Mistral wind takes part in Saturday practice sessions at Paul Ricard

Blue skies and a strong Mistral wind over the Paul Ricard circuit on Saturday for both free practice sessions ahead of the 6 Hours of Le Castellet.

The morning session was dominated by the #21 AF Racing (ex SMP) BR01-Nissan, ahead of Murphy Prototypes Oreca03. The Murphy team always scores well at Paul Ricard, winning the race in 2013. The #41 Greaves Gibson was third fastest, ahead of the green Ligier JSP2 of Tracy Krohn. In LMP3 both Team LNT Ginetta's were fastest with the #2 outpacing #3. The #15 SVK by Speed Factory was third fastest, almost 2 seconds off the pace.

LMGTE saw 2 Ferrari's at the top of the timetable with the #51 AF Corse just faster than the #56 AT Racing Ferrari F458 Italia. The BMW Z4 GTE by Marc VDS was third fastest in the morning session. GTC was dominated by Thiriet with their #59 BMW Z4, outpacing the #68 Aston Martin and #62 AF Corse Ferrari with almost 2 seconds.

In the afternoon, Thiriet by TDS Racing took the honours and lapped quicker than anyone else. With the Mistral wind blowing even harder than this morning giving the cars a big tail wind on the Mistral (what's in a name) straight, Tristan Gommendy put in a very fast 1.47.837. Behind the Thiriet Oreca, the Krohn Ligier-Judd with Olivier Pla at the wheel was second fastest, ahead of the Gibson of JOTA Sport. Eurasia Motorsport who already impressed at the Red Bull Ring last month were fourth fastest and continue to show their good form.

LMP3 saw the same result as Saturday morning with the #2 ahead of #3. This time however the LMP3's didn't manage to hold off the GTE's, with the Ferrari's of AT Racing (#56) and AF Corse (#55) switching places compared to this morning, ahead of the two fastest LMP3's. Proton Competition was third fastest in GTE with the #17 Porsche 911 RSR. In GTC we also saw 2 Ferrari's on top, the #63 AF Corse 1.3 seconds faster than the #62 sister car. TDS Racing, fastest this morning, was third in the afternoon.

Qualifying is Sunday from 9.00h, the 4 Hours of Le Castellet will start at 13.00h (local time).

ELMS unveils 2016 schedule : bigger and better !

Today at Paul Ricard, the 2016 ELMS schedule and the expansion of the series was announced during a press conference with Gérard Neveu, ELMS CEO and Pierre Fillion, President of the ACO.

The European Le Mans Series will expand to a six race calendar in 2016 with the addition of the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in September.  2016 will start as usual with the prologue, the official 2 day pre-season test on March 29-30.  The first race of the season will be at Silverstone on Saturday 16 April, sharing the weekend with the WEC.  After that it's off to Italy and Imola on May 15, and the Red Bull Ring in Austria on July 17.  The race at Paul Ricard is being rescheduled to the end of August (28th), on September 25th the ELMS will return to the mythical Spa-Francorchamps for the first time since 2011.  The season finale will be run at Estoril in Portugal in October 23rd.

European Le Mans Series Provisional 2016 Calendar

Prologue 29/30 March - TBA
Round 1 15/16 April - Silverstone (UK)
Round 2 13/15 May - Imola (IT)
Round 3 15-17 July - Red Bull Ring (AUS)
Round 4 26-28 August - Paul Ricard (FRA)
Round 5 23-25 September - Spa-Francorchamps (BEL)*
Round 6 21-23 October - Estoril (POR)
(* TBC)

Next year the ELMS will be joined for the majority of the 6 events by 2 support series : the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and the RS01 Renault Sport Trophy, giving the fans a regular support race package to enjoy throughout the season.  Both series will run at the Red Bull Ring, Paul Ricard, Spa-Francorchamps and Estoril, the RS01 Sport Trophy will also be in Imola.  With the addition of both a single seater and a GT series, all kinds of racing will be represented during an ELMS race weekend.  This also brings together drivers from different generation, and might give the youngsters the chance to get up to endurance racing from formula or GT racing.

All raceweekends in 2016 will be spread out on 3 days instead of 2 in the past years.  First free practice session will be run on Friday, second practice and qualifying on Saturday and the 4 hour race on Sunday.  General entry will be free at all races, tickets for paddock acces will be sold at modest prices.

Pierre Fillion, President of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest : "The 2016 calendar represents the next step in the growth of the European Le Mans Series.  The 4 hours of Spa-Francorchamps is an important addition to the ELMS, while the other five races, held on the same tracks at the same time of year, are well established and growing in popularity."

Gérard Neveu, European Le Mans Series CEO : "We are very happy to welcome the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and RS01 Renault Sport Trophy and our thanks go to Renault Sport Technologies for their full support.  The addition of these two high profile single seater and GT race series will enhance the popularity of the ELMS weekends and give the fans two more reasons to join us for an exciting 2016 season.

Kristof Vermeulen. 

ELMS – 4 Heures du Castellet, Friday news and updates

Round 4 of the ELMS season this weekend, at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France. The High Tech Test Track that has been re-opened to the public in 2009 is situated in the Var region between Marseille and Toulon.   5.861 meters long, 11 corners and the impressive Mistral straight of 1,8 km, simulating the Le Mans Hunaudières straight together with an impressive backdrop in the mountains behind the cote d'Azur make this track one of the teams and drivers favourites.  Le Castellet has been on the ELMS schedule since the beginning and has always given us exciting races.

JOTA Sport announced this morning the addition of a full season WEC entry to their program in 2016.   The British team will compete in the LMP2 class with an Oreca 05-Nissan. Given their succesful entry's in WEC at Spa and Le Mans in the past years, and an impressive track record in the ELMS, this will be stiff competition for the other LMP2 teams in WEC.  Next to their new WEC entry, JOTA Sports stays loyal to the ELMS championship with the Gibson 015S-Nissan in 2016.  No words yet on possible drivers, but there's no doubt Simon Dolan & co will have a very competitive line-up next year. 

Ibanez Racing withdrew its 2 cars for Paul Ricard, but will be back at the last race in Portugal mid-October. The updated entry list now shows a grid of 27 cars for the weekend. SMP Racing changed its name into AF Racing from now on, and will race their 2 BR01-Nissans with #20 and #21. They will also change to Dunlop tyres from this race on instead of Michelin.

A few driver changes for the weekend : Olivier Pla takes the wheel of the Krohn Ligier again this weekend, after driving the car at Daytona and Sebring. Eurasia Motorsport adds Richard Bradley to its line up at Le Castellet. Bradley won the LMP2 class at Le Mans and the Nürburgring last week at the wheel of the KCMG Oreca05. 2 new faces at JMW Motorsport in the Ferrari F458 Italia : Jonny Cocker and Rory Butcher will drive together with Robert Smith.

Gérard Neveu will announce the provisional 2016 ELMS schedule on a press conference tomorrow, together with some “exciting changes for next season”.

United Autosports first Ginetta LMP3 has been delivered, and had his shakedown at Blyton Park in Gainsborough this week. Countdown to 2016 to see this car added to the ELMS startgrid.

Sunday's race will be broadcast live on Motors TV and streamed on the ELMS website. For those making the trip to Paul Ricard; general admittance is free, a ticket for the paddock (including pitwalk and autograph session) is priced at a very reasonable 10 euros.   Free practice sessions will be run on Saturday at 10.30h and 15h and qualifying Sunday morning starting at 9 am.  Green flag will be shown Sunday at 13h for the 4 hours of Le Castellet. 

Useful links

Timetable

Entry List

Kristof Vermeulen