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: 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: 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

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: 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