ELMS action resumes at the Red Bull Ring next week

Next week, the European Le Mans Series heads off to Austria for the third round of the season at the Red Bull Ring.  Earlier this week, the entry list for the 4 hour race has been published.

A total of 38 cars in 3 classes will be on the grid next Sunday. 11 cars will race in LMP2, which is 3 less compared to the starting grid at Imola. For the first time in ELMS history, all LMP2 cars will be powered by a Nissan engine, as all 3 Judd powered cars won't race in Austria.

Race Performance, who kept their clean sheet at Le Mans (6 starts, 6 finishes) won't bring their #34 Oreca 03/Judd to the Styrian Alps next week. The Swiss team will be at the Red Bull Ring with a one car effort in the LMP3 class. Mulsanne based SO24! by Lombard racing won't race their #22 Judd powered Ligier JSP2 in Austria either, after financial gremlins already came up ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The #28 IDEC Sport Ligier JSP2 decided to focus on their entry in the 24 hour race at Paul Ricard next week, but should be back on the ELMS grid for the remainder of the season.

All but 2 driver line-ups have already been confirmed. The third driver at Greaves Motorsport is still TBA, after Jakub Giermaziak has been replaced at Le Mans by Nathanaël Berthon due to a lack of sponsorship fundings. It's not clear yet if Berthon will race with Greaves again or Jon Lancaster who won the 2016 ELMS championship with the team (and tested at Le Mans) gets the third seat in Austria. Sean Doyle returns to the wheel of the #48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03/Nissan, he will be joined by Italian driver Guglielmo Belotti and a still to be announced third driver. In the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier, Andrea Pizzitola will take his place again after being replaced by Sir Chris Hoy at Le Mans.

The LMP3 field will be 19 cars strong, all Ligier JSP3/Nissan's this time. The Ave/Riley LMP3 which was bound to make its race debut in Austria is still struggling with the homologation process which has delayed its competition debut with another month. Murphy Prototypes raced with a Ginetta in Silverstone and a Ligier in Imola, but won't race in the LMP3 class in Spielberg. The Ave/Riley will be at the track though to do some more testing but won't race. Let's hope they will be able to make their debut at Paul Ricard next month.

At Graff Racing, James Winslow will join Paul Petit and Eric Trouillet in the #9 Ligier JSP3. He will replace the injured Enzo Guibert.

In LMGTE there are no significant changes compared to the last race in Imola. The 8 cars seen in Italy will be racing at the Red Bull Ring with similar driver line-ups, except for Proton Competition, for whom Marco Seefried and Matteo Cairoli will be joining car #77 and #78 respectively. They will replace Robert Renauer and Klaus Bachler.

Dragonspeed racing confirmed they will expand their ELMS effort in 2017 to two cars in the championship, and has ordered 2 new Oreca07/Gibson's. The team will also apply for an entry in the Le Mans 24 Hours. After their strong result at Imola with the first pole position and an excellent podium finish, the decision was made quickly to extend the team effort in the European Le Mans Series next season. Team principal Henrik Hedmand and Elton Julian were already at Le Mans last month to discuss the possibility of a 2017 entry at "the big one". 

G-Drive's championship leader Harry Tincknell's contract with Ford Performance has been extended. The Englishman will now race for the remainder of the season in WEC in the #67 Ford GT. He already raced with the team at Silverstone, Spa and Le Mans and will now complete the season with Marino Franchitti and Andy Priaulx. Ticknell will also complete the ELMS season with G-Drive Racing alongside Simon Dolan and Giedo Van Der Garde in the Gibson/Nissan.

Last month, Norma has revealed the design of its first LMP3 chassis, the Norma M30 LMP3. Production of the car has been started, with the first chassis to be assembled by the end of the summer.  In addition to studies conducted internally by Norma’s design desk since the summer of 2015, a significant collaboration was also implemented in recent months with the engineering office
at Tatuus, to validate an innovative process for design and development which entirely focused on optimising performance.

TDS Racing has already announced they will race a Norma M30 next season in the European Le Mans Series. According to Norbert Santos, who is thrilled with the partnership with TDS, several other teams have already showed interest in the new LMP3 and made clear they have the intention to race the new car as from next season."

Norbert Santos, the founder of the company declared "This is another very important moment in the history of Norma that we are in the middle of writing. We put a lot of resources and energy into the design of the M30. This will not only be a beautiful car but, we are convinced, it is also a performance car that will meet the expectations of our future partner teams. As such, I wish to very warmly thank Xavier Combet and Jacques Morello from TDS Racing for the speed with which they wished to formalise our agreements. I think they were both convinced of the relevance of our work. This is a first extremely important partnership that will allow us to prepare our launch in the best possible way. Other teams have already made clear their intention to join us. These are trusted brands that affect us, whilst the first car will only be, as scheduled, assembled at the end of the summer.

Useful links for the race in Austria next week :

Timetable

Entry List

Event poster

Kristof Vermeulen.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2016 - Expect the unexpected!

After the support races, the 'start procedure' began of the 24 hours. This includes flag waving and national anthems and the cars lined up in echelon formation along pit straight. The 'grid girls' this year were accompanied by a smattering of 'grid boys' which is a win for sexual equality. During the grid shenanigans there was a huge crowd of people milling about on the track and it looked like almost as many on the grid as in the grandstands. At 2pm the grid was cleared of the 'throng' and the teams lined up for the official team photo and French national anthem.

Among the celebs attending are Jackie Chan, Jason Statham, Patrick Dempsey and Brad Pitt who would later hold the starting flag. Just as the 're-installation' of the 24 hours trophy was performed, a few spots of rain started to fall and the race director announced a 'wet race' which means free tyre choice. The starting flag itself was delivered by Armée de l’Air rappelling from a helicopter. 

Final grid clearance was at 2:21pm and all drivers aboard for installation lap at 2:22pm. The heavens then opened and deluged the circuit just as the celebs were being ushered indoors. The race was started under safety car conditions due to standing water (1st time since 1992 says Tony). The #67 Ford GT was pushed into pit garage with gearbox problems just 5 minutes before the start in a worrying development for Ford. The ByKolles #4 was also in pit box at the start of the race but joined after lap 1 to the back of the 'train' of cars. The #67 finally left the pits two laps down. The #12 Rebellion entered pits and was pushed into pit garage at 3:25pm with water in the engine air-box.

The rain eased off at 3:30pm but the safety cars remained out until 3:55. Conway in #6 Toyota made his way past Jani in #2 Porsche on the one hour mark. Lotterer in Audi #7 briefly got by Bernhard in #1 Porsche on the next lap. At 4:06 it was Toyota - Porsche - Audi at the top of the field and #36 Signatech Alpine leading LMP2. By 4:10 the pitlane was bathed in sunshine and the track drying quickly. 

#7 Audi arrived in its pit box with problems at 4:20 and Duval in #8 Audi then passed Hartley in #1 Porsche for the lead. The rain returned at 4:35 and Hartley soon made his way around Duval and set fastest lap (thus far) on lap 21 with a time of 3:25.775. At 5:30 Treluyer was making a valiant fight back with several fastest laps in quick succession. Mike Conway in Toyota #6 had made his way right up behind the leading #1 Porsche with Hartley at the wheel and was challenging for the lead.

Just before 6pm and the 3 hour mark, back in GTE Pro, Fisichella in Ferrari #82 was chasing on the tail of the class leading #69 Ford GT. At the head of the field Hartley in #1 Porsche led Conway in Toyota #6 from Duval in the #8 Audi. Close also at the top of GTE Am with the KCMG Porsche #78 battling for the lead with the Porsche #88 of Abu Dhabi Proton Racing. In LMP2 the #47 KCMG Oreca led the #44 Manor Oreca.

By 6:15pm the GTE Pro lead had changed after pit stops with Vilander in #82 Ferrari ahead of Briscoe in #69 Ford GT. In LMP2 the Manor #44 had also passed the #47 KCMG for the class lead. Out at the front the Toyotas were running extra laps on each stop and staying longer in the lead as the Porsches did their pit stops. With the #7 Audi setback earlier, the #8 Audi remained alone in contention for overall lead. Things appeared to be going well for Toyota until Davidson in #5 returned to the pits just one lap after making his scheduled stop for a tyre change, dropping the car to 5th place.

Mechanical troubles for #44 Manor Oreca and #91 Porsche changed the order of the timing screens in LMP2 and GTE Pro just before 7pm. Between 7:30 and 7:45 the Ford GT #68 (Hand) and #69 (Briscoe) passed the #82 (Vilander) Ferrari on-track putting Ford 1-2 in GTE Pro. The #12 Rebellion and #7 Audi continued carving slowly through the LMP2 field. They were 14th and 18th respectively at 7:50pm. There was another setback for Audi, this time for #8 that had a new door fitted. By 8pm after a round of pit stops, Ford were 1-2-3 in GTE Pro. The #82 Ferrari didn't seem to have the pace to hold them off.

At 10pm Toyota #6 with Sarrazin at the wheel was leading, but chased closely by Bernhard in #1 Porsche 12 seconds behind. In LMP2 the #46 Thiriet Oreca led #36 Alpine and #47 Oreca. Ford were still in charge of GTE Pro with #68 and #69 ahead of Ferrari #82. Franchitti in the delayed #67 Ford GT had a misadventure at Mulsanne corner (locked-up and nosed into tyres) which lost the car a little more time. At 10:20 the former LMP2 leader, the KCMG #47 Oreca conked out between Mulsanne and Indianapolis which initiated a slow zone to recover it. At 10:40 Pedro Lamy in the #98 Aston Martin took lead of GTE Am from Patrick Long in the #88 Porsche.

At 10:15 the Porsche #1 made a routine pit stop and Brendon Hartley took over from Timo Bernhard. Brendon was out for 1 lap then back in pitlane and into garage. The #98 Aston Martin (Dalla Lana) hit the barriers in Porsche curves and the #83 Ferrari (Perrodo) went straight on at Mulsanne corner. Safety car deployed at 11:30pm while #1 was still in pit garage. #44 Manor came into pits with rear end damage just after the SC deployment. After a routine stop Conway in #6 Toyota came out just in front of Jani in #2 Porsche then Jani made the pass for the lead at 11:57. Meanwhile #1 Porsche dropped to 8th place while sitting in garage. By 12:30am the #1 Porsche finally rejoined but just did one lap and returned to pit garage. The problems surrounded overheating and eventually a new water pump was fitted. By 2am the Toyotas were leading with two cars in contention but Porsche (#2) and Audi (#8) one car in touch and the other cars for the German manufacturers (#7 and #1) still going but many laps behind.

There were problems for #7 Audi at half way mark when it had to do most of a lap at slow speed, finally getting to pitlane. At 6am #6 Toyota, #2 Porsche and #5 Toyota were still on the same lap. Both Rebellions had fallen out of contention. At 6:45 the Corvette #64 with Tommy Milner aboard had a big hit on the tyre wall on the entry to the Dunlop chicane. The barrier required repair and the stricken car needed to be recovered so a slow zone was initiated. Milner thankfully unharmed despite his spectacular accident.

Retirements at 8:19am 46,64,4,51,71,92,91,47,89

At 9am with 6 hours remaining, top 3 in LMP1 (#5 #6 #2) were running close together, as were the top 2 in GTE Pro (#82 and #68) and GTE Am (#62 and #88). At 10am with 5 hours remaining the #36 Alpine was still leading P2 , #82 Ferrari GTE Pro and #62 Ferrari GTE Am. At the head of the field, the two Toyotas and the Porsche #2 still very close.

At 10:30am it looked like we might have the first Japanese manufacturer to win since Mazda in 1991, but at each stop the #2 Porsche popped up into the lead, showing that a win was still uncertain. In GTE Pro, the #82 still in the lead but three Ford GTs were still in contention with the #67 Ford a few laps adrift. Finally at 10:32am Hand in #68 Ford GT muscled past Malucelli in the #82 Ferrari to lead the class. In GTE Am the #62 Ferrari continued to lead the #88 Porsche a lap behind. Status quo also maintained in LMP2 with #36 Alpine nearly a lap ahead of the #26 G-Drive Oreca.

Just before 11:00am, the #8 Audi was pushed into the pit box for some intense activity around the front right corner. At the same time, Davidson in the #5 Toyota made an 'on track' pass on Lieb in the #2 Porsche on the approach to Mulsanne corner. There was a worrying moment for Kobayashi in #6 Toyota with a spin into the gravel at the Porsche curves at 11:20 but he managed to escape without the aid of snatch tractor. Meanwhile the #8 Audi finally emerged from its pit garage and rejoined ahead of the #7 Audi, also Webber in #1 Porsche had lifted the car to the first page of the timing screen.

At 11:30am there was an odd incident for the #44 Manor Oreca with Matt Rao at the wheel, which had a minor off at Indy then when limping back through the Porsche curves the nose collapsed and went under the front wheels precipitating the car into the barrier more comprehensively. By this time all the leading cars in LMP1 were showing battle scars, particularly the #2 Porsche with tyre marks all down the left side and the #6 Toyota with flapping bodywork, again on driver's left. At 11:45 Vilander in the (2nd in class) #82 Ferrari had a spin at Porsche curves and went straight into the pits for a full service.

The #6 Toyota was taken into pit garage at 12:10pm for a new nose and other repairs. The chasing #8 Audi was safely a few laps behind so no need for Toyota to take risks. The car stayed in for 10 minutes but retained position when Sarrazin took the car back on the circuit. The #2 Porsche was therefore at least reasonably safe from being monstered from behind by the #6. At this time the GTE Pro leading Ford GT #68 was a not very safe looking 40 seconds ahead of the #82 Ferrari.

With 2 hours remaining, the top 3 order in all classes remained fairly stable with #5 #2 #6 in P1 / #36 #26 #37 in P2 / #68 #82 #69 GTE Pro / #62 #83 #88 GTE Am but nothing was safe from a minor misfortune or penalty. There was a little excitement at 13:40 when a small fire broke out on the #28 Pegasus Morgan after Inès Taittinger had tried to nurse a flat tyre back to the pits. That car had made rather a lot of trips to the gravel and escape road at Mulsanne corner and after it's final excursion in the same place, it appeared to have a puncture. Slow zone procedure was applied to rescue the car.

Nobody could have predicted Nakajima slowing dramatically in the #5 Toyota and then stopping just over the finish line on the penultimate lap in a heart stopping last minute mechanical failure. They had looked so secure and confident right up to that moment. The Toyota team could hardly believe their eyes. The Porsche #2 worked hard to put themselves in a position to take advantage of any weakness at Toyota, but it was a cruel twist of fate for the Japanese manufacturer.

In the end the Porsche #2 won overall from Toyota #6 and Audi #8. In LMP2 it was the #36 Signatech Alpine from #26 G-drive Oreca and #37 SMP Racing BR01. In GTE Pro the Ford GT #68 finished first from #82 Risi Ferrari and #69 Ford GT but the Ferrari had ignored a black and orange flag that it was shown in the last few minutes of the race, so there is the possibility of a post-race time penalty. In GTE Am the #62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia finished ahead of the #83 AF Corse Ferrari and #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche.

For those curious as to why the Toyota #5 was unclassified, it fell foul of Article 10.15 of the Regulations; 

section e) Cars must finish the last lap in under 6 minutes except in case of "force majeure" at Stewards discretion.

#5 had a final lap of 11 minutes 53 seconds

The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2016: Race day, the build-up.

The 'advance party' of the CA team left our lair at the crack of dawn on Saturday and arrived well in time for the warm up. It seems that the right time to arrive ahead of the traffic is 7am!

The 45 minute warm-up for the 84th 24 hours of Le Mans started just 15 seconds after 9am. The track was bone dry but there remained some standing water inside curbs which caught out a few drivers. Griffin in #99 Aston Martin was first spinner, followed by Chatin in #23 Ligier who ended up beached in the gravel at the Porsche Curves bringing out the red flag. A few minutes after the session was resumed the red flag came out for the second time as David Cheng in the #35 Alpine rode the wet curbs at the entry of Indianapolis and gave the tyre wall a good clout. With only six minutes left, the session was not resumed.  Lotterer set fastest warm-up time in Audi #7 with a time of 3 minutes 25.886 seconds.

© Ferrari.com

The Ferrari Challenge support race was never likely to be incident-free and on the first lap Belgian driver Florian Merckx in the #88 had a misadventure at the 1st chicane on the Mulsanne straight, bringing out the safety car. At the front of the field, Baron in #91 and Grossman in #1 had a disagreement on the first lap of the restart at the Dunlop chicane but escaped major damage. The #91 gained a drive through penalty for his over-optimistic passing manoeuvre.  A batch of clashes and spins for #59 #37 #116 #173 and #48 which became stuck in gravel brought out the safety car for a second time. The #91 appeared to take his drive through penalty under SC conditions which I don't think was entirely kosher. Back to green again and there was a spin at Indy for #27 and a Ford Chicane for #86. In a hard fight in the last lap for the top 4 places #1 went up from 4th to 3rd. At the chequered flag is was Puglisi in #9 1st Smeeth #92 second and Grossmann #1 3rd.

© 2016 Gabi Tomescu / AdrenalMedia.com

In the one hour 'Road to Le Mans' support race, Fuster in #11 Ligier spun on the pit straight on the formation lap but survived with only hurt pride.  Charlie Robertson led from lap 1 in Ginetta #32 but after mid-race pit stops, a spin by Tomlinson and extended pit stop they fell out of contention. Robertson's 3:54.679 on lap 4 was nearly a consolation prize but it was beaten by Cosmo in #3 Ligier on very last lap 3:53.491 (lap13).  3rd place overall was hotly contested on last lap between #18 and #77 but finally #77 made the position. Tyre problems on the last lap dropped out #26 from 3rd place in GT3.  The overall winner was the #85 Ligier of Laurent and Cougnaud and #57 Ferrari of Basov and Shaitar won the GT3 class.

Dave Davies.