snatched second place for GRAFF. Then, on the final lap of the race, Bradley was passed by Antonin Borga in the Cool Racing Oreca to snatch third spot.

Pole-sitters IDEC Sport could only manage fifth place by the end of the race, an additional pit-stop all but sealing the team’s fate.

In LMP3, despite a late drive-through penalty for contact with the #10 Oregon Team Norma, Inter Europol Competition took its first win of the season with their #13 Ligier JS P3 by 11.806s from the #17 Ultimate Norma M 30 but it was no walk in the park with the class showing some of the most battle-scarred racing of the series to date.

“It was a really good race.” Moore said afterwards “We struggled all weekend – to be fair. We know we don’t have the highest speed amongst the Ligiers or the Normas but we have consistency. We had a reasonably strong race and we were very good in the traffic too. Well done to Inter Europol Competition”

 As the flag dropped Jean-Baptiste Layahe in the #17 Ultimate Norma M30 suffered a terrible start and dropped to last position overall promoting Jan Ehrlacher in the #19 M.Racing Norma M30 to third. 13 laps later the Frenchman would inherit second position as the #10 Norma M30 was boxed for repairs.  Soon after the first stops Millara in the #19 had contact with David Heinemeier Hansson in the #56 Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR resulting in the Frenchman having to stop for repairs. Next up, Ross Kaiser in the #6 360 Racing Ligier spun at turn 7 causing a Full Course Yellow (FCY).

At almost the same time the second 360 Racing Ligier was the victim of a fuel fire as Andreas Lasteratos brought the car in at the end of his stint that saw him and one of the crew members suffer minor burns and the car garaged for repairs. Following attention at the circuit Medical Center Laskeratos was cleared fit and returned to drive the final stint and take the car to 13th overall, some 6 laps down.

Having started on pole and traded first place through the race the #11 Eurointernational Ligier went off at Turn 7 and then was eventually retired while another Full Course Yellow episode kicked off.  Despite a valiant tussle in the closing laps with Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate, Tommy Erdos in the #2 United autosports Ligier couldn’t quite hang onto second place and closed out the podium 7.169s behind Lahaye.

In GTE, Luzich Racing’s #51 Ferrari 488 GTE took a comfortable win as Alessandro Pier Guidi, Nicklas Nielsen and Fabien Lavergne finished over half a minute clear of the rest of the field; the win giving the AF-Corse run team the points lead in the series.

“We did a very good job working together. We worked hard to get race pace sorted here. We knew tyre degradation would be key. Nicklas did a good job, I just had to manage the pace. Luzich Racing did an amazing job,” Pier Guidi said of the team’s second win of the year.

The initial challenge from the #60 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE faded after multiple incidents for Sergio Pianezzola during his stint eventually dropped the car to last place finishing some 2 laps adrift.

Thus the battle for second ended up between the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari and #55 Spirit of Race 488 with the (still) Le Mans liveried car taking second after a strong run from Matteo Cressoni, Wei Lu and Jeff Segal. The Spirit of Race car eventually finished 6.486s behind to round out the podium.

The ELMS races into the night at Barcelona this weekend

For the first time since 2009, a Le Mans Series race will be held at the Circuit the Catalunya near Barcelona this weekend.  The 4 Hours of Barcelona take the place of the Red Bull Ring on which the ELMS have raced from 2013 to last year.  

For the first time since 2013, when the 4 Hours of Le Castellet raced into dusk, the European Le Mans Series will race into the night.  With the race starting at 18h30, 41 cars will race into sunset and - for the first time in the series - into the dark.  A nice addition to the schedule and something to really look forward to on Saturday evening. 

LMP2 

G-Drive Racing arrives in Barcelona leading the championship after 2 races with a total of 38 points. Newly crowned Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne joins the team for the first time in the ELMS this year after missing out Le Castellet and Monza due to a clash with his Formula E commitments.  

Second in the championship so far is the #28 IDEC Sport crew of Paul Lafargue, Paul Loup Chatin and Memo Rojas with 36 points. 10 points further down, in third place, is the #21 Dragonspeed of Henrik Hedman & James Allen. Ben Hanley is 1 point down on his teammates as he didn’t race in Monza in May.  It appears Hanley won’t race in Barcelona either, with Renger Van Der Zande on the entry list. 

Léo Roussel is still recovering from his injuries after his crash at Monza, and will be replaced by Adrian Tambay in the #34 Inter Europol Competition Ligier JPSP2. Mark Patterson is also still recovering from his shunt at Monza. Olivier Pla will take the wheel of the #25 Algarve Pro Racing for the remaining races of the 2019 season.  In the #27 IDEC Sport Ligier, Frenchman William Cavailhes is taking the place of Erik Maris. 

LMP3

15 entries will race in the highly competitive LMP3 class, lead by championship leaders Jens Petersen and Mikkel Jensen in the #11 Eurointernational with 43 points.  Inter Europol Competition also had a strong start of the season with Martin Hippe & Nigel Moore on second place, 10 points behind the leaders. Paul Ricard winners Ultimate are third so far. 

ACE1 Villorba Corse makes its debut in the ELMS with the #18 Ligier, driven by Yuki Harata, Alessandro Bressan and Gabriele Lancieri  This new endurance project is the result of a partnership between Villorba Corse with Yuki Harata’s ACE1 Team. Villorba Corse has run the Cetilar Racing LMP3 and LMP2 project in the past years in the ELMS and at Le Mans and returns to the European Le Mans Series with a lot experience. 

The #7 Nielsen Racing is back on the entry list after a big shunt in Monza.  Nicholas Adcock replaces Nobuyu Yamanaka and joins James Littlejohn in the Ligier JSP3. One of the teams to look out for will be  360 Racing with the #5 Ligier.  The team struggled with setup and top speed in the first 2 races of the season, but seem to be back into their usual form after a few intensive test sessions after Monza. 

LMGTE

8 cars are on the LMTE entry list, equally divided between 4 Ferrari 488 GTE EVO’s and 4 Porsche 911 RSR’s.  The #88 Proton Competition Porsche is absent (again) on the entry list for Barcelona.  After racing in the stunning Felbermayr livery at Paul Ricard, it was withdrawn from Monza and unfortunately, it seems like the team didn’t find any drivers for this race too.

Dempsey Proton Racing does arrive at Barcelona as championship leaders; Christian Ried, Riccardo Pera and Matteo Cairoli collecting 42 points in the first 2 races of the season.  The #  Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Fabien Lavergne and Nicklas Nielsen follows close with 40 points. 10 points further down is the JMW Ferrari driven by Jeffrey Segal, Matteo Cressoni & Wei Lu. 

2 driver changes are to be noted in the GTE class: WEC champions Egidio Perfetti and Jörg Bergmeister will be joined by David Heinemeier Hansson in the #56 Project 1 Porsche. The Danish driver replacing Giorgio Roda who raced with the team in the ELMS so far this season.  In the #80 Ebimotors Porsche, Edward-Lewis Brauner replaces Sébastien Fortuna. 

There's some good news for the fans of the JMW Le Mans livery: the team has decided to have it on their Ferrari 488 for the remainder of the season ! 

Timing

Due to the race being driven on Saturday, there’s only a 2-day schedule for the 4 Hours of Barcelona.  Track action starts Friday afternoon with the first 90-minute practice session at 14h30 and night practice at 21h30.  Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday morning from 10h40 onwards.  The 4-hour race “into the night” will be green flagged at 18h30. 

Live streaming is available on the ELMS website from qualifying on. Club Arnage will have its usual live feed on twitter, reports and pictures over the course of the weekend. 

Timetable

Entry List

Kristof Vermeulen. 

Pictures: Kristof Vermeulen & Jellybaby.Media

ELMS: 4 Hours of Barcelona will race into the night

The third round of the European Le Mans Championship at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona has been rescheduled to Saturday evening on the 20th of July into a night race.  The race will now start at 18.30h, with the chequered flag being waved four hours later after sundown.

A new format for the ELMS, and the first time the championship will race after sunset since the 4 Hours of Le Castellet back in 2013 wich finished at dusk.

Gérard Neveu, CEO of the European Le Mans Series, said: “The race in Barcelona is new for 2019 and we wanted to make this event more attractive for the Spanish fans and more comfortable for our teams.  The weather in July is hot, so moving the race to Saturday evening will be better for the fans and for the competitors, especially the drivers. 

“Having the race finishing after sunset will also make the 4 Hours of Barcelona unique on the ELMS calendar.  We are looking forward to come back to Barcelona after so many years.”

The 4 Hours of Barcelona event starts on Friday 19 July and now concludes on Saturday 20 July.  The event is Round 3 of the 2019 European Le Mans Series and Round 4 of the Michelin Le Mans Cup.