ELMS: First win for IDEC Sport in Silverstone

The 4 Hours of Silverstone saw changeable weather with sunshine and heavy showers which set the stage for an incident-packed and drama-filled race for the fans to enjoy. The UK round of the 2019 European Le Mans Series was won by the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca with Memo Rojas taking the chequered flag after the no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus pitted for fuel four minutes before the end of the race.  

© ELMS/David Lord Photography

The no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Nigel Moore closed down a two-minute gap to catch the no11 Eurointernational Ligier of Jens Petersen in the final hour of the race.  Petersen took the flag first but was given a 30-second penalty for not coming into the pits for a Black and Orange flag earlier in the race.   The no13 Ligier was declared the winner but was then handed a 1m43s penalty for not respecting the minimum driving time.  So the no11 Ligier was handed the win back and the no13 Ligier was second.

The no88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR was victorious in LMGTE, with Thomas Preining taking the flag 27.8 seconds ahead of the no83 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Rahel Frey.

The race started in dramatic fashion with the track being declared wet at the start as the rain clouds on the horizon got closer. The no21 DragonSpeed Oreca of James Allen kept the lead while behind the leaders there were a few cars that went off at the first corner, with all rejoining the battle. In LMP3 the no17 Ultimate of Jean-Baptiste Lahaye took the lead ahead of pole-sitter Yann Ehrlacher in the no19 M Racing Norma.

In LMGTE, it was the no60 Kessel Racing Ferrari out in front at the start with Sergio Pianezzola moving ahead of the no88 Porsche of Gianluca Giraudi, the Italian dropping back to 3rd as the no83 Kessel Ferrari of Michelle Gatting moved up to second place.

The rain that had been forecasted duly arrived and most of the grid dived into the pits for wet tyres after just 5 minutes of racing. The no21 DragonSpeed of James Allen didn’t pit and stayed out on slicks gambling that the rain would quickly clear. Mikkel Jensen made the same gamble in the no11 Eurointernational Ligier and the Dane found himself in the class lead.

The no43 RLR MSport Oreca of Matthieu Vaxiviere was revelling in the wet conditions, the French driver moving up the field to take the lead as the no21 DragonSpeed Oreca pitted for wets. Vaxiveire held an 18 second lead over the no23 Panis Barthez Competition Oreca of Will Stevens. The no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Wei Lu ended in the gravel at T7, bringing out the first Full Course Yellow of the race.  The car was quickly recovered and the race went green after only four minutes. A second FCY period was declared ten minutes later when the no22 United Autosports Oreca of Phil Hanson went off at Brooklands: the car lost all power and the British driver was forced to retire.

Once again the race went green very quickly after the car was placed behind the barriers at Luffield. The rain had stopped and the track had started to dry out. The no43 RLR M Sport Oreca was over 30 seconds ahead of the no24 Panis Barthez Ligier of Konstantin Tereschenko.  Mikkel Jensen also held a 30 second lead in LMP3 with Christian England in the no3 United Autosports Ligier in second. It was a Kessel Racing 1-2 as Sergio Pianezzola led in the no60 488 GTE, 15 seconds ahead of the no83 Ferrari of Michelle Gatting.

Matthieu Vaxiviere pitted from the lead to hand over to Canadian John Farano, rejoining the track with an 8-second lead. However, the more experienced drivers in the following cars soon caught and passed Farano, who was down to sixth a few laps later with James Allen back into the lead in the no21 DragonSpeed.

There were further woes for Farano when he was the innocent victim of a collision between the no30 Duqueine Engineering Oreca of Nicolas Jamin and the no14 Inter Europol  Competition Ligier of Sam Dejonghe. The no43 Oreca was clipped by the no14 Ligier and Farano had to return to the pits where a damaged wishbone needed replacing.  Nicolas Jamin was given a drive-through penalty for causing the accident.

A Safety Car was deployed when the no3 United Autosports Ligier of Mike Guasch and the no24 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier of Timothe Buret collided and the LMP3 car ended hitting the concrete wall hard. The American driver was conscious and taken to the circuit medical centre for checks. 

After twenty minutes the race resumed only for a second Safety Car to be deployed almost immediately as the no37 Cool Racing Oreca and the no19 M Racing Norma collided, the Oreca ending up in the middle of the track and was hit by the no30 Duqueine Engineering Oreca. With an hour to go the race resumed with the no39 Graff Racing Oreca of Jonathan Hirschi out in front of the field. The Swiss driver was judged to have acted dangerously during the Safety Car period and was given a drive-through penalty. The no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus of Jean-Eric Vergne took the lead with Memo Rojas in the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca following.

Jens Petersen in the no11 Eurointernational Ligier was nearly a lap ahead of the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Nigel Moore, the British driver lapping over five seconds faster than the leader.

In LMGTE the no83 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Rahel Frey was leading with the no88 Proton Competition Porsche of Thomas Preining closing rapidly.  The Austrian passed the Swiss driver on the run into Stowe Corner and started to open up a gap. The no51 Luzich Racing and no60 Kessel Racing Ferraris were battling hard for third place with the no60 488 getting the upper hand.

With 30 minutes to go Ben Hanley in the no21 DragonSpeed was out in front, passing the no26 G-Drive Aurus for the lead.  However, it was short-lived when Ben Hanley had to pit and Jean-Eric Vergne went back into the lead ahead of the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca and the no39 Graff Oreca 07.  It looked like Vergne was heading for the Russian team’s third win in a row, but the French driver had to pit for a ‘splash and dash’ fuel stop. This put Rojas into the lead and the victory.

The no11 Eurointernational Ligier was being caught by the no13 Inter Europol Ligier but it looked like Petersen was going to hold on.  But disaster struck when the team received a black and orange flag to bring the car in to repair a damaged splitter. The German driver stayed out and took the chequered flag but was issued with a drive-through penalty converted to a 30 second time penalty, dropping the no11 Eurointernational Ligier down the order. This promoted the no13 Ligier of Martin Hippe and Nigel Moore into the class winning position.

However, it all changed again when the no13 Ligier was handed a 1m43 second penalty for not respecting the driving time for the bronze driver.  This switched the two cars around again so Mikkel Jensen and Jens Petersen were declared the LMP3 winners of the 4 Hours of Silverstone.  The no2 United Autosports Ligier of Wayne Boyd, Garret Grist and Tommy Erdos took the final podium place.

In LMGTE the no88 Proton Competition Porsche crossed the line to take a debut ELMS win for Thomas Preining, Gianluca Giraudi and Ricardo Sanchez, with the no83 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Michelle Gatting, Manuela Gostner and Rahel Frey taking their second podium finish of the 2019 season.



Source: www.europeanlemansseries.com

Pictures: Kristof Vermeulen & jellybaby.media

WEC Silverstone 6 Hours - The Race Highlights (and a few low lights)

OK these guys are racing drivers.. it is in their DNA to be competitive but it still comes as a surprise when with just six hours to go they drive into each other! It was a messy start that the stewards decided to investigate. In amongst the general excitement there was contact between #3 Rebellion car and #17 SMP Racing . The upshot was the two Rebellion cars nearly hitting each other., which would have been a pity!

The Ford GT’s had a messy sort of start and lost out in a big way in the muddle but quickly showed they had the pace to match the Astons and the race leading Porsche. After the chaotic start the #38 Jackie Chan DC racing earned itself a drive through penalty! The pit entry cuts out a fair chunk of circuit so it isn’t such a major penalty in reality.

The two BMW M8 GTE started better than most and were looking good but the ever faster Fords caught and passed them. Remember the #17 SMP Racing that was involved in ‘the action’ at the start? Well, the earned themselves a drive through penalty! Next on Ford’s shopping list was the #97 Aston Martin which had qualified well and had kept out of trouble at the start. Everybody had expected the Ford GT to be quick and it was proved to be right.

Also as expected the Toyota Twins were having a ‘race’ of the own with the lead changing occasionally during the pit stops. They are obviously way quicker than the rest of the cars in LMP1, so no surprises there then. Only some kind of mechanical catastrophe will rob them of a victory but the question is whether it will be #7 or #8 on the top step.

#11 SMP Racing BR1 pulled off the track with what looked like a blown engine. Not encouraging information for Lawrence Tomlinson and Ginetta who have just swapped from Mecachrome to AER for the balance of their troubled season. Several cars have had surprising spins, maybe due to the resurfaced track, one victim was #29 Racing for Nederland. It seems the track was resurfaced but the very hot spell has caused ‘micro’ bumps to appear.

The Fords were on a charge and after 90mins #67 took the lead in GTE Pro.. it had taken time but it they were looking good as the Aston Martins faded. The reason the #95 Aston had slowed was due to getting stuck in 4th gear.. a new actuator and longish pit stop later it was back into the action.

The #4 Bykolles Racing Team car driven by Rene Binder had a serious fright when he caught up some slower cars which caught him out and he lost it into the barriers. It was a fairly hard hit which led to a Full Course Yellow and Rene being carted off to the medical centre for a check over.

One very lucky spectator was one of the infamous ‘Silverstone Hares’ who narrowly avoided getting flattened while crossing the track!

One of the messier accidents involved #17 and #71.. they both wanted the same bit of track and made contact. The #71 Ferrari came off rather worst with a rear right puncture. The tyre then fell apart taking most of the rear corner with it scattering carbon fibre all over the track. This incurred the wrath of the Clerk of The Course and brought out the safety car while the mess was cleared up. The #17 SMP Racing then had a spin which was probably down to damage caused when it collided with the #71 car.

You may recall one of the Ford GT’s having a spot of bother keeping its door shut at Le Mans, unfortunately the problem struck the #66 car here at Silverstone and it was forced to pit while the door was replaced.

With all the action going on in and around GTE Pro it was easy to overlook the AF Corse #51 Ferrari which was keeping out of trouble and fending off the challenges from Porsche and leading the class for sometime. Maybe Ferrari were bluffing but they reckoned they didn’t really have a chance here but clever tactics and low tyre wear seem to have paid off and the Porsches (who are notoriously greedy with their tyres)  will be very hard pressed to catch them… unless of course we get a safety car...

It came as a surprise when the #8 Toyota arrived in the pits for a scheduled stop and had its nose section replaced.. this was part of a plan to sort out a cure for oversteer. At the other end of the reliability scale is the #10 Dragonspeed BR1... they have a tricky race all round with what may be a record breaking 11 pit stops!

With less than an hour to go the Toyota Twins swapped places and the #8 car took the lead.. just to remind you that is the Alonso car...surely they are not ‘engineering’ a result? No.. of course not !!

At this level it was a surprise when  #50 #56 #90 all got hit with 75 second stop go penalty for coming into the pits too early when the safety car was out.. they should have waited for three laps behind the safety car before they piled off into the pits.. seemed like a silly mistake but a harsh penalty!!

So it all panned out roughly as we expected.. the ‘right’ Toyota won with Alonso on board.. the #7 car had some unscheduled work on its rear body panels which wasn’t as slick as you might have expected losing them 10 precious seconds, the delay let #8 car take the lead. The ‘Best of The Rest’ in LMP1 was the #3 Rebellion Racing R13-Gibson.

In LMP2 Jackie Chan DC Racing had a great race with a 1st (#38) and 2nd (#37) ahead of the #36 Signatech Alpine Matmut. They didn’t run into trouble like the others, it was a very tidy performance.

Some of the best racing came out of LMGTE with a great battle between Ferrari, Porsche, Ford and of course Aston Martin. The #13 AF Corse Ferrari had a relatively straightforward win in the end. They had the edge as far as tyres and tactics were concerned. Porsche had a busy day chasing down the Ferraris and fending off the Fords. The result was Porsche #91 came second ahead of the #87 Ford GT.

It is amazing that Dempsey-Proton Racing and their #77 Porsche 911 RSR made their way steadily through the race to come home despite not having the quickest car on the grid.  The #90 TF Sport Aston Martin took second place. After a long and intense battle, Jorg Bergmeister clinched the final podium spot in the #56 Prjoect 1 Porsche, passing Pedro Lamy in the #98 Aston Martin in the final lap of the race. 

Postscript - 1

Both Toyota TS050 Hybrids have been disqualified from Sunday’s Six Hours of Silverstone due to technical infractions, handing the overall victory to Rebellion Racing. The cars, which finished 1-2 in the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, were found to have failed skid block deflection tests.

According to a stewards report issued late Sunday, the “front part” of the No. 8 Toyota’s skid block deflected 9 mm under the specified 2500 N load on both sides of the skid block, while the No. 7 car had 8 mm of deflection on the left side and 6 mm on the right side. It was found to be a breach of Art. 3.5.6.d of the LMP1H technical regulations, resulting in exclusions.

While there were no reports of the Toyotas being involved in any incidents, the Japanese manufacturer has claimed, per the stewards report, that both cars must have sustained “some sort of damage” to the internal stays affixed to the portion of the skid block. The stewards, however, dismissed that explanation, stating that cars must be able to withstand the “normal rigors” of a six-hour race.

It comes after a dominant run for the Toyotas, which finished four laps clear of the competition, led by the No. 8 entry of Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.
(Edit - Toyota Gazoo Racing have withdrawn their appeal against Silverstone exclusions so the result will stand.)

Postscript - 2

In GTE Pro, the Porsche #91 was excluded from it's second-place finish. The ride height was judged to have been 2mm lower than the permitted 50mm.  The #67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx moves up to second in class as a result, and Porsche #92 of Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre is promoted to third.

Race Results
Toyota stewards report
Porsche #91 stewards report

Text: Jock Simpson
Pictures: Kristof Vermeulen

FIA WEC 2017 - 6 Hours of Silverstone: Toyota takes first race of the season

After a thrilling & exciting race, the #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi crossed the finish line first, only to recover the lead back in the final 15 minutes of the race. Race start was in hazy sunshine at 12 noon, but the rain would be a factor in the race as it came and went all afternoon. 

© Sportscarglobal.com

Conway retained the lead from pole in the #7 Toyota. In the  #26 G-drive Lynn slipped to 3rd from LMP2 pole, behind #36 and #31. After 10 minutes Buemi passed Conway to put #8 into lead but Conway managed to post the fastest lap on lap 4 (1:39.656) In the two Fords GTs Priaulx and Mucke were in charge of GTE Pro from front row. Spirit of race #54 Ferrari led the #98 Aston Martin in GTE Am. More woes for the ByKolles CLM #4 which was wheeled into its garage after only 15 minutes of racing with brake problems.

The 2 Fords were side by side then Priaulx was passed by team mate followed by Mako in Porsche #91. Problems for #67 relegated him swiftly down the order. Lamy took GTE Am lead at 12:35 in Aston Martin #98 passing Castellacci in #54 Ferrari at Luffield. Mako passed the Ford #66 to put Porsche #91 into lead of GTE Pro. Both Toyotas were first of LMP1-H cars to do scheduled stop at 12:46. There was minor contact between Calado in the #51 Ferrari and Christensen in the #92 Porsche. There was a problem with the door of the #26 G-Drive that required replacement of the entire door at the car's next scheduled stop. 

Conway in Toyota #7 retook the lead from Buemi in #8 at 13:10 but #8 won a track limits warning at 13:21. There was a big wiggle for Buemi in Toyota #8 as he braked very late for the pit lane speed limit. Davidson took over the car at 13:36. Manor (Hirschi) #24 and Vaillante Rebellion (Heinemeiner Hansson) #13 made contact at The Loop - #13 the loser in that battle - the incident won #13 a 15s penalty.

Problems for #7 Toyota were reported and Kobayashi slipped to 4th at 13:50. There were sprinkles of rain on and off at that time but nothing serious. Bernhard in #2 Porsche was catching Davidson in Toyota #8 only 3.5s ahead at 14:10. Estre in Porsche #92 took 3rd in GTE Pro at 14:19.

Rear roll bar was reported as the problem afflicting the #7 Toyota and there was new bodywork for #7 at regular stop at 14:30. Kobayashi had a trip  to gravel in #7 on a damp track. Porsche #1 made an unscheduled stop to change tyres at 14:37 and leading #2 Porsche was fortunate to put on intermediates at exactly the right moment. #8 Toyota was back into lead after more tyre stops for Porsche. The damp caught out Dala Lana who had a spin at Vale  in leading GTE Am #98 at 15:15.

There was a Fire for the #92 Porsche which stopped at Luffield at 15:20 bringing about a brief full course yellow. Lopez was another driver caught out by rain at Copse and put #7 Toyota hard into the tyres at 15:30 bringing about another FCY. Lopez seemed determined to get himself out of the gravel despite the heavy damage to the nose of the Toyota. Finally craned onto tarmac and crept back to the circuit for a long drive back to pit lane dropping debris around the track. The FCY turned into a Safety Car situation while the track was cleared of debris and the barriers repaired. 

There was contact between  #71 (Bird) and #13 (Beche) at Abbey resulting in damage to #13 which required a 12 minute pit garage visit and resulted in a 15 second penalty for #71. Tincknell in #67 Ford GT passed Mako in #91 Porsche for 3rd place at 16:13. Vaxiviere muscled the #28 TDS Racing past Rao in the #36 Alpine to take the lead of LMP2 at 16:15

Lots of cars were pinged for speeding under the FCY / SC period including class leaders. 

The #7 Toyota that Lopez managed to limp back to the pits finally made it back onto the track at 16:50 with Conway at the wheel. Lopez was taken to hospital for precautionary tests but appeared to be unharmed. Once repaired, the #7 seemed to be more on the pace than when it was carrying the roll bar handling problem.  At 17:15 there was a bizarre incident when Rossiter in the ByKolles #4 ENSO CLM collided with Adam in the #97 Aston on pit entry.  The #4 was the loser in that contact and was retired, while #97 rejoined.

With 30 minutes remaining Hartley was leading in the #2 Porsche 919 but had to make his last stop for a splash before the flag. He emerged from pit lane just 8.9s ahead of Buemi in the #8 Toyota. There was a tense last half hour in GTE Am also with a battle between Griffin in the #61 Ferrari and Lamy in the #98 Aston Martin. Griffin finally made the pass at Copse and pulled out a couple of car lengths on Lamy.

With 20 minutes until the chequered flag the gap between Hartley and Buemi was down to 3.9s and was whittled down to less than a second just as rain started with 15 minutes remaining. Buemi finally (inevitably) made his way past the Porsche #2 in The Loop with 12 minutes remaining and was uncatchable until the finish.

In LMP2 Jackie Chan DC Racing won the race with the #38 Oreca of Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent. Nico Prost, Bruno Senna & Julien Canal came home second in the #13 Rebellion, ahead of the #28 TDS Racing who took the third podium spot. First LMP2 race and immediately first podium for last year's LM GTE Am champions Emmanuel Collard & François Perrodo joined by Matthieu Vaxiviere.

In the final minutes the #67 Ford GT was leading GTE Pro but had a reappearance of a door problem they had early in the race but made it home to the class win. Griffin in the Ferrari #61 slipped to 3rd behind the #54 Ferrari. Barker in the Gulf Racing Porsche #86 came out for the last lap after a 45 minute stop.

Lamy in #98 and Molina in #54 had last lap contact at Stowe leaving #98 Aston stopped just after the finish line salvaging second place and Molina in the Spirit of Race Ferrari stopped on track. The #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari snatched the GTE Am win with the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche third.

Full results can be found HERE

Dave DAVIES

FIA WEC 2017 - 6 Hours of Silverstone: Saturday FP3 and qualifying report

In a busy weekend of racing, Saturday at Silverstone saw the WEC qualifying sessions and the ELMS 4 hour race. 

The clear and dry early morning belied the cool and damp track conditions. The World Series Formula V8 qualifying was a bit slippery so the prospect for the one hour of WEC free practice looked like it might be 'interesting'. However, the single-seater session and the sunshine seemed to be doing the trick and by 9:45 the circuit appeared to be reasonably but possibly not completely dry.

At 9:30 WEC cars we pushed out into the sunshine on the pit apron. Porsche #2 was first in line at pit exit, followed by #1. The first few flying laps were up in the 1:46 region for LMP1-H, about 8 seconds of yesterday's pace so clearly it was still 'mildly moist' out there. At 9:50 however Davidson put the Toyota #8 at the top of the timing screen with a lap in 1:43.811.

The #7 Toyota however was confined to its pit garage with hybrid problems, while the #8 was progressively improving, then in the hands of Nakajima with a lap in 1:41.185. Meanwhile Fred Mako in the Porsche #91 was fastest in GTE Pro with a time of 1:59.540 but soon surpassed by Andy Priaulx in Ford GT #67 with 1:58.391.  With 37 minutes remaining, Canal was fastest in LMP2 in the #31 Vaillante Rebellion with a time of 1:46.143. In GTE Am it was Castellacci in the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari with a time of 1:59.544.

With the clock at 30 minutes the order was #1 #2 #8 #7 in LMP1-H and #31 #13 #38 #36 in LMP2. Matt Griffin in the #61 Clearwater racing Ferrari put in the quickest GTE Am time of the weekend 1:59.194 to put it ahead of #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari and #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche. In GTE Pro, the two Ford GT entries #67 and #66 were quickest from #51 and #71 AF Corse Ferraris.  At 10:18 the #86 Gulf Porsche was 'pinged' for speeding in the pitlane. The #4 ByKolles car was still down at the slow end of the LMP2 times. At 10:18 Vaxiviere in the TDS racing #28 put in the fastest time so far of the weekend in LMP2 1:44.105. There was a minor spin at Luffield for Senna in #31 Vaillante Rebellion at 10:25 but rejoined with no harm done. Shortly after that there was a big lock up for Reid in #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche.

Davidson went quickest in the #8 Toyota 1:39.476 just as the clock ticked past 10 minutes remaining, displacing the two Porsche LMP1-H #1 and #2. Dalla Lana in Aston Martin #98 appeared to make contact with Lopez in #7 Toyota while being passed at Luffield bringing about a front left tyre failure for the Aston. Lopez was subsequently reported by stewards for dangerous driving. At the chequered flag the order was unchanged: #8 #1 #2 #7 in LMP1, #28 #26 #38 #25 in LMP2. In GTE Pro #67 #66 #51 #71 and in GTE Am #98 #61 #54 #77. Free practice was complete, but of course the times that really count were still to be set. It was in the two 20 minute qualifying sessions in the afternoon where the serious business would be concluded

First on track In the spring sunshine were the GTE cars, both Am and Pro. Clearwater Racing Ferrari #61 was first out of the pit exit. Early quick time for Thim in #95 Aston Martin 1:56.989 with Lamy also quick in the #98 Aston Martin in the Am class 1:58.792. At the point where all first drivers had set a time, Griffin in #61 Ferrari was quickest in Am. The Ford GT #67 set a 2 lap average of 1:56.202 before the chequered flag to claim the GTE Pro pole and the #98 Aston Martin captured the GTE Am pole with an average of 1:59.562.

In LMP qualifying Kobayashi set the tone by setting a time of 1:36.743 in his first flying lap in the Toyota #7, swiftly followed by Vaxiviere in the #28 TDS Racing LMP2 with the fastest in class of 1:43.752. At 13:46 Brundle had an off-circuit moment at Becketts in #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing LMP2 but quickly rejoined.  At the chequered flag it was still the #7 Toyota at the top of the timing screen with an average time of 1:37.304 despite Conway having one lap deleted due to track limits violation. In LMP2 it was the #26 G-Drive that put in the quickest average time 1:44.387 to claim class pole.

As always in the WEC, qualifying seemed to be over in a second. Toyota seemed comfortably in charge of LMP1-H and locked out the front row. Porsche with their low down-force configuration seemed to have no answer to the qualifying pace and had to settle for the second row. The only private LMP1 competitor, the ByKolles Racing #4 ENSO CLM P1/01 - Nismo had an uninspiring qualification session and set an average time 9th fastest overall and only 5th fastest in the LMP2 field. The G-Drive Oreca Gibson #26 was just a whisker ahead of the #36 Signatech Alpine and Jackie Chan DC Racing #38.

Next up for WEC is the start of the 6 Hours of Silverstone on Sunday at 12:00. Although today we had sunshine and a fresh breeze, tomorrow is forecast to be wet almost from flag to flag with an 80% change of precipitation at noon.

Full timing and classification can be found HERE

Dave DAVIES

FIA WEC 2017 - DUNLOP have been busy over the winter!

Dunlop have been the tyre of choice in LMP2 for the last couple of seasons and for 2017 all the LMP2 cars are running on Dunlop. They have designed an entirely new range of tyres for both LMP2 and GT. At Silverstone 14 of the 28 cars taking part will be running on Dunlop rubber.

In LMP2 nine cars are using the Oreca chassis built to 2017 specification the rest are running to 2016 specification. These cars have around 100 bhp more than last year and Dunlop have come up with a ‘medium’ and ‘medium plus’ compound to cope with this. Also worth considering is the fact that the new generation of LMP2 machinery have managed to find 40% more downforce as well as 10% less drag. Last year’s Rebellion LMP1 cars ran on Dunlop tyres and much of the data obtained from these tyres has been used to develop this year’s rubber.

They have also been busy in LMGTE. After a slightly wobbly start last year with Aston Martin were double title winners by the end of 2016. In 2017 the two Aston Martin Vantages are running a similar driver line up to last year with the inclusion of Daniel Serra and Richie Stanway. The new regulations have reduced the number of tyres that a team can use over the race weekend which means they will need to run longer stints and of course the tyres will  need to last longer as well. There is now pressure on the drivers not to over drive the cars or lock up wheels!

In LMGTAM car numbers #77 (Porsche) #86 (Porsche) and #98 ( Aston Martin) have joined forces with Dunlop . Different tyres have been developed to match the various chassis.

The Club Arnage team who were at Monza noticed that there were a heck of a lot of Dunlop Trucks in attendance.. we see why now !

Jock SIMPSON

ELMS 2017 - 4 Hours of Silverstone: Dragonspeed on pole

Ben Hanley & Dragonspeed took pole position today at Silverstone for the first race of the 2017 European Le Mans Series. The first qualifying session for the new season was full of suspence with a 5 minute shootout after a red flag in LMP2, and two new teams taking the top spot in LMP3 and GTE. 

After a frantic final 5 minutes of the session, Ben Hanley was the fastest man around Silverstone, putting the #21 Dragonespeed Oreca on pole with a time of 1.44.040. Filipe Albuquerque came in second fastest, 0.274 seconds behind Hanley. Enzo Guibbert in the Graff Oreca (1.45.163) starts on the second row of the grid in third place. Ryo Hirakawa still managed to qualify fourth after his spin early in the session, ahead of Pizzitola. The top six consists of three Oreca's and three Ligiers. Anders Fjordbach was the fastest Dallara driver again, taking seventh place on the grid.

Andrea Pizzitola had a blistering start in the session with his #25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier, immediately putting a 1.45.235 on the clock. Ryo Hirakawa had a spin in his #22 G-Drive Oreca early in the session, without much harm.  Seconds later, when Richard Bradley parked his #40 Graff Ligier in the gravel, the session was red flagged to recover his LMP2. 

Cetilar Villorba Corse faced some electrical gremlins in their Dallara P217 on the worst thinkable moment, not being able to set a competitive laptime in the session. 

AT Racing didn't miss their debut in the LMP3 class. The Austrian team - which raced in GTE in the past seasons - took pole position with Mikkel Jensen behind the wheel of the #9 Ligier JSP3. With a time of 1:53.665, the Dane was 0.121 seconds faster than Sean Rayhall in the #2 United Autosports Ligier. The second UA Ligier was third fastest, Wayne Boyd finishing 0.395 seconds behind the sister car. 

Another first in the GTE class, with TF Sport claiming pole position for their first race in the European Le Mans Series. Nicki Thiim set a 1.58.269 immediately on his first lap, what proved to be enough to get the Aston Martin Vantage V8 on pole position for the race tomorrow. Second fastest was the Beechdean Aston, driven by Ross Gunn, just under 0.2 seconds behind Thiim. Third fastest was Matt Griffin in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE.

The race is set to start Saturday afternoon at 14.30h local time.

Qualifying results

Kristof Vermeulen