ELMS: Dragonspeed wins 4 Hours of Le Castellet

The opening race of the 2019 European Le Mans Series gave us 4 hours of uninterrupted racing under sunny French skies and more than a few interesting battles over all three classes.  Dragonspeed scored their first overall win since Spa 2016 in the LMP2 class, while Ultimate scored their first ever win in the LMP3 class.  In LMGTE it were the series debutants who took the top 2 spots of the podium with the Luzich Racing Ferrari on top, followed by the all female Kessel Racing Ferrari.

Roman Rusinov started from pole in the #26 Aurus G-Drive with Paul Lafargue in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca and James Allen in the #21 G-Drive close behind him.  Allen had a flying start and went on from fifth to third in the first round before taking over the lead from Rusinov in lap 10.  It took Allen only 5 laps to ease away from the competition, building his lead already up to 20 seconds in lap 15. 

Rusinov dropped back to fifth place in his first stint, while Andrea Pizzitola stormed through the field from P12 to P2 in his #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07.  Behind him, Paul Lafargue held on to third place, followed by another Oreca, the #30 Duqueine Engineering of Pierre Ragues.  Ragues moved ahead of Lafargue and Pizzitola and after nearly 20 laps into the race, he got into second place, although 24 seconds behind Allen in the leading Dragonspeed. 

Henrik Hedman took over the leading car in the first round of pitstops but saw his lead over Ragues, who stayed in the car, dropping down quickly before Ragues took over the lead.  Hedman was up against some of the quickest drivers of the field, dropped back a bit in the order but managed to hold on to sixth place before handing the car back over to James Allen at the second stop. Meanwhile Job Van Uitert was in the G-Drive Aurus, making up lost time caused by a tyre problem Rusinov had in his first stint.

After the third round of pitstops, all was still to play for in the LMP2 class. Nicolas Jamin still lead the pack in the #30 Duqueine but had Ben Hanley now behind him in the Dragonspeed, who was in a different pitstop strategy.  When Jamin had to stop for fuel, Hanley got in the lead with a margin of 46 seconds on the #28 IDEC Sport of Paul Loup Chatin with Norma Nato in the G-Drive right on his tail. 

Hanley held on to the lead and scored the team’s first victory since Spa 2016. Chatin crossed the line in second place 16 seconds later with a comfortable margin over Richard Bradley in the Duqueine Engineering who went past Nato in the closing stages of the race.  Behind the leading pack, the #22 United Autosports Ligier was the first non-Oreca at the finish in sixth place, one lap down from Hanley & co. 

French team Ultimate scored their first victory in the series with their #17 Norma M30 LMP3 after 4 years thanks to a late race challenge over the #11 Eurointernational.  Mikkel Jensen went on from fifth on the grid to first in the opening lap, holding off Lucas Legeret in the #19 M.Racing Norma and Jean-Baptiste Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate. David Droux in the #9 Realteam Norma also had a strong opening stint, moving up to second place tailgating Jensen in the Eurointernational Ligier, but unable to take over the lead. 

The top 2 remained the same after the first round of stops with Jensen still in front of Droux.  Damiano Fiorivanti who had been quick all week and set Saturday’s pole time now was in the #10 Oregon Norma and up to third place right behind Droux.  The two battled for several laps until Fiorivanti was cut off by the #39 Oreca who went into pitlane and sent the Italian into a spin. Luckily without any damage, but Fiorivanti lost precious time to the leading 2 cars. 

Jens Petersen took over the #11 Eurointernational but was chased by the more experienced Matthieu Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate Norma who quietly got up into the order after the second round of stops. Lahaye quickly caught up with Peterson, passed him and never looked back.  By the end of the race the French team had a gap of 1 lap over the rest of the field. Petersen managed to hold on to second place and a well deserved podium finish, despite being under pressure from Nigel Moore in the #13 Inter Europol Ligier who drove an impressive final stint from sixth to second.   The #10 Oregon and #7 Nielsen Racing Norma’s completed the top 5 of an exciting race in the LMP3 class.  

In LMGTE it was ELMS debutants Luzich Racing who took the honours after dominating the race from start to finish. Fabien Lavergne got into the lead in the opening lap, passing the #77 Dempsey-Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried. The Frenchman stormed away from the rest of the field giving himself a comfortable lead. Behind him, Egidio Perfetti in the #56 Team Project 1 passed Ried and Felbermayr in the second Proton Porsche up to second place. By the end of the first stint, Wei Lu got up to the front in the #66 JMW Ferrari in third position. 

By the end of the second stint, Lavergne had a gap of about a minute when he handed over the #51 Ferrari to Nicklas Nielsen. The second round of pitstop shook up the order quite significantly, with Rahel Frey now in second place in the #83 Kessel Racing Ferrari after passing Christian Ried in the #77 Porsche. Frey had a scare when she clipped the #8 Nielsen LMP3 into a spin but got away with a warning flag before she turned the car over to Michelle Gatting. 

© ELMS/ Jakob Ebrey-JEP

Alessandro Pier Guidi ran the final sting in the #51 Luzich Ferrari, bringing the car home with a one lap lead over Michelle Gatting in the #83 Kessel Racing Ferrari. 12 seconds behind her, Matteo Cairoli finished third in the #77 Dempsey-Proton after a late pass over the #66 JMW Ferrari. The #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari completed the top 5. 

The second round of the 2019 European Le Mans Series is scheduled for Sunday May 12th at  the Italian temple of speed in Monza. 

Race results

 Kristof Vermeulen.

MLMC: Lanan Racing wins incidentful opening race of the season

The Michelin Le Mans Cup season kicked off last Saturday in a grand style, filled with scrappy but great battles, incidents, safety cars, full course yellows and a raft of penalties applied!

In a race that was dominated by the speed of the Norma M30’s Duncan Tappy and Mike Benham in the #25 Lanan Racing Norma took the chequered flag for the win winners, the British duo keeping out of trouble after a penalty for the #3 DKR Norma pushed them into the lead late in the race. With the Lanan car on the top step the next seven places all went to the Norma M30 chassis, the first Ligier being the #24 United Autosports car of Boyd and Husain in ninth place.

Second on track was the #9 GRAFF Norma, however a 35 second post-race penalty for not reducing its speed to 80kph under FCY dropped them to fifth overall. The car was in contention throughout and led the race in the second half, before Tappy made a bold move up the inside past Eric Trouillet into Signes corner for second place. The #39 sister car which originally finished fourth received the same penalty dropping it to sixth overall. The two Graff penalties pushed the #3 DKR Engineering Norma of Kirmann and Horr to an eventual second place.

Fifth on the road was the #2 Nielsen Racing Norma of Tony Wells and Colin Noble 12 seconds behind the leader. Despite taking advantage of the two safety car periods Noble was unable claim a podium on a race result only but posthumously got to taste the champagne for third following the Graff penalties.

The first safety car period came after John Schauerman lost control of the #4 Cool Racing Ligier at the final corner, which sent him flying backwards into the inside armco hard. The second SC period came shortly after the race restarted, following contact between the #5 DKR Norma and #12 Eurointernational Ligier of Jean-Marc Littman at the same corner, ending Littman’s race and earning the DKR car a penalty. Penalties were handed out across the board for all sorts of infractions, including a 12 cars that had to head to the pits for two-minute stop and go for passing through a red light in pit lane resulting in a massive shake-up of the final positions. Finally, a Full Course Yellow (FCY) was thrown due to the RLR Msport Ligier of Tom Olsen hitting the barriers at the exit of Signes hard ending the team’s race.  

In the GT3 class the #8 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 of Sergio Pianezzola and Giacomo Piccini won with an enormous lead after the Luzich Racing Ferrari was one of the cars handed a two-minute penalty for jumping the pitlane red light. However, the #8 were handed a penalty for a drive time infringement in the final minutes but their lead was so big that even after serving it, they finished over a minute ahead.

The #54 SPS Automotive Mercedes crossed the line second, benefitting from the penalties and various dramas in the class, ahead of the Luzich car which salvaged third. Two cars had late-race issues, the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari, which suffered a puncture and eventually fell to seventh and the #7 Scuderia Villorba Corse Mercedes which lost a wheel in the closing laps and retired from fifth.  The Krypton Mercedes also promised a strong result but an early collision with the BHK Ligier damaged its front-end terminally meaning #83 SVC Lamborghini finished fourth and the #99 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage took fifth.

John Stevens

Sportscarglobal.com

ELMS: Norman Nato and G-Drive on pole for the first race of the season

Defending Champions G-Drive Racing will start in pole position for tomorrows 4 Horus of Le Castellet after a thrilling end of the 15 minute qualifying session.  Last year's race winner Norman Nato put the #26 G-Drive Aurus 01 on pole just ahead of Paul Loup Chatin in the #28 IDEC Sport. 

With another lap record for the LMP2 class, the third one this week and the second one today, the Frenchman secured pole position in 1.40.052, just 25 thousands of a second faster than Paul Loup Chatin in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca.  What better way to start the season with a pole position in the first race for the re-badged Aurus 01 ?  A top result too for Nato who replaces Jean-Eric Vergne who is racing in Formula E this weekend. 

Paul Loup Chatin secured the second spot on the front row of the grid, ahead of Alex Brundle who had a very strong outing in the #32 United Autosports Ligier, splitting up the top 4 Oreca’s.  His best laptime of 1.40.293 was 0.241 second off Nato’s pole time, but a big improvement from the times the Ligiers set earlier this week(end). Rounding out the top 5 were Nico Lapierre in the #37 Cool Racing Oreca and Ben Hanley in the #21 Dragonspeed. 

In LMP3, Oregon Team secured their first ever pole position in the championship thanks to Damiani Fioravanti who has been quick all week here at Paul Ricard.  After a session which saw several drivers on top of the timetable, the Italian took pole position in his final lap with a 1.49.686.  Matthieu Lahaye had been on provisional pole until the dying moments of the session in the #17 Ultimate Norma, but eventually lost out 0.128 seconds to Fioravanti.

In an ultimate effort at the end of the session, Lucas Légeret got up to third position in the #19 M.Racing Norma, despite being briefly held up a bit by another car. 

(Dempsey) Proton Competition seemed to be on its way to lock out the front row with Thomas Preining in the #88 ahead of Matteo Cairoli in the #77 Porsche 911 RSR.  However, when Alessandro Pier Guidi dived 0.030 seconds under Preining’s  time in the final minute of the session it seemed like the experienced Italian would snatch the pole away from Porsche and hand it to Luzich Racing in their first race in the series.  

Matteo Cairoli did save the best for last though.  In his final lap, he went pushed his Porsche round the track in 1.52.499, shaving off an extra 0.273 seconds off Pier Guidi’s provisional pole time and giving Proton Competition its first pole of the season. 

The 4 Hours of Le Castellet will start at 12h30 tomorrow, and will be broadcasted live on the ELMS website and social media feeds.  

Qualifying results LMP2

Qualifying results LMP3

Qualifying results GTE

Kristof Vermeulen. 

ELMS: IDEC Sport and Dragonspeed set the pace in first practice sessions at Le Castellet

For the second time this week, the lap record at Circuit Paul Ricard was broken in the LMP2 class.  Monday night Anders Fjordbach set a new record in his #20 High Class Racing Oreca 07, this morning Paul Loup Chatin shaved another 0.068 seconds from his time to set the new record at 1.40.336 in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca.  

Nico Lapierre was second fastest this morning in the #37 Cool Racing, just under half a second behind his fellow Frenchman. Ben Hanley - who set the quickest time yesterday - got himself into third place with a 1.41.227.  The Oreca’s dominated the LMP2 class again, while Paul Di Resta was the fastest of the Ligier drivers for the second time this weekend, putting his #22 United Autosports Ligier JSP2 on sixth place, 1.6 seconds off Chatin’s record lap. 

David Droux was the first driver to beat Damiani Fiorivanti in the LMP3 class since Monday evening.  Droux’ lap of 1.51.449 was just 0.051 seconds quicker than the Italian, but enough to put his #9 Realteam Norma on top of the list this morning.  Nigel Moore was third fastest in the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier, breaking through yesterday’s domination of Norma in the class. 

The Proton Competition Porsches continued to set the pace in the GTE Class.  Thomas Preining in the #88 took the honours for the fastest lap in 1.53.473, holding off Matteo Cairoli in the #77 Porsche and Michelle Gatting in the #83 Kessel Racing Ferrari. 

Ben Hanley was the fastest man on track yesterday morning, the Englishman setting a time of 1.41.227 in the #21 Dragonspeed Oreca 07. Arjun Maini didn’t miss his debut in the LMP2 class, immediately putting the #43 RLR Msport Oreca on second place, 0.858 seconds behind Hanley.  Job Van Uitert obviously feels right at home in the LMP2 machinery, setting exactly the same time on the board as Maini in the #26 G-Drive Aurus 01. 

More Oreca’s followed with an impressive Antonin Borga setting the fourth time in the #37 Cool Racing, holding off new lap record holder Anders Fjordbach in the #20 High Class Racing Oreca 07. 

United Autosports took command of the Ligiers with Paul Di Resta in seventh position; 1.42.288 his best lap in the #22 Ligier JSP2. Leo Roussel was the second fastest Ligier driver with the #34 Inter Europol Competition in 10th place overall.  The sole Dallara on the grid of Jack Manchester, Olivier Pla and Ben Barnicoat only managed three outlaps yesterday morning, leaving the #45 Carlin on last place after the first practice session.

Norma was on top in the LMP3 class, with four Nissan powered M30’s quickest overall. Domiani Floravanti continued to impress in the #10 Oregon Team Norma with another fastest time in 1.50.592.  For Florivanti the fourth session in a row where he’s fastest since setting the lap record in an LMP3 car on Monday evening.  The Italian driver was 0.782 seconds faster than David Droux in the new #9 Realteam Norma, followed by Yann Ehrlacher and Lucas Legeret in the #19 M.Racing.  Both team mates within 0.16 seconds from each other which might give them a big advantage during the race on Sunday. Jean-Baptiste Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate Norma was fourth fastest on Friday morning. 

Best of the rest was Wayne Boyd in the #2 United Autosports Ligier with a best tome of 1.52.068, over 1.3 seconds off the pace of the quickest Norma. He was followed by Ross Kaiser, the only driver to go round in the #6 360 Racing and Colin Noble in another Norma, the #7 of Nielsen Racing. 

Contrary to the results of both test days, Porsche took the GTE class in hand yesterday with a clean sweep of the first three places. Proton Competition took the first two spots with Matteo Cairoli quickest in the #77 911 RSR (1.54.473), ahead of Thomas Preiling in the #88 sister car (+0.048). Jörg Bergmeister completed the top 3 for Porsche in the Team Project 1 Porsche (1.54.679). 

Aaron Scott in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was the fastest non-Porsche driver, leading a pack of 3 Ferrari’s.  His best laptime of 1.55.332 was just under a second slower than Cairoli’s.  The #83 all female Kessel Ferrari and last year’s runner up JMW Motorsport 488 GTE rounded out the top six of the GTE Class. 

The Bronze driver test on Friday afternoon was run in wet conditions, but still saw 22 cars venturing out on track.  John Falb was quickest in the #25 Algarve Pro Oreca 07 in 2.02.588, with John Farano about 0.250 second behind him in the #43 RLR Msport Oreca.  Alexandre Coigny made it an Oreca top 3 in the #37 Cool Racing. 

Paul Scheusner set the pace in the LMP3 class with the #14 Inter Europol Ligier (2.08.349), followed by the youngster of the field, Gustas Grinbergas in the #10 Oregon Norma.   Fastest in GTE was WEC driver Egidio Perfetti in the Project 1 Porsche (2.10.786).

ELMS: Nico Lapierre & Cool Racing quickest on day 2 at Le Castellet

The ELMS official test ended Tuesday afternoon after a very busy end of the final session.  Where as the final hours of a 2 day test usually seem to be rather quiet, Tuesday was just the opposite. The final hour was a frantic one, with almost all cars venturing out on track.  

Nicolas Lapierre was the quickest man of the day, putting his #37 Cool Racing Oreca on top of each session. Unlike on Monday, the differences between the teams in LMP2 were much smaller yesterday. At the end of the morning session, the first 12 cars set their best laptimes within a second from eachother.  Lapierre's best effort of 1.41.179 was exactly 0.998 seconds faster than Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosports Ligier. Job Van Uitert seems to have adopted real fast to the speed of the LMP2 machinery, setting the second quickest time in the morning session, 0.120 seconds behind Lapierre in the #26 G-Drive Aurus. 

The afternoon session saw larger gaps between the LMP2 protypes. Ben Hanley (1.40.457) did nearly manage to beat Lapierre (1.40.432) in the #21 Dragonspeed Oreca but was 0.025 seconds short. Laptimes dropped further down in the afternoon, but the fastest of the weekend was Anders Fjordbach in the #20 Highclass Racing Oreca 07.  Fjordbach set a new lap record during Monday's night session, going round the 5,842 km track in 1.40.404 with an average speed of 207.6 km/h. The #35 BHK Oreca 07 eventually also made it out for its initiak roll-out, managing 19 laps but well off the pace of all other LMP2 cars.

More lap records were set Monday evening in the LMP3 class when Damiani Fioravanti set a 1.49.400 in the #10 Oregon Norma. Fiorevante kept leading the LMP3 class on Tuesday with his Norma, setting the fastest time in both sessions (1.49.887 and 1.50.184).  Colin Noble, who was a vast top 3 runner on Monday continued to perform strongly in another Norma: #7 Nielsen Racing,  with a third (morning) and second (afternoon) time.  Mikkel Jensen was quickest of the non Norma drivers again, climbing up to second in the final session of the day in his #11 Eurointernational Ligier JSP3.

In LMGTE the Ferrari's topped the timetable again with Claudio Schiavoni in the #60 Kessel Racing fastest in the morning session (1.53.977) and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the afternoon session with the #51 Luzich F488 GTE (1:53.603).  The official lap record in GTE was also broken on Monday evening by Andrea Piccini in the Kessel Ferrari with a 1.53.977.  The Ebimotors Porsche drove in both sessions on Tuesday Fabio Babini posting a 1.54.870 as best time over both sessions. 

Track action for the opening race of the season here in Le Castellet starts tomorrow morning at 11.05h with the first practice session and the Bronze driver collective test at 15.05h. 

Results Tuesday morning session

Results Tuesday afternoon session

Kristof Vermeulen.   

ELMS: Recap of the first testday at Le Castellet

IDEC Sport, Cool Racing and High Class racing were the fastest cars on track yesterday during the ELMS first day of testing at Paul Ricard.   In the LMP3 class, the Norma's outpaced the Ligiers, while Ferrari was quickest in the LMGTE class in all three sessions. 

LMP2

Oreca dominated the morning session, with 5 cars fastest after 4 hours running.  Paul Loup Chatin set the fastest time in the #28 IDEC Sport with a 1.40.747, beating his qualifying time he set last year for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet (1.41.194).  Nicolas Jamin was second fastest in the #30 Duqueine Engineering Oreca, just over a second slower than Chatin.  Bruno Senna in the #43 RLR Msport rounded out the top 3.  The first non Oreca car was the #22 United Autosports Ligier of Filipe Albuquerque in sixth place. 

Nico Lapierre put the #37 Cool Racing Oreca on top of the afternoon session in 1.40.725, slightly faster than Chatin. The #32 United Autosports Ligier now went up to second quickest with Ryan Cullen behind the wheel with Jean Eric Vergne in the G-Drive Aurus behind him in third. 

LMP3

Where Oreca dominated the LMP2 class in the morning session, Norma did so in LMP3 all day long.  The #17 Ultimate Norma was as quick as they have been all season last year, Mathieu Lahaye on top of the morning session in 1:51.062, an improvement of almost a second of last year's pole time. Colin Noble in the #7 Nielsen Racing Norma M30 was right on Lahaye's heels, 9 thousands of a second slower than the Frenchman. David Droux in the #9 Realteam Racing was third fastest. 

Times dropped further down in the afternoon session, Mathie Lahaye improving down to a 1.50.240. Colin Noble in the #7 was second fastest again, but now just under 0.4 seconds behind the Ultimate.  The #10 Oregon Norma of Gustas Grinbergas moved up to third fastest by the end of the session.  Mikkel Jensen in the #11 Eurointernational Ligier was the fastest non-Norma driver in both sessions, his best time a 1.51.423 which put him on fourth place in the afternoon session. 

LMGTE 

The Ferrari's were fastest in both 4 hours sessions yesterday, and it's the new teams in the championship who were in command.  Andrea Piccini put the #60 Kessel Racing 488 GTE on top in the first session with a 1:53.288.  He was followed by Nicklas Nielsen in the #51 Luzich Racing and Matteo Cressoni in the #66 JMW Ferrari. Just one Porsche made it to the track in the morning session, the #88 "Felbermayr" which ended up in P4. 

Luzich Racing claimed the top time in the afternoon session, again with Niclas Nielsen who set a time of 1.53.411.  Claudio Schiavone in the #60 Kessel Racing Ferrari was over half a second slower to finish in second place, followed by Manuela Gostner who put the all female #83 Ferrari in third place.  The shiny Project1 Porsche drove his first laps of the week and went up to fourth place with a 1.54.531 by Egidio Perfetti. 

NIGHT SESSION

The 2 hour "night session" ended yesterday's action on track at 21h.  Just 17 out of the 41 cars got out on track for the session into sunset.  Anders Fjordbach in the #20 High Class Racing was quickest of the 12 LMP2's who made it out on track Monday evening.  His laptime of 1.40.404 was just over a second faster than Arjun Marni in the #43 RLR Msport Oreca. Tristan Gommendy in the #39 Graff made it another top 3 for Oreca.  

Only five LMP3 cars came out of their pitbox last night.    None of the LMGTE contenders set a laptime in the nightsession. Damiani Fioravanti set the best time in his #10 Oregon Team Norma (1.49.5000), beating 4 Ligiers.  None of the contenders in LMGTE made it out of the pitlane in the evening.  

Two cars haven't been out on track in any of the three sessions yesterday: the BHK Motorsport Oreca 07 and the Ebimotors Porsche 911 RSR.

Track action resumes today with a four hour session in the morning and a three hour session in the afternoon.  Weather forecasts are changing daily around here, but with the track bathing in sunshine at this time, it seems like we'll have another dry day of testing ahead of us. 

Results session 1

Results session 2

Results night session

Kristof Vermeulen. 

ELMS: 2019 season to kick off with the Official test at Paul Ricard today

The European Le Mans Series is ready for what promises to be another exciting season of endurance racing in 2019.  As last season, the season kicks off at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet with the 2-day official test ahead of the 4 hours of Le Castellet on Sunday.  All 41 full season entrants are at the track, setting up their garages and getting the cars through scrutineering yesterday. 

The weather has been pretty unpredictable in the south of France so far.  Sunday starting in glorious sunshine before the rain started pouring down, only to do so over and over again for a few times during the afternoon.  Today (Monday) appears to be the best day of the week, and probably the only dry one until next weekend.  Fingers crossed that all teams will make the most of the available track time without any major incidents. 

Setup day ahead of the official test is also the moment to take the annual group shot of all contenders.  A massive job this season with no less than 41 cars on the grid for the European Le Mans Series.  Luckily the sun stayed out just long in enough in the afternoon, after some heavy showers earlier to get all cars staged.  

So here's your ELMS class of 2019 with the three title defenders on front row: the #88 Proton Competition Porsche, the G-Drive Aurus and the RLR Msport Ligier JSP3.

"Funky" livery for Project1

Project1 expands its efforts in endurance racing beyond their FIA WEC campaign and will make their debut in the European Le Mans Series this week.  The team fields a new Porsche 911 RSR in a rather striking new livery. 

The drivers for the #56 Porsche will be Egidio Perfetti and Jörg Bergmeister, both also active in the FIA WEC with the team.  They will be joined by defending ELMS champion Giorgio Roda. 

Nigel Moore returns to the ELMS with Inter Europol

Inter Europol Competition have confirmed Nigel Moore as  their second driver for the #13 Ligier JSP3 in the LMP3 class.  Moore will join Martin Hippe who is in his third season with the Polish team.   Moore is obviously delighted to finally be able to sign with Inter Europol Competition and be part of the team for the ELMS series. "Hopefully we shall be competitive from the start of the season."  It's a return to the ELMS for the English driver after competing in LMP2 and LMP3 with Tockwith Motorsports in 2016.

Martin Hippe said : “I am really happy and proud to race another year with Inter Europol Competition in the ELMS. It will not be easy, but I hope we can better the great performance from the last ELMS with one place. I am really happy with my new teammate, Nigel, as has shown a stunning performance in Asia and I am really looking forward to work with him.”

Sascha Fassbender (Team Manager): “I am very happy to welcome Nigel in our team as one of the strongest drivers in LMP3. He has shown his speed in many LMP3 races. We have Martin for the third year running, a great constant in our team as well as the reigning champion in the Asia Le Mans Series and Vice champion of ELMS.”

New mascot

Meet Rooky, the new mascot of the European Le Mans Series.  Rooky will makes his "debut" at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet next weekend !   His name was chosen by the ELMS fans on facebook.

Babini, Fortuna and Frazza in the #80 Ebimotors Porsche

Ebimotors is set for its second season in the European Le Mans Series with their Porsche 911 RSR.  Fabio Babini returns as the lead driver for the Italian team after an impressive debut season with four podium finishes in six races and a sixth place finish in the GTE-AM class at Le Mans.

This season, Babini will be joined by Italian French driver Sébastien Fortuna and Italian Marco Frezza.  Fortuna has veen working together with Ebimotors for several years while Marco Frezza had a very succesfull season with the team in the 24 Hours series last year (wins in Imola, Navarro and Spa-Francorchamps). 

New Media Center at Le Castellet

The Official test and 4 Hours of Le Castellet is be the first time that the European Le Mans Series will use the new Media Center at Circuit Paul Ricard.  The new media center was created for the return of the F1 last year in June, and is located at the back of the paddock. 

The return of the infamous Felbermayer livery

No more grey liveries for the #77 and #88 Proton Competition Porsches this year, but 2 new designs.  One of our personal favourites is back in the paddock: the infamous Felbermayr Porsche.  Thanks to Horst Felbermayr Jr who is sharing the #88 Porsche RSR with Marco Seefried and Thomas Preining.  

More news, updates and new liveries to follow in the upcoming days leading on to the first race of the 2019 season.  But first there's the 2 day "Official test" which kicks off this morning.  Over the span of 2 days all contenders will have 18 hours of track time, including a "night practice" tonight from 19h to 21h. 

Kristof Vermeulen.

ELMS: Racing Engineering win thrilling first race of the season

Racing Engineering took the first win of the 2018 season when Olivier Pla took the chequered flag in the Spanish team’s Oreca-Gibson to claim their debut win. After four hours there was less than 8 seconds separating the top three cars. 

Victory in LMP3 went to the #15 RLR MSport Ligier, when Rob Garofall passed the chequered flag with fumes in his fuel tank after a 65 minute stint to take his first LMP3 win since Imola 2015. In LMGTE the win went to the JMW Motorsport’s #66  Ferrari, Miguel Molina taking victory on the very last lap from Matteo Cairoli in the #88 Proton Competition Porsche.

Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre made a good start in the #21 DragonSpeed Oreca of to take the lead from the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca of reigning ELMS Champion Memo Rojas, with the #24 Racing Engineering Oreca of Norman Nato and Pierre Ragues in the #29 Duqueine Engineering Oreca in 3rd and 4th respectively. 

The #17 Ultimate Norma of Jean-Baptiste Lahaye took the lead of the LMP3 category as pole position holder David Droux, in the bright yellow camouflage Norma, dropped back to 5th following the first corner melee, with the #15 RLR MSport Ligier of Job Van Uitert moving up from 4th to 2nd at the end of the first lap. Van Uitert put the pressure on Lahaye and on the third lap the Dutch driver took the lead.

The start of the LMGTE race saw the #88 Proton Competition Porsche head into turn 1 in the lead from Pole Position, Gianluca Roda opening up a good gap to the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari after Liam Griffin made a good start to move ahead of the #77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried. Mike Wainwright was making progress up the field from the back of the grid in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche.

The #22 United Autosports Ligier of Phil Hanson came into the pits after contact with another LMP2 car, which damaged the exhaust and punctured the rear left tyre. Another early casualty was the #8 DKR Engineering Norma of Jean Glorieux, the Belgian driver ending up in the barriers after contact with another car. Glorieux couldn’t restart the car and the Norma was retired after just 14 laps.

After the first set of pitstops Lapierre was still leading the race from Nato, with Pierre Thiriet in the #36 Signatech Alpine up to 3rd place. Job Van Uitert was still leading the LMP3 category in the #15 RLR MSport Ligier from the recovering David Droux in the #19 M Racing-YMR Norma. Droux handed over to Nicolas Ferrer but Ferrer spun at Turn 5, dropping the Norma down the field and out of contention.

Giorgio Roda had taken over the driving duties of the leading #88 Porsche, who now had Ben Barker in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche closing rapidly. The British driver passed the Italian and opened up a lead but then a fuel pressure issue brought the Gulf Racing 911 to a halt and the race had another retirement. The #21 DragonSpeed also hit trouble as Lapierre headed for the pitlane with a puncture. Henrik Hedman jumped into the car and rejoined the track but this allowed Norman Nato to take the lead. 

With the race approaching the 2 hours mark a full course yellow was declared when Hedman in the DragonSpeed Oreca and the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari F488 of Duncan Cameron collided, both cars hitting the barriers hard at Turn 9. Hedman recovered the Oreca back to the pits but the damage was beyond the ability of the mechanics to repair in time. The Ferrari was lifted onto the back of a flatbed while Cameron was given lift back to the pits. 

The Full Course Yellow turned into a Safety Car while the barriers were repaired but the FCY gave the teams plenty of opportunity to pit. The race went green again after 25 minutes with Paul Petit, now at the wheel on the #24 Racing Engineering Oreca, leading the race from the Signatech Alpine of Andre Negrão, with Nelson Panciatici in the 29 Duqueine Engineering Oreca in third.

John Farano had taken over from Job Van Uitert and soon had a comfortable lead over the #11 Eurointernational Ligier of Kay Van Berlo and the no2 United Autosports Ligier of John Falb.  Liam Griffin was leading the LMGTE class in the #66 Ferrari but the British driver was soon caught and passed by the #88 Porsche of Gianluca Roda. Griffin dropped back to third when he was again caught and passed by a Porsche, this time the #80 Ebimotors 911 of Riccardo Pera.

Andre Negrão caught the leading Racing Engineering Oreca of Paul Petit and battle commenced to see who would lead the race with 90 minutes remaining. Petit held off the challenge from the Brazilian until the next set of pitstops where he handed over to Olivier Pla for the final stint. Negrão handed the #36 Alpine back to Pierre Thiriet, who held the lead before Pla caught and passed on the outside at Signes Corner with just under an hour of the race remaining.

Thiriet was passed by the #29 Duqueine Oreca and then came under pressure from the #33 TDS Racing Oreca of Matthieu Vaxiviere. The two cars were side by side on the Mistral Straight but Thiriet held his nerve and his place as the final set of pitstops approached. Thiriet stayed out longer than his rivals but when he finally came in for fuel he rejoined in third place and was under pressure from Nicolas Jamin in the Duqueine Oreca. Jamin made his move with 25 minutes remaining to take the final podium position.

The LMP3 class was led by the #11 Eurointernational Ligier when Van Berlo came back in for his final stop. Rob Garofall in the #15 RLR MSport Ligier was now in the lead but there was some doubt if the British driver had enough fuel to reach the flag. The RLR MSport mechanics even looked like they were getting ready to bring Garofall, in but it was all a Ruse de Guerre and Garofall drove to the chequered flag to claim victory and the 25 championship points. After an eventful race the M.Racing Norma finished in second place with Lucas Légeret taking the chequered flag ahead of the Eurointernational Ligier of Kay Van Berlo.

The LMGTE battle came down to a duel between the Proton Competition Porsche 911 of Matteo Cairoli and the JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Miguel Molina. Molina was reeling the Italian in with every lap and with less than five minutes remaining the Spaniard was right on the rear wing of the leading Porsche. The pair crossed the line and on the final lap Cairoli ran wide at turn 7 allowing Molina to take the lead and snatch the victory on the very last lap of the race.

Relive the race here with a 52 minute recap:

Race results 

Words: Jeff Carter/FIA - Sportscarglobal - Club Arnage
Pictures: JellyBaby.Media & Kristof Vermeulen