An action packed
afternoon at the Red Bull Ring in Austria yesterday, where Thiriet by
TDS Racing took their second victory in a row in
their Oreca 05/Nissan.
Timothe Buret took a
clean start in the #23 Panis Barthez Ligier JSP2 from pole position,
leaving the competition to battle it out behind him. Giedo Van der
Garde went up to second in the #38 G-Drive, but suffered from a slow
puncture after he probably made contact with Tristan Gommendy in the
#33 Eurasia Oreca 05 during the battle for second. This caused him to
pit early, and losing initial contact with the frontrunners.
Gommendy drove a strong
opening stint, staying close to Buret and kept on pushing hard when
they hit traffic. Behind both leaders, Nicolas Lapierre steered his
Dragonspeed Oreca into third place. When Buret made contact with the
#66 JMW Ferrari, Gommendy took the lead of the race. Nicolas Lapierre
in the #21 Dragonspeed and Pierre Thiriet – who didn't have the
best start - also passed the unfortunate Buret who dropped into
fourth place. As this wasn't enough bad luck already, the Panis
Barthez team lost even more time with a drive through penalty,
dropping them down the order.
After the first round of pitstops Pierre Thiriet took the lead in the
#46, not changing drivers as most of the other teams did. Pu Junjin
took the wheel of the Eurasia and locked in second position ahead of
Brian Hedman in the Dragonspeed. Problems with a headlight messed up
Thiriet's strategy, causing him to come in for a new nose, now
handing over the wheel to Ryo
Hirakawa.
The Japanese driver
took the lead again after the second pitstops, now ahead of Julian
Leal who put the #32 SMP Racing BR01 in contention for a podium
finish. After a fierce stint of Van der Garde in the Gibson, Simon
Dolan put the car back in third place, ahead of Nick De Bruijn in the
Eurasia. When the race was almost half way, a full course yellow was
deployed when the #7 Villorba Corse LMP3 got stuck into a gravel
trap.
The third round of
pitstops didn't change much on the running order. Mathias Beche now
taking the wheel of the leading Oreca 05, followed by De Bruijn who
had passed Dolan a few laps before. Dolan now gave the G-Drive #38 to
Harry Tincknell who started to chase Stefano Coletti who took over from
Julian Leal in the BR01.
Coletti didn't have the
best start of his stint when he got involved in a situation with
slower cars, but still managed to keep second place. Problems with
his rear lights later on called for an extra stop, dropping him down
to fourth position. Bad luck meanwhile for the Dragonspeed too, when
Ben Hanley went quite hard into the barriers exiting the pits after
the third round of pitstops. Hanley brought the car back in again
with severe damage on the left hand side, causing it to retire.
Tincknell was up into
third again, determined to climb up to second. Ahead of him Mathias
Beche kept the lead in the #46 with the #33 Eurasia about seconds
behind. Disaster struck again though when the Pegasus Racing Morgan
spun right in front of Tincknell with no way to avoid a collision.
The second full course yellow of the race was deployed, and another
unscheduled pitstop for the G-Drive team who now only could nurse the
car home and keep on to third place.
With 10 minutes to go a
third full course yellow was given when Tracy Krohn had a slight off,
releasing the field again with 3 laps to go. After an exciting and
eventful 4 hours, Thiriet by TDS Racing took the second victory of
the season, almost 52 seconds ahead of the #33 Eurasia Oreca and the
unfortunate #38 G-Drive Gibson 015S which might have had the outright
speed to battle for the win but was denied any good luck yesterday
afternoon.
Fourth place was for
the #32 SMP Racing BR01, with the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier
securing fifth place in the final lap when Pizzitola passed Meme
Rojas Jr in the Greaves Motorsport Ligier. The pole sitting Panis
Barthez Ligier ultimately took the chequered flag in seventh
position.
Halfway the
championship, G-Drive Racing leads the table with 58 points after a
win in Silverstone and 2 podium finishes afterwards. Thiriet by TDS
Racing closes in with 51 points after back to back victories in Imola
and Spielberg. Third in the standings is SMP Racing with 42 points.
Eurasia Motorsport (28 points) and Krohn Racing (22 points) complete
the top 5.
LMP3
Valentin Moineault took
the start in the #16 Panis Barthez Ligier but didn't get the most out
of that advantage. After 2 collisions early in the race he dropped
back to third behind the #19 Duqueine Engineering who got into the
lead ahead of the #2 Graff Racing with Alex Brundle at the wheel. The
#3 Graff sister car quickly got out of contention for the win when a
puncture caused bodywork damage and a long pitstop for repairs.
After the first
pitstops Andrea Mondini was leading the pack in the #11
Eurointernational with the #12 and #10 Graff behind him. Lots of lead
changes in the class in the second hour of the race, when both
Eurointernational cars lost the lead in the second sequence of
pitstops.
When the first full course yellow period was called, the
#18 Yvan Muller Racing had the lead, but losing it again when the car
needed repairs on its rear bodywork. The #6 360 Racing now took
second place followed closely by David Halliday in the #19 Duqueine
Engineering.
The #11
Eurointernational got back in front after the second set of pitstops,
now ahead of the #19. Marco Jacobini
built up a comfortable lead and seemed to be on the road for the win,
but a clash with 2 LMP2 cars took him out. With the lead car
eliminated, Duqueine Engineering got back in front, now chased by the
#9 Graff and the #2 United Autosports.
In the fourth hour the
#19 managed to hold on to its lead despite being chased by the #2,
closing the gap ultimately to 3.5 seconds. The #6 360 Racing had a
strong last stint, giving the crew a well deserved podium finish.
A few hours after
the race, a harsh verdict came from the race stewards. Apparently the
winning car didn't comply with the mandatory pitstop times in LMP3,
receiving a 4 second penalty and handing over the win to the #2
United Autosports with a margin of 0.5 seconds. A clean sheet then
for the British/American team, remaining unbeaten in the class this
year.
GTE
Matteo Cairoli did a
great job handing the #88 Proton Porsche its first pole position, but
the team couldn't hold on to that advantage during the race. Andrea
Bertolini & co in the #66 JMW Ferrari dominated the class and
almost lead flag to flag in Austria.
It could have gone the
other way though when starting driver Rory Butcher made contact with
the #23 Panis Barthez LMP2 but got out unharmed. Aside from that
moment, Butcher had a perfect start, immediately challenging the
leading Porsche and climbing up the order inbetween the LMP3 field.
They only lost the lead after a spin halfway the race, but that
didn't stop them from lapping every one else in class.
Behind the untouchable
Ferrari Marco Seefried drove an impressive double stint up to second
in the #77 Proton Porsche and to first when the JMW spinned. The #56
AT Ferrari had a strong home race, Alexander Talkanitsa Jr strongly
held on to its third behind the leading Porsche and Ferrari. After
the second round of pitstops, Andrea Bertolini was in the lead now
being chased by Matteo Cairoli in the #88 Porsche and the #51 &
#56 Ferrari.
The #88 fell down the
order when Christian Reid got back in the car after the last stop,
being overtaken by both the #51 and #56 Ferrari's. Behind them the
Beachdean Aston Martin Ferrari had a strong second part of the race,
crossing the line 14 seconds behind third place.
Rory Butcher crossed
the line first, handing the well deserved win to the JMW team who
lost their first place in Silverstone earlier this year.
The next race in the
ELMS championship is scheduled in the last weekend of August at the
Paul Ricard track at Le Castellet.
Kristof Vermeulen.
