No.25 APR overcomes treacherous conditions to win the 4 Hours of Silverstone
No.25 Algarve Pro Racing (APR) has taken its first victory of the year after overcoming treacherous classic British weather at the 4 Hours of Silverstone. In LMP2 Pro-Am, the No.14 TDS Racing took the class win, followed by the No.85 R-ace GP and the No.62 Team Qatar Iron Lynx in LMP3 and LMGT3, respectively.
4 Hours of Silverstone race as it happened
First hour: Jensen dictates the early proceedings
The first hour kicked off with cloudy conditions and a mild 21°C. No.43 Inter Europol's Jakub Smiechowski initially had a rapid start, before the No.37 CLX Motorsport's Theodor Jensen passed him for the lead on the first lap.
No.25's Matthias Kaiser soon passed the Polish driver for second. It was not the start Jamie Chadwick and the No.18 IDEC Sport side were hoping for, after she seemingly made contact with a car ahead and caused her to spin.
In the LMP2 Pro-Am class, Steven Thomas in the No.14 TDS Racing car is out in the lead from CLX's No.47 Pro-Am entry. Georgios Kolovos, in the latter car, is catching the American, with the gap now less than a second.
CLX's LMP3 entry, the No.17 Ligier, is leading the race with Paul Lanchère almost three seconds ahead of local driver Matthew Richard Bell in the No.11 Eurointernational. The battle for fourth heated up with Griffin Peebles in the No.22 United Autosports passing the championship leader, the No.29 Forestier Racing by Panis.
Chadwick, meanwhile, was starting to recover the lost ground after her earlier spin. The Briton found herself in the middle of LMP2 Pro-Am between the Nos.3 and 30 cars, before safely passing them as she continued on her way. Kolovos took the lead from Thomas and sat 2.3 seconds ahead.
We have yet to mention the LMGT3 class: the No.33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette, piloted by Blake McDonald, was leading with a considerable gap. The 36-year-old was ahead of the No.62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx by four seconds. P. J. Hyett in the No.99 AO by TF went to the run-off area while chasing for position.
Jensen continues to extend his lead and is now comfortably 10 seconds ahead of Kaiser. Things are not looking good for the No.14 TDS Racing after Thomas locked up and had to go wide, losing some time to chase his rivals.
At 12:33, race control reprimanded the No.77 Proton Porsche for causing a collision earlier, and the car will receive 10 seconds added to its next stop. Trouble for the No.35 Ultimate car in LMP3 as it spun. Hyett passed Giorgio Roda in the No.30 Duqueine Oreca for fourth in the LMP2 Pro-Am class. The Italian was seemingly struggling with these sets of tyres.
The No.10 Vector Sport was the first to pit on lap 21. Chadwick also pitted along with the No.3 DKR Engineering car and our race leader Jensen, just to name a few. It was not clear how Bell was able to catch up to Lanchère's taillights. Bell then dived to take the lead from the Frenchman.
45 minutes into the race, Jensen regained his lead after the Inter Europol car pitted. The No.62 Mercedes was flying, with Abdulla Al-Khelaifi now dangerously close behind McDonald, and the Qatari driver made it clear with his headlights that he wanted to pass him for the lead.
Not long after, Hyett was catching the No.14 TDS for second in LMP2 Pro-Am. Some parts of the track have ominous clouds looming over them. Peebles made a brilliant move down the inside on Kaiser at Stowe for second place overall, as the Liechtenstein driver had to escape to the run-off area.
55 minutes into the race, Martin Berry pitted and served the penalty for his No.77 car. The first hour ended with pit stops for the LMP3 and LMGT3 cars. Peebles' progress in the No.22 car was halted with a drive-through penalty for causing a collision with Woodward earlier.
Second hour: Lost tyre, VSC and safety car as rain begins pouring down
The second hour started with the No.23 United McLaren going slow and catching an LMP2 car by surprise. But contact was inevitable; thankfully, Michael Birch had enough to make it to the pits after previously thought to be running out of fuel. The No.63 Iron Lynx was tagged by an LMP2 car, sending it off the track. Jensen has a considerable lead over his rivals already.
The No.10 car went spinning off the track after it made contact with the No.17 car, allowing Chadwick to advance to ninth overall. Some sprinkles of rain on board the cars were enough for Eduardo Freitas to ask the drivers on the radio to activate their rain lights. Some cars also had their wipers activated.
The No.4 car lost control and collided with the No.57 Ferrari in front. Big trouble for the pole-sitter No.43 car as the car lost its rear-left wheel. At 13:20, Full Course Yellow (FCY) was declared, and the field was neutralised. Nick Yelloly made it back to the pits under the guise of emergency repairs, and the Briton rejoined the race not long after.
It was not a long FCY, lasting for only about a minute, possibly to recover that lost tyre. Rain is now pouring on the pit lane. Big trouble for the No.74's Andrew Gilbert, who had his own moment at the end of the pit lane, and the No.63 Iron Lynx collided with it. Subsequently, both cars retired from the race.
VSC was declared again in the aftermath, and several teams pitted their cars. While rain was visible on the broadcast, not all teams opted to switch to the wet-weather tyres.
The VSC transitioned into a safety car, and all the competitors were bunched up. The No.34 Inter Europol was the first to jump into the pits when the pit lane opened, still under safety car. Another major player to pit was the No.99 AO by TF, leaders in Pro/Am.
Third hour: More FCYs and bad news
Edward Pearson in the No.24 Nielsen Racing moved to the lead as Ian Aguilera in the No.37 car pitted in the prolonged safety car. CLX's No.47 LMP2 Pro-Am entry also pitted, making it a double stack for the Annecy-based team.
The rain seemingly continues to worsen, and there is no sign that the safety car will end anytime soon — until race control announced that the safety car will end at 14:10. Pearson led the restart, and he was quite a distance away from the second-placed Vladislav Lomko in the No.10 car.
CLX's No.37 car mistimed its overtake attempt on a Porsche LMGT3 car and spun in the middle of the track, although Aguilera was able to rejoin. It was looking promising for the team that led the majority of the race, but now they need to redo it all over again. There was still a lot to play for in the final 90 minutes.
Bad news for the No.25 APR, as it was handed an additional 10 seconds for its next pit stop for causing a collision with the No.23 United McLaren at the start of the second hour. The No.88 Proton LMP2 Pro-Am, however, was handed a more severe penalty with a drive-through penalty and one penalty point for colliding with the No.63 car.
No.62's Ralf Aron came alive as the conditions worsened and kept Udell on his toes. In LMP3, Pierre-No.85 R-ace GP's Alexandre Provost challenged Alexander Jacoby in the No.17 for the lead. No.34's Bijoy Garg admitted it was easy to get lost in the traffic due to poor visibility.
Jacoby lost his LMP3 lead after a spin, and he fell to fifth. Looking at the overall positions, Pearson continues to lead in the No.24 car, but below him are not fellow LMP2 rivals, but Pro-Am sides No.14 TDS Racing and the No.83 AF Corse. Meanwhile, Aron finally overtook Udell for the LMGT3 lead.
The No.18 IDEC Sport car was stranded in the gravel at Stowe, and FCY was declared at 14:39. The No.43 car received a drive-through for an unsafe release. Laurents Hörr looked disappointed in IDEC Sport's were losing valuable time because the car needed to be rescued from the gravel. Nonetheless, Valerio Rinicella was able to resume, despite the Italian driver being way behind.
At 14:45, FCY was removed, and the drivers returned to racing speed. Rather surprisingly, No.14's Sami Meguetounif passed Pearson for the overall lead of the race, despite being an LMP2 Pro-Am LMP2 entrant. Most LMP2 Pro-Am teams pitted after the restart.
At 14:51, the No.59 Racing Spirit of Léman (RSL) was stranded on the gravel before it was able to resume. FCY was once again deployed. Drivers were asked to bear left to allow the marshals to recover debris.
Final hour: Settling the business
The No.14 car was suddenly no longer the race leader after going slow. No.83's Antonio Fuoco is now the race leader as Meguetounif pitted, presumed to be out of fuel. 2.7 seconds behind was the No.28 IDEC Sport, the LMP2 class leader. Both cars pitted with 57 minutes left.
No.28's Job van Uitert emerged as the leader, but the Dutchman travelled to the run-off area and now has No.7 Vector Sport of LMP2 Pro-Am behind him by less than 0.5 seconds. Lorenzo Fluxá passed Van Uitert for the lead, and the 27-year-old made contact with an LMGT3, allowing Marino Sato in the No.21 United car to move into overall second place. The Japanese driver became the overall race leader with 47 minutes left on the clock.
At 15:30, No.25 APR's Ben Barnicoat became the overall race leader after the Briton overtook Sato. No.85 R-ace GP was 27.7 seconds ahead of the No.17 car. Mathys Jaubert led the LMGT3 class by four seconds ahead of No.62's Julian Hanses.
Seven minutes later, through goes Scott Huffaker II in a Lewis Hamilton style on Van Uitert and a Porsche LMGT3 traffic for third overall position. The fight for the LMGT3 class win was in full swing with Hanses all over Jaubert. No.33's Charlie Eastwood can be spotted not far behind them. Hanses calmly bid his time before overtaking the Frenchman; Eastwood also advanced to second.
At 15:51, Eastwood overtook Hanses for the lead but took damage on his rear end. A few corners later, the German driver reclaimed his lead. The top 3 of the LMGT3 cars were less than a full second apart, from Hanses to Jaubert.
Right on the final lap of the race, the No.5 Rinaldi Racing seemingly ran out of fuel so late in the race, but pushed as hard as it could to score points. Barnicoat crossed the line to take the overall win for the No.25 APR, and taking the team's first ELMS overall win since the 2023 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. In LMP2 Pro-Am, the No.14 TDS Racing took the class win, followed by the No.85 R-ace GP and the No.62 Team Qatar Iron Lynx in LMP3 and LMGT3, respectively.
LMP2 - Top 5
1st No.25 APR - Kaiser, Hughes, Barnicoat
2nd No.28 IDEC Sport - Lafargue, Chatin, Van Uitert
3rd No.22 United - Peebles, Hanley, Saucy
4th No.24 Nielsen Racing - Nissany, Pearson, Aitken
5th No.37 CLX Motorsport - Jensen, Aguilera, Closmenil
LMP2 Pro-Am - Top 5
1st No.14 TDS Racing - Thomas, Meguetounif, Huffaker II
2nd No.21 United - Schneider, Jarvis, Sato
3rd No.19 Rossa Racing by Virage - Falb, Koen, Espírito Santo
4th No.30 Duqueine - Roda, Pin, Verschoor
5th No.47 CLX Motorsport - Kolovos, Habsburg, Milesi
LMP3 - Top 5
1st No.85 R-ace GP - Michal, Provost, Schwarze
2nd No.17 CLX Motorsport - Lanchère, Jacoby, Iglesias
3rd No.13 Inter Europol Competition - Bukhantsov, Chou, Cubides
4th No.11 Eurointernational - Bell, Van der Snel, Dedecker
5th No.5 Rinaldi Racing - Cautela, Rodella, Pedersen
LMGT3 - Top 5
1st No.69 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx - Al-Khelaifi, Aron, Hanses
2nd No.33 TF Sport - McDonald, Udell, Eastwood
3rd No.77 Proton - Berry, Van Eijndhoven, King
4th No.57 Kessel Racing - Kimura, Serra, Jaubert
5th No.55 Spirit of Race - Cameron, Perel, Griffin
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