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: APR-Rebellion and SMP Racing fastest in today's final test sessions

Another weather compromised morning session at Circuit Paul Ricard today with a short but rather heave hailstorm setting the track blank in just a few minutes time. The session stayed dry afterwards, with rain coming back in about half an hour into lunch break.  

A frantic final 15 minutes saw laptimes dropping fast with more than a handful of drivers improving lap after lap right on to the end of the session. In the end it was Gustavo Menezes who clocked the fastest time in 1.44.537 in his #31 APR-Rebellion Racing Oreca 07. Right on his heels was Victor Shaitar in the #35 SMP Racing Dallara, just 0.123 seconds shy of the American. Out of the blue came Andrea Belicchi who suddenly put the #47 Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara on the third spot, 0.369 seconds off the lead. Rounding out the top 5 were both United Autosports Ligiers, Hugo de Sadeleer (#32) 0.052 seconds faster than Bruno Senna in the #22.

Sean Rayhall set the #2 United Autosports Ligier JSP3 back on top of the LMP3 class with a laptime of 1.53.651.  Both young Dutch drivers who already showed their speed yesterday completed the top 3 this morning.  Kay Van Berlo in the #11 Eurointernational Ligier the fastest of the two in 1.54.161 ahead of 19 year old Job Van Uitert in the #15 RLR Msport.  Alexander Toril and his Norma didn't get any higher than fourth fastest this morning. 

For the first time, Ferrari went ahead of Porsche in the GTE class. Andrea Bertolini in the #83 Krohn Racing Ferrari 488 was quickest overall in 1.59.535.  Matt Griffin put the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari on second place, followed by the #88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR.  The Ebimotors Porsche also made it back to the track after its crash yesterday managing 7 laps. JMW Motorsport and the #77 Proton Competition Porsche didn't come out for the morning session. 

Rain started to fall down again during lunch hour so the fifth and final session of the official test started on a wet track.  Teams waited to come out 'till the rain passed by & the track started to dry up again, only to run into a few short showers from time to time for the rest of the afternoon.

Fifth and final session of the official test and the fifth different car who went on top of the leader board this afternoon. After setting the second fastest time in the morning, Egor Orudhzev now was fastest overall with the #35 SMP Racing Dallara.  His time of 1.47.824 was over 1.4 seconds quicker over Will Stevens' 1.53.840 in the #23 Panis Barthez Ligier who managed to get into the top 3 for the first time this week.  More “new faces” behind Stevens with Alexandre Imperatori third fastest in the #26 G-Drive Oreca and Nelson Panciatici fourth in the #29 Duqueine Engineering.  Anders Fjordbach completed the top 5 with the #49 High Class Racing Dallara P217.  ``

In his final lap of the afternoon, Alexander Talkanitsa Jr set the fastest time of the LMP3 runners.  With a time of 1.58.690, he was ... seconds quicker than Jakub Smiechowski in the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier. Matt Bell put his #3 United Autosports on the third spot with a 1.59.525. Danil Pronenko (#5 Nefis by Speed Factory) and Giorgio Mondini (#11 Eurointernational) completed the final top 5 of the two day testsession.

All GTE cars got out on track for the final session except for the #77 Proton Porsche. Liam Griffin took the honours for the fastest lap this time in 2.03.958 with the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari. Big differences in the class this time, with Duncan Cameron in second place but almost 2 seconds slower than Griffin. Fabio Babini set the third fastest time with the #80 Ebimotors Porsche, over 4 seconds slower than the JMW Ferrari.  

Next up at the track in Le Castellet is the official test for the Michelin Le Mans Cup tomorrow (with a horrific weather forecast) before we head into the first racing weekend of the season at Paul Ricard later this week.  

Today's results: 

Morning Session

Afternoon Session

Kristof Vermeulen

Pictures: JellyBaby.Media

ELMS: AVF by Adrian Valles fastest on the first day of the official test

The official two day test of the European Le Mans Series started on a wet and damp Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France yesterday. Quite a contrast with the sunshine we had down here over the weekend during the FIA WEC prologue. By the end of the day newcomes AVF by Adrian Valles had set the fastest time of the field in their Gibson powered Oreca 07.

Tricky conditions in the first session of the day with a few full course yellows and two short red flags during the four hour session. It wasn't Porsches day yesterday with two 911's going into the barriers early in the session. The #80 Ebimotors got damaged when Fabio Babini clipped the barriers with an impact on the front and rear of the car. The #77 Proton Porsche also went hard into the guard rails, presumably with some chassis damage to the brand new car.  Up until now it's unclear whether the team will be able to race on Sunday. 

Track conditions improved however and the second part of the session even saw a few hints of sunshine by lunchtime. Tristan Gommendy set the fastest time of the morning in his #39 Graff Oreca with a 1:44.012. He held off Victor Shaytar in the #35 SMP Racing Dallara who's best lap was 0.159 seconds slower than the Frenchman.  Third fastest was United Autosports Hugo de Sadeleer in the #32 Ligier ahead of Enzo Guibbert in the #40 G-Drive and Bruno Senna in the second United Autosports Ligier.  

Last year's champion Sean Rayhall set the fastest time in the LMP2 class with his #2 United Autosports Ligier.  His time of 1.53.081 was 0.188 seconds faster than Matthieu Lahaye in the #17 Ultimate Norma M30. David Droux in the #19 M Racing-YMR Norma was third quickest.    Alexander Toril went off in the #8 DKR Engineering Norma, without causing any serious damage. 

The sole remaining #88 Proton Competition Porsche of Gianluca Roda was quickest in the GTE class in a time of 1.54.628.  Miguel Molina in the #66 JMW Ferrari set the second fastest time, 0.242 seconds behind the Porsche. Rounding out the top 3 was Andrea Bertolini in the Krohn Racing Ferrari. 

Better conditions in the afternoon session, now on a completely dry track and the sun occasionally coming through the clouds.  Nicolas Lapierre set the pace in the second session of the day, steering his #21 Dragonspeed Oreca round in 1.41.769.  Paul Lafargue set the second fastest time in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca, just over three tenths of a second behind Lapierre. Another Frenchman on third place with Jean-Eric Vergne in the #26 G-Drive, just ahead of Enzo Guibbert in the #40 sister car. To complete a fully french top 5 was Matthieu Vaxivière in the #33 TDS Racing. Phil Hanson was the first non-Oreca driver, putting his #22 United Autosports on sixth place. 

After his off in the morning, Alexander Toril now set the fastest time in the LMP3 class: a 1.51.819. Matthieu Lahaye finished second fastest again, losing out 0.239 seconds to the other Norma. Third quickest was Matthew Bell in the #3 United Autosports Ligier, meaning two out of the three fastest drivers “graduated” from the Michelin Le Mans Cup last season.  

Gianluca Roda was quickest again in the GTE class, improving almost 2 seconds compared to the morning session.  His laptime of 1.54.628 was almost two seconds faster than in the morning session.  Miguel Molina was second fastest again in the #66 JMW Ferrari, now trailed by Andrea Bertolini in the Krohn 488 GTE.

The evening/night session was rather quiet, with just over half the field heading out on track for the 2 hour session.  Henrique Chaves set the fastest time of the day in the #30 AVF by Adrian Valles' Dallara, going round in 1:41.018, topping off 0.751 seconds from Lapierre's afternoon time. Second fastest in the session (and overall) was Ben Hanley in the Dragonspeed with 1:41.371. AVF and Dragonspeed had the fastest drivers of the day with Konstantin Tereschenko on fourth place.  Best of the rest was Norman Nato in the #24 Racing Engineering Oreca 07 – another new team debuting in the series – just under a second behind Chaves. 

Alexander Toril set the pace again in the LMP3 class, pushing his #8 DKR Engineering Norma round Paul Ricard in 1:51.363. The long Mistral straight – without chicanes – really suiting the speed of the Norma M30.  Mikkel Jensen in the #9 AT Racing Ligier was second fastest, half a second adrift from Toril. 17-year old Kay van Berlo was third fastest in the #11 Eurointernational Ligier in 1.51.612.  Van Berlo was the second young Dutchman of the day who got into the top spots after Job Van Uitert set the fourth fastest time in the afternoon session.

Just one GTE car on track yesterday evening: the Krohn Racing Ferrari of Nick Jonsson who did seven laps. 

The ELMS official test continues today at Le Castellet, with a four hour session in the morning and the afternoon.

Day 1 results: 
Morning session
Afternoon session
Evening session

Kristof Vermeulen.
Pictures: Jellybaby.media

ELMS 2017 - Looking back at the official test in Monza

The European Le Mans Series kicked off their 2017 season last week at the Autodromo Internazionale Monza with the official two day pre-season test. 

The ELMS test marked the first “official” appearance of the all new Gibson powered LMP2 prototypes on a European race track. With 3 out of 4 manufacturers present in the series (Oreca, Ligier and Dallara), they all face som fierce competition this season. Over the sessions some cars still showed some electrical and minor mechanical gremlins, but after 14 hours of track time, they all seem to be ready for what announces itself as a very interesting season with some close racing ahead of us. 

In 4 of the 5 sessions during the two day test, an Oreca 07 was fastest on track. Except for the morning session of the second day - when Olivier Pla put an impressive 1.36.461 on the timetables with his #28 IDEC-Sport Racing Ligier JSP217. A time that wouldn't be beaten in the final session. Second fastest over the two days was the #22 G-Drive Oreca (1.36.741), ahead of the #40 Graff Oreca 07 of Richard Bradley. 

3 Dallara P217's will run in the European Le Mans Series this season. Over all five sessions, the Dallara's were consistently running in the middle of the pack.  Fastest was the #49 High Class Racing of Danish drivers Dennis Andersen and Anders Fjordbach with a best time of 1.37.800. 

The new LMP2 cars impressed with their speed at the fast Italian track last week. Richard Bradley set the fastest top speed in his Gibson powered #40 Graff Oreca 07 with an impressive 311 km/h. Although Bradley admitted afterwards that he achieved this speed “with a tow”, it's still a massive improvement. The last time the Le Mans Series visited Monza was back in 2008, when only the Audi R10 TDI managed to go faster. 

Fastest LMP2 in the FIA WEC, which ran their prologue at Monza last weekend, was the TDS Racing Oreca in 1.36.078, almost 0.4 seconds faster than the quickest ELMS Oreca. 

22 LMP3 cars were on track at Monza, seeing the European debut of the Nissan powered Norma M30. The new LMP3 showed some outright speed during the second session of the first day, when the #19 M.Racing-YMR was second fastest, just 3 tenths behind the Ligier sister car of the team. 

Lots of driver errors were seen in the LMP3 class, resulting in several full course yellows and red flags over all 5 sessions. AT Racing, debuting in the class after racing a Ferrari in GTE the past seasons, was fastest in Tuesday's first session and the night session. The other sessions were being lead by M.Racing-YMR, United Autosports and Panis Barthez Competition.

After 2 days, the fastest time was set in Wednesday's morning session by the #2 United Autosports Ligier of John Falb & Sean Rahall in 1.45.219. Second fastest overall was the #9 AT Racing Ligier in 1.45.626 (night session), third quickest the #16 Panis Barthez Competition in 1.45.672. 

Whether we will see the #20 Norma LMP3 of M.Racing-YMR on the grid in Silverstone next week is still unsure. After the violent crash of Gwenaël Delomier just before the entry of Ascari, the car suffered severe damage. Although the tub of the car wasn't infected by the crash, it will still be a race against time for the team and Norma to get the car build up again and find a replacement driver. Another victim of a crash was the #  Gulf liveried United Autosports Ligier when Richard Meins destroyed the front of the car, damaging the tub. The Gulf Ligier was set to enter the Michelin Le Mans Cup in the opening race at Monza next month. United Autosports had a tough 2 day test behind them, damaging almost all of their cars who took part in the test. 

All seven season entries in GTE were present at Monza, which saw 3 Ferrari's, 2 Aston Martins and 2 Porsches on track. The #88 Proton Competition Porsche however only managed to do 4 laps inWednesdays first session and sat out all other sessions. During the night session on Tuesday, the only GTE car on track was the #99 Beechdean Aston Martin.

Both Aston Martins of Beechdean AMR and TF Sport dominated all but one session. The fastest time in class was set in the very first session by WEC champion Nicki Thiim in the #90 TF Sport Vantage V8. The #99 Beachdeen AMR got the second fastest time in 1.49.237, ahead of the TF Sport Aston again in 1.49.451 (in the second session). The fastest on Aston Martin of the weekend was the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari F488 GTE in 1.50.041, which was the fastest time overall in the final session. The TF Sport Aston didn't participate in the final session on Wednesday after contact with an LMP3 damaged the right front of the car. 

JMW Motorsport is the only team fielding a non-2016 car in the GTE Class. They return to the ELMS with their yellow Ferrari F458 Italia in which they became vice champions last season.  The fastest time set in this car was a 1.50.560. This is just half a second shy of the fastest time set in the turbo powered F488 GTE, showing that the F458 still will be competitive over the season.

The European Le Mans Series kick off the season with their first race next Saturday on Easter weekend in Silverstone.

ELMS 2017 - Official test Monza: Wednesday afternoon pictures