ELMS 4 Hours of Silverstone - Race report

For the first ELMS race of 2016, we got a very attractive, full grid of 44 cars. A mix of (very) experienced drivers in LMP2 and GTE, combined with lots of new drivers in LMP3 with almost no experience in prototype and endurace racing. Would they be able to adapt to this kind of racing, and have a clean drive in this massive starting field ?

At the start, the #19 Ligier JSP3 of Duqueine Engineering had a sping right away, followed by the #15 RLR Msport. Luckily without causing any damage to other cars, the whole back of the field safely getting by them. In LMP2, Leo Roussel suddenly got out of the pack sideways, straight into the pit wall and damaging the front of the car. Roussel managed to leap back to the pitlane and get the car fixed again.

LMP2 was dominated by the G-Drive team in the #38 Gibson 015/Nissan. Pierre Thiriet started from pole but lost his place in the first corner to Andreas Wirth in the #32 BR01. Tincknell started from fourth, but by the end of the Wellington stright he got into first place, and never really looked back from there. Behind the mighty #38, the battle for second was on between the Paul Loup Chatin in the #.. Panis-Barthez Ligier and Wirth in the BR01. Wirth eventually lost touch and dropped down to sixth, while last year's ELMS champion Bjorn Windheim charged through the field into third in his #.. Krohn Racing Ligier. In the meantime Pierre Thiriet, while regaining position from the back of the LMP2 field, got off at Luffield and parked his Oreca 05 into the tyrewall. At the samen time, the#33 Eurasia stopped on track, causing the first full course yellow of the race.

After the first round of pitstops, most teams consolidated their positions. The top 3 was unchanged, behind them Greaves Motorsport was in fourth, and IDEC sport in fifth. During the second round of stops, Simon Dolan took over the #38, briefly losing the lead to Panis-Barthez Competition who managed a very long first stint. A second full course yellow was called when Sir Chris Ho went into the gravel trap with his #... Algarve Pro Ligier. Simon Dolan was quickly catching up to Fabien Barthez, and got back into first building up a comfortable lead again. Behind the leaders, Julien Canal got up to third in the Greaves Oreca, with both BR01's behind him.

In the final hour, Giedo van der Garde made his debut in the ELMS as he took over from Simon Dolan and brought the #38 home safely. Van der Garde kept on pushing hard 'till the end trying to get the fastest lap in the race but ran into too much traffic to get a clear lap. Behind him, both SMP Racing's BR01 were in second and third after troubles first hit Panis-Barthez, and Greaves Motorsport. The Russian team couldn't hold on to those positions though, as the Mulsanne based SO24! By Lombard Racing shifted into second place. A clean run over the 4 hours and some good strategy got them ahead of both BR01's, but a late pitstop ultimately costed them second place. Still a very strong result for the new team, getting a podium finish in their first race. Niclas Johnsson brought the Krohn Ligier home in fourth, ahead of the #34 Race Performance Oreca03 and the #28 Idec Sport Racing Ligier.

19 cars at the start in the LMP3 field, with a mix of experienced and new drivers in a prototype chassis. During the race we saw a few (too) bold moves in the LMP3 field and in battles between LMP3 and GTE, luckily withouth any real damage.

Alex Brundle quickly got into the lead after the start in his #2 United Autosports Ligier, followed by the #18 M Racing and the second United Autosports Ligier of Matt Bell. Pole sitter #6 360 Racing fell back into the LMP3 pack in sixth place. Brundle quickly built up his lead to the rest of the field, losing some time with the first full course yellow but ran away from the rest after that. Bell had in the meantime moved into second place, so both United Autosports were at the head of the field. Bad luck for Villorba Corse, losing the left rear wheel, not being able to make it to the pits again.

Mike Patterson took over the lead in the #3 Ligier after the first round of pitstops, but had to give way to the #2 sister car again with Mike Guash at the wheel. The #9 Graff Racing had climbed into third position now, charging up to Patterson who lost up to sixth place. The Polish green/yellow #13 of Inter Europol Competition made his way up to third, ahead of the #6 360 Racing and the #8 of Race Performance. In the second hour of the race, Guash pulled more than 20 seconds away from the competition and seemed on his way to victory but Graff didn't give up the top spot on the podium yet.

After the third round of stops, the #3 Ligier fell down the order, while the #2 sister car was back on top of the leaderboard ahead of both Graff Ligiers. Christian England (#2) and Paul Petit (#9) battled it out for the lead, the Frenchman shortly getting into first place. Behind them, Inter Europol had a strong race and held on to third. It seemed like it might rain during the last hour of the race, but we only got a few drops instead of a real shower which might have shaken up the whole field again. England stayed ahead after the final pitstops, with both Graff Ligiers behind him on a respectable distance. In the #2 United Autosports, Wayne Boyd took over the wheel for a very strong final stint. He came in the car in sixth position, getting into third after everyone pitted. A strong and consistent drive got him into the slipstream of the #9 Ligier, overtook him and flew away to score a 1-2 for United Autosports. The #9 Graff held on to the third step on the podium, ahead of the #19 Duquiene Engineering and the #6 360 Racing.

In GTE we saw a much more quiet race. At the start, the GTE field had to get round the spinning LMP3's, with polesitter Stuart Hall in the #96 Aston building up a small lead to the Beachdean Aston Martin and the #66 JMW Ferrari. Bad luck for the #55 AF Corse Ferrari early in the race, when a contact with the #19 spinned the Ferrari around and later on had contact with the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. AT Racing planned an early pitstop in their #56 Ferrari, handing them the lead ahead of both Astons, now with the #99 Beachdean ahead of the #99. Later on the Ferrari fell back, getting both Astons in front again with the #66 JMW in third ahead of the #88 Proton Porsche and the AT Racing Ferrari.

The best part of the GTE race was reserved for the final hour. During the final round of pitstops the #66 JMW Ferrari got into first position with Andrea Bertolini at the wheel. Andrew Howard was second (#99) and Alessandro Pier Guido put his #55 Ferrari back into third place. Bertolini stood strong and got away from the Aston and Ferrari, securing the first victory of the season for JMW Motorsport. At the end of the race, Richie Stanaway in the #96 Aston Martin charged hard to get in third. He managed to overtake the Ferrari in a bold move at the dying moments of the race, but damaged his car, just making it over the finish line. Fifth at the line was the #55 AF Corse, with 2015 champions Formula Racing coming home in fifth.

But is wasn't all over yet ... After post race scrutineering, the winning JMW Ferrari was excluded from the race due to an illegal front splitter. As a result it's not JMW but the #99 Beachdean Aston Martin that takes the win in the first ELMS race of the season. The #96 Aston who then was second got a 4 minute penalty following the avoidable contact he had with the AT Racing Ferrari at the end of the race and drops into third place. So at the end of the day, it's the #99 first, the #55 second and the #96 on the third spot of the podium.

The next race in the European Le Mans Series will be driven at Imola on May 15^th.

Kristof Vermeulen

Race results

Watch the race highlights and full replay of the race below : 

4 Hours of Silverstone - HighLights 

European Le Mans Series 2016 - REPLAY... 

WEC Silverstone 6 hours - Jox Jottings

Was this the same Silverstone we were at yesterday?

What an extraordinary difference a day makes (With credit to Dinah Washington who sang one of the original versions). On Sunday Silverstone was totally unrecognisable, the sun was out , the sky was blue and there was no forecast of rain (or snow!). But after scraping an iceberg’s worth of ice off my windscreen I was not banking on anything!

A point left over from Saturday’s ELMS race regarded the #66 Ferrari, they got excluded from the results by the stewards due to a technical infringement. DSC tells us what it was all about “The decision relates to a non-homologated front splitter fitted to the car.” You might have thought somebody would have spotted that during pre-race scrutineering. Irritating at the very least for the team since it gave them no performance advantage at all and they had crossed the line in first place. After a quick chat with one of the technical Dunlop people it seemed that they admitted that were caught out by the weather and lack of any testing in such extreme conditions which accounted for the disappointing showing from Aston Martin in WEC but they did better in ELMS. 

By the way I lost the ‘Z’ key off my tablet keyboard but so far I have not missed it. Thankfully Sarrazin,  Dalzeil, Menezes, Gonzales, Lietz and Henzier had a quiet race !

So what kind of a race was that then? In a word ‘brilliant’! Going back to an earlier blog .. ‘To finish first .. first you have to finish’. Audi and Porsche both lost cars. Porsche lost their leading car after a clash with a slower LMGTE Porsche that was horrifying to watch but could have been a nasty accident. It eliminated the LMP1 Porsche on the spot. It also won Hartley a stern reprimand from the authorities to say nothing of the roasting he probably got from Porsche management. It was huge accident and the ‘innocent’ Michael Wainwright in the #86 Porsche might have put it better rather than saying ‘I never saw him’. Actually with the closing speeds between a LMP1 Hybrid and an LMGTE Am this could be a valid excuse. Hartley and the Porsche had been flying (literally) and looked good for a race win.

Next up were Audi who were also looking good, to most people’s surprise they were clearly quick enough to give Porsche something to consider. But their normally impeccable reliability record let them down when their #8 car simply stopped with a ‘hybrid malfunction’. When this happens to a hybrid machine a surreal sequence of events kicks into action. A circuit support car leaves the pits with an Audi engineer on-board and he sets about discharging the batteries and making the car safe. Had di Grass been in any sort of danger he would have been left sitting in the car way too long. As it was he sat there calmly while the engineer went about his work. It was a long safety car period while this was sorted out. Maybe this needs some thought for the future? Anyway the upshot was that both Audi and Porsche were down to one car and Toyota were looking at fortuitous podium spot!

This put the pressure on the remaining cars and it built up into a highly tactical fight. You could say Porsche first began to lose it when #2 car got tangled up with a slower car, spun and re-joined. Possibly the key point was that Audi and Porsche were reckoned to be running out of tyres so it all got a bit tense. Porsche came in roughly on schedule and replaced the two left tyres, the ones that suffer at Silverstone. They began to be looking good for a win, albeit a very close one. But then they were had to pit again when Jani got a front right puncture and came in  for a replacement tyre (there is some speculation quite where this tyre came from after Porsche just said ‘out the back’) and a splash of fuel. Their tacticians by now were tearing their hair out. 

Audi as they often do seemed to shrug off the continual changes in tactics and handled their sole remaining car well. Even the circuit commentary team were struggling to read events. Jani was in a position now to blitz it to end but he simply didn't have the pace or maybe the fuel to tackle the Audi.

However it was still very tight at the finish. Congratulations to Audi, commiserations to Porsche. BUT.. after we had left the circuit word filtered through that Audi had been excluded. It was all down to  article 3.5.6 a3 of the LMP1 rulebook, which concerns post-race measurement of the underfloor plank. Audi’s was out by 5mm so the car was rejected by the officials who deemed, according to a stewards' rather dry statement, that "it is the liability of the competitor to respect the technical regulations in any case in order [that] the car complies with this regulation". Even more extraordinary was that Audi were seemingly not planning on appealing the decision. This was duff information, they have appealed , but as things stand until the decision has been reviewed the podium had a strange look about it.

Porsche were on the top step.. beside them was a rather bewildered Toyota and beside them.. wait for it .. Rebellion! None of us would have predicted that! Toyota were still short on pace but high on reliability and clearly in good shape. But they did arrive on the podium which will give them plenty of hope for the rest of the season. They were unlucky when their #5 car got a puncture that went on to destroy the rear body work and floor plan. But they will be pleased overall with their day’s work which meant that up until the last few minutes they had a car on the same lap as the race winners. .. A much better start than last year.

While spotlight always tended to shine on the LMP1 dramas it was LMP2 that saw, as is often the case, some terrific racing. LMP2 may lack the star drivers and manufacturer's weight and kudos but they were ‘at it’ all the way. Their performances always get mixed and blurred with close encounters by the rapid LMP1 cars and constantly getting immersed in finding a way through the GT battles. The #43 RGR Sport by Morand entry won the LMP2 class by half-a-minute ahead of #31 Extreme Speed Motorsport Ligier. Filipe Albuquerque took the Mexican entry home following a steady but rapid run alongside Bruno Senna and the much-improved Ricardo Gonzalez.

GT saw the very promising début of the new Ford GT. We imagine that despite hoping publicly for a clear win, after all they had spent a fortune testing, we think they will pleased with this outing. Raj Nair, executive vice president and chief technical officer, Global Ford Product Development and head honcho  was upbeat when reflecting on the team’s challenge at Silverstone. “Considering it was the first race with a new car and a new team we had a clean run. We’re very happy that the car ran well mechanically. We had a couple of issues; we were caught out on safety car timing and we lost radio with Olivier Pla towards the end of the race, which had an impact on strategy. This is a great start, though, and a good stepping stone to the Le Mans 24 Hours. We know how long it takes to develop a successful programme. We have the right car, the right team, the right drivers, and we just need time to develop all of that.”  OK so you can’t go out and buy one yet but it is one sexy bit of kit ! 

Nobody even got close to the AF Corse #71 Ferrari 488 GTE  (Sam Bird / Davide Rigon). They dominated the GTE-Pro category from start-to-finish, with leading almost every lap for the six hours. The only times they lost the lead was during the pit stops. In a way the other AF Corse Ferrari #51 was more impressive.  It started at the back of the grid after problems in qualifying and were also handed a three minute  stop-and-go penalty for changing an engine overnight. Third was the #95 Aston Martin V8 Vantage which spent a fraught race fending off the two Ford GT’s.  Aston Martin had been off the pace during qualifying while they tried to get to grips with the sub-arctic weather and their new relationship with Dunlop. But come the race it all paid off.

AF Corse completed a brilliant weekend by winning the GTE-Am class. The #83 car  piloted by Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Aguas, beat the #98 Aston Martin Vantage (Paul Dalla Lana/Pedri Lamy/Mathias Lauda) to the flag by one lap, with the #50 Larbre Competition C7 Corvette (Yutaka Yamagishi/Pierre Ragues/Paolo Ruberti) completing the GTE-Am podium. 

So as we said at the beginning ‘To finish first .. etc.’ maybe Porsche will be pondering what happened in the Hartley brain fade incident.. Audi will be wondering how their impeccable mechanical  record got damaged so publicly by a dead car sitting out there in the middle of the track for an embarrassingly long time.

Finally bearing in mind what the weather gods threw at us on Saturday it is very encouraging to hear that 52,000 spectators came to watch. Do you imagine that Bernie Ecclestone was a bit nervous of the ever increasing popularity of WEC when he ensured that the Grand Prix of Europe (in the brand new Formula One hot spot of Baku ?!)  clashed with Le Mans 24hrs thus making it 100% certain none of his drivers got a whiff of what ‘Endurance Racing’ has to offer. A very meagre 28,000 tickets have been made available for the European Grand Prix at Baku City Circuit. If Formula One carries along their suicidal, lemming led path to oblivion we may see more senior teams heading to LMP1. Now there is thought to keep us dribbling !

Jock Simpson

Postscript: Audi has chosen NOT to lodge an appeal following the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in the United Kingdom. 

From Audi Press Release:

"The thickness of the skid block of the number “7” Audi R18 represented a breach of Article 3.5.6 a3 of the regulations, according to the assessment of the Technical Delegate. “We accept the exclusion from the classification and, in the interest of the sport, jointly look ahead,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, justifying the decision. The skid block suffered above-average wear during the season opener. An analysis revealed that its wear was attributable to unexpectedly heavy “bouncing,” in other words an up- and downward movement of the race car. “It it is our job to avoid increased wear – we accept this responsibility,” Dr. Ullrich said. “We made our decision in the interest of the sport and hope that the eight remaining world championship rounds will be similarly thrilling as the season opener.” In just two weeks’ time, on May 7, round two of the season will be coming up at Spa (Belgium)."

ELMS in perspective - Jox Jottings

Kristof Vermeulen, our rather special Club Arnage ‘blogger’ has not only produced any number of impressive blogs for the site but has taken all the stunning photos as well. For the nuts and bolts of ELMS , the cars, teams and serious details go and browse his Club Arnage blogs. He also travels all over the place so he is serious asset! Clearly his input is vastly more erudite than those found historically in ‘Jox Jottings’. Even so whenever possible we will maybe fill in a few bits and bobs. 

This time let’s point the spotlight at LMP3. When it was announced there was a fear that the world of GTs was already pretty well served and Prototypes were doing OK. But there were no stepping stones upto the less cost effective ( OK expensive !!) LMP2 cars. The ACO saw an opportunity to rapidly build a new class and at the same time boost the ‘slimmish’ ELMS grids. The ACO love their prototypes and they got this dead right. The costs are manageable, the cars look serious and to date the racing has been excellent.  

We do wonder if ELMS will gradually become exclusively  aimed at Prototypes to the exclusion of GTs. This may not be such a bad thing since GT cars have any number of opportunities to race all over the world.. prototypes don’t. There were nineteen LMP3 cars here at Silverstone with a further fifteen LMP2 machines and ‘modest’ nine LMGTE examples not forgetting the CDNT SR41. (Just in case you missed it CDNT stands for ‘Cars Displaying New Technology’.

In this case the new technology surrounds the set up to enable Eric Sausset who is disabled to drive the car. This might be short-lived New Technology because the regulations state that next year all the cars will have roofs). All this lot added up to a grid of forty four cars which must be close to the maximum allowed on the GP circuit for GT and Prototype cars!

The future looks very rosy as not only Ligier are building cars.. so are Ginetta, Norma, Adess, Dome and Riley. Already various National Championships are planning on running events for these cars in the future.

The cars weigh in at 930 kgs with an 85 litre fuel tank. The engines are all Nissan V8 and all the cars have to have a six speed gearbox. So the chassis suppliers are limited as is the engine supplier and the sale price of the new car, complete, must not exceed €206,000.  Good value when you reckon a road going Ferrari 488 could cost you around €215,387.35. So they look good, they are ‘sensibly’ priced, there are plenty of places to race one and on Saturday here at Silverstone out of the 44 cars that started 34 finished after four hours and 432 miles.