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.

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: First pole positions for IDEC Sport and M.Racing-YMR

IDEC Sport in LMP2 and M.Racing-YMR in LMP3 both scored their first ever pole positions in the European Le Mans Series this afternoon, after a highly entertaining qualifying session for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet tomorrow. 

A bit of a surprise in the LMP2 class, where Paul Loup Chatin scored pole for IDEC Sport in the #28 Gibson powered Oreca 07 in a smashing 1.41.194.  We all know Chatin is quick and the Oreca – even after the adjustments Ligier and Dallara were allowed to do to their cars – is still the car to beat, but the #28 hasn't been amongst the top runners in class all weekend.  That didn't stop Chatin from beating the rest of the field with exactly 0.444 seconds. 

The session was shortly red flagged when Bruno Senna stopped on the Mistral straight in his #22 United Autosports Ligier. When the session went green again, only six minutes were left for the drivers to fight for pole position.  Chatin set his time with only two minutes left on the clock, leaving the other teams almost no chance for improvement.  Matthieu Vaxivière once again was second quickest in the #33 TDS Racing Oreca, 0.266 seconds faster than Ben Hanley in the #21 Dragonspeed Oreca 07. 

The first non-Oreca chassis was the #23 Panis Barthez Competition with Will Stevens behind the wheel, just over a second behind the leading Oreca. The #35 SMP Racing set the fastest time of the Dallara's in ninth place with a 1.42.507.

The LMP3 qualifying session was a nailbiting one, laptimes improving and positions changing right into the final moments. Ultimately it was a clean sweep for Norma, with three cars on the first three places for tomorrow's grid.   David Droux in the #19 M/Racing-YMR Norma took pole after a flying lap of 1.51.930. He outpaced Matthieu Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate Norma with just 0.061 seconds. 

Reigning Michelin Le Mans Cup champion Alexander Toril took third place, giving in 0.113 seconds to Lahaye.  Job Van Uitert in the #15 RLR Ligier has been fast all weekend and led the field early in the session, but lacked only 4 thousands of a second to qualify in the top 3.  Completing the top 5 was last year's champion Sean Rayhall in the #2 United Autosports Ligier, over half a second slower than Van Uitert. 

Matteo Cairoli starred again in the GTE class, taking pole in his #88 Proton Competition Porsche in a time of 1.53.777.  Ben Barker in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche took second place for the grid tomorrow, 0.209 seconds behind Cairoli. Third place went to Miguel Molina in the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari, almost a second slower than the quickest of the Porsches. 

The 4 Hours of Le Castellet will start tomorrow at 12h local time in France.  A live stream will be available on www.europeanlemansseries.com and the series' youtube channel.  Motorsport TV also has a live broadcast.

Qualifying results

Kristof Vermeulen

Photos: JellyBaby.Media

ELMS: Duqueine Engineering sets the pace in Free Practice 2

In what has been the first completely dry session since the WEC prologue last weekend here at Paul Ricard, Nelson Panciatici was fastest during today's final practice session. 

The Frenchman's best time of 1.41.215 in his #29 Duqueine Engineering Oreca was 0.658 seconds faster than Nicolas Lapierre in the #21 Dragonspeed Oreca. Matthieu Vaxivière got third fastest in the TDS Oreca, ahead of the #24 Racing Engineering of Norman Nato.  First of the non-Oreca chassis' was the #30 AVF Dallara of Konstantin Tereschenko and Henrique Chaves, 1.555 seconds adrift of Panciatici. 

Job Van Uiterst set the fastest time in the LMP3 class, managing a 1.52.290 in the #15 RLR Msport Ligier.  Matthew Bell in the #3 United Autosports was second fastest time, 0.328 seconds behind the Dutchman.  Third quickest was Giorgio Mondini in the #11 Eurointernational Ligier . The #17  Ultimate was the quickest Norma again, now with Jean-Baptiste Lahaye behind the wheel.

Porsche outpaced Ferrari this morning in the GTE class.  Proton Competition finished 1-2 at the end of the 90 minute session, Matteo Cairoli quickest again in his #88 in a time of 1.54.253.  Dennis Olsen in the #88 sister followed close, only 0.221 seconds behind the Italian. Ben Barker in the #86 Gulf Racing 911 RSR was right on the heels of Olsen, missing out second place with 0.018 seconds. Best of the Ferrari's was the #55 Spirit of Race, just under 0.4 seconds behind Cairoli.

Track action resumes this afternoon with qualifying at 13h40. 

FP2 results

Kristof Vermeulen.
Pictures: kristofvermeulen.com

ELMS: Lapierre and Hedman quickest for Dragonspeed in today's practice sessions.

DragonSpeed opened their European Le Mans Series account today when Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre stormed to a 1:48.580 to claim the fastest lap in this morning’s first free practice session at Paul Ricard. After rain early in the session, Lapierre clocked in the time on the drying track midway through the session.  In this afternoon's collective bronze driver test session, Henrik Hedman did it all over again for Dragonspeed, putting Dragonspeed on top for the second time today. 

Nico Lapierre's time in the #21 Gibson powered Oreca 07 was two seconds clear of Matthieu Vaxiviere in the #33 TDS Racing Oreca in second and Tristan Gommendy in the 39 Graff Oreca 0.14 seconds further behind in third. The best non-ORECA chassis was the #22 United Autosports Ligier which ran three seconds off the pace finishing fifth overall behind LMP2 debutants Duqueine Engineering with their #29 ORECA. Andrea Belicchi was the fastest Dallara driver, finishing 11th fastest in the #47 Cetilar Villorba Corse. 

Ultimate led the way in the LMP3 class with their Norma M30/Nissan. Matthieu Lahaye pushed the #17 car to a 2:01.612 putting the French team at the top of the table. Behind them was another Norma: the #10 Oregon Team M30 with Riccardo Ponzio setting a 2:02.367. Rounding out the top three was the first of the Ligier chassis with Giorgio Mondini taking the #11 EuroInternational car to a 2:02.927.  Lucas Légeret in the #19 M.Racing-YMR Norma set the fourth fastest time.

In the GTE class, Italian young-gun Matteo Cairoli beasted the #88 Proton Porsche 911 RSR around the circuit to eventually set a time of 2:01.282, bettering that of Lahaye in the Ultimate LMP3 by 0.3 second! The Gulf Racing Porsche  – entered for this round only as an additional test prior to the season opening WEC race at Spa – was also faster than the Ultimate Norma after Ben Barker clocked in a 2:01.566. Marvin Dienst in the #77 Proton Competition Porsche set the third fastest time in the morning session. 

The session had a single red flag caused by the #14 Inter Europol Ligier of Luca Demarchi hitting the barriers at Turn 13 after being hit by the #3 United Ligier.  The #35 SMP Racing Dallara also has been towed back to pitlane after stopping on track with what appeared to be suspension damage, causing a brief full course yellow period. 

The first Bronze driver test of the season was held in the afternoon and saw Henrik Hedman putting the #21 Dragonspeed Oreca back on top.  Unusually for this week, the entire session was dry with the sun making occasional appearances through broken clouds.  The Swedish team-owner clocked in a 1:44.767 followed by François Perrodo in the #33 TDS Racing ORECA half a second behind. Rounding out the top three was Italian Roberto Lacorte in the #47 Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara P217. 

Kay Van Berlo took honours in the LMP3 class setting a 1:52.587 in the #11 Eurointernational Ligier JSP3. Almost a second behind the Dutchman was Alexey Chuklin in the #5 NEFIS by Speed Factory Ligier JSP3 while Martin Hippe rounded out the class top three in the #13 Inter Europol Competition car. 

Fastest of the GTE drivers was Gianluca Roda in the #88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR setting a respectable 1:56.991. He was followed by Duncan Cameron in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE in 1:57.110 and third was Frenchman Raymond Narac in the #80 Ebimotors 911 RSR. 

Around 10 minutes before the end of the session, Mike Wainwright in the one-off entered #86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR had an extended wait in the live side of the pitlane as he waited for the AF Corse mechanics to run down the pitlane and push back Tracy Krohn who had missed his pit by two boxes and ended up stopped at the Gulf Racing box! 

Free practice 1 results

Bronze driver test results

This article was originally featured at Sportscarglobal.com

Pictures: JellyBaby.Media

ELMS: A stunning 45 car grid for the opening round of the 2018 European Le Mans Series

The 2018 European Le Mans Series starts today with the first free practice session for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet opening race on Sunday.  An impressive 45 car grid has arrived in the south of France for what promises to be the best season ever in the European championship.

The LMP2 class will feature the biggest grid we've ever seen in the championship's history with not less than 19 cars, even outnumbering the LMP3 class ! There's the 17 (!!) full season entries, with 2 additional WEC teams adding the race at Le Castellet to their schedule: Signatech Alpine and TDS Racing. 

Lots of familiar faces and teams in the LMP2 paddock, but also a few noteable newcomers.  The #30 Dallara of Spanish team AVF by Adrian Valles already showed its pace at the prologue, topping the timesheets in one of the sessions.  Another new team in the championship is Racing Engineering, also from Spain but entering an Oreca 07.  Duqueine Engineering is moving up info LMP2 after acquiering Norma at the end of last year.  

Teams expanding their efforts are United Autosports (2 Ligier JSP217's), IDEC Sport (1 Ligier & 1 Oreca 07) and Algarve Pro Racing who will also run 2 different cars: their own Ligier and an Oreca for Rebellion Racing. Roman Rusinov returns with a 2 car effort with his G-Drive team, instead of racing one car in both the FIA WEC and the ELMS as they did last year.  The #26 Oreca will be run by TDS Racing, the #40 by Graff.  SMP Racing holds on to its LMP2 program next to their LMP1's in the FIA WEC. 

Nico Lapierre won't be driving the Signatech Alpine this weekend, as he will be in the #21 Dragonspeed in which he races the full season in the championship.  The TDS Oreca will be driven by its WEC driver line-up, althoug Loic Duval won't be at the track before Saturday.  Another driver missing is Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosports as he will be racing in the USA this weekend.  He will be replaced by Bruno Senna. 

18 cars will feature on the grid of the LMP3 class this weekend. 

Sean Rayhall and John Falb return with their #2 United Autosports Ligier to defend their 2017 title.  Ecurie Ecosse Nielsen and BHK Motorsport are new in the European Le Mans Series, both debuting with a Ligier JSP3.  A noteable change is Ultimate who have traded in their Ligier for a new Norma M30.  It will be interesting to see how their results will evolve after racing at the top in several races last season. Inter Europol Competition is expanding its efforts this year with a second Ligier. 

LMP3 might be the class where the youngsters will shine this season.  During the prologue both Dutch drivers Kay Van Berlo (#11 Eurointernational) and Job Van Uitert (#15 RLR Msport) have shown their speed, finishing in or near the top 3 on a few occasions.  Another young talent to look forward to is Swiss driver Lucas Légeret who moved from Duqueine Engineering to M Racing-YMR in the #19 Norma M30. 

A bit of controversy is going on around the #8 DKR Engineering Norma which has won last season's Michelin Le Mans Cup title with Jean Glorieux and Alexander Toril. Joining them this season is Toril's brother   who is also a silver qualified driver. As at least one bronze driver is requiered in the LMP3 class, it's still an open question if the ACO will hold on to the waiver they gave to the team to race with these three drivers for the remainder of the season.

As in LMP2, there's 2 additional cars in the GTE class who usually race in the FIA World Endurance Championship: the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci and the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche of Michael Wainwright, Alexander Davidson and Benjamin Barker. 

All 6 full season entries will be at the start of the first practice session today despite the first session of the official test this week took out the #77 Proton 911 RSR and the #80 Ebimotors.  Both cars are being replaced by Proton Competition's WEC entered machinery.  

Action on track will start today with the first 90 minute practice session at 11h15.  The traditional Bronze driver collective test will be held at 16h35. 

Useful links: 

Entry List

Timetable 

Spotter Guide: 

Kristof Vermeulen. 

Pictures: JellyBaby.Media and Kristofvermeulen.com

ELMS: Setup day for the opening race of the 2018 season at Circuit Paul Ricard

It's almost time tot kick off the 2018 European Le Mans Season !  With the official test completed earlier this week, all the teams are now setting up for the opening race of the season: the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. 

Weatherwise it still seems like someone moved the Le Castellet region up north, with cold temperatures and rain pooring down almost all day.  Luckily the rain stopped for an hour or two this afternoon, even with a bit of sunshine trough the clouds for the first time in 2 days, so we managed to get at few pitlane shots in from this afternoon. 

Track action for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet starts tomorrow at 11h15 for the first 90 minute practice session. A Bronze driver test is planned for 16h35 in the afternoon. 

Kristof Vermeulen
Pictures © www.kristofvermeulen.com