Forestier Racing win incident and drama filled ELMS 4 Hours of Imola
- Aaron Carroll
- 3 hours ago
- 9 min read
Esteban Masson, Oliver Gray and Louis Rousset have won the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) 4 Hours of Imola with a dominant final two stints for Masson, pulling the winning margin to almost a minute ahead of the No.22 United Autosport car.
In LMP2 Pro-Am, Lorenzo Fluxa held off a late charge from Malthe Jakobsen in the No.20 Algarve Pro Racing car to win for the No.7 Vector Sport crew alongside Jens Reno Moller and Cem Bolukbasi.
In LMP3 Louis Iglesias impressed once again in his final stint to give CLX Motorsports No.17 Ligier the win, alongside Alexander Jacoby and Paul Lanchere.
Finally LMGT3 was mostly dominated by the No.33 TF Sport Corvette before a final stint battle, where Charlie Eastwood shot from fourth to first in a handful of laps. He won alongside Blake MacDonald and Alec Udell.
As it happened
As it was all weekend, we had a very hot and sunny day in Imola for the start of the race. The lights went out and Louis Rousset in the No.29 Forestier Racing car got away well from pole position, with Adrein Closmenil in the No.37 CLX car behind defending second from Griffin Peebles in the No.22 United Autosports car.
It was a clean getaway in all classes, with Giorgio Roda in the No.30 Duqiene, Paul Lanchere in the No.17 CLX and Blake MacDonald in the No.33 TF Sport Corvette all leading away in their respective classes.
The No.69 LMP3 of Nick Adcock had a spin at Aqua Minerale in the first 10 minutes, he seemed to have got involved with Alexander Bukhantsov in the No.13 Inter Europol car - the latter of whom was given a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility. Both cars were delayed, but got moving again after a brief local yellow flag.
Adcock's struggles continued, as the LMP2 leaders caught traffic. Due to his initial spin, he was towards the back of the LMGT3 field, so got caught up in the chaos and was hit by the No.37 heading into the first Rivazza.
He went off into the gravel, with a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) needed to collect him from the gravel. He was able to continue on, once he had been lifted out. Later on in the race, the No.37 was given a drive-through for incident responsibility.
Meanwhile, the leaders were also held up by the chaos. Rousset got held up by the No.55 Spirit of Race Ferrari, allowing Closmenil behind to get a run, and get into the lead of the race before the VSC came out.
About eight cars across LMP2 Pro-Am, LMP3 and LMGT3 used this opportunity to pit. Notably Pro-Am front-runner Steven Thomas in the No.14 TDS car, and the LMP3 leader - Lanchere in the No.17. Only 15 minutes into the race, and strategy games were already being played.
The next lap around, the rest of the LMP2s pit, barring Closmenil and John Falb in the No.19 Virage Pro-Am entry.
Interestingly in LMP3, the No.17 CLX and the No.8 Virage both pitted twice, to serve their long stops. By regulation in LMP3, all teams have to serve two of their pit stops to a minimum time, with the rest being done as quick as they can.
By doing both of theirs under yellow, and the rest of the field doing one, they retained the lead lap and gained an advantage for later in the race when the rest of the field has to serve their second long stops. The downside being, Lanchere and Louis Stern were at the very back of the field.
So on the restart, Closmenil still lead the way, but still from Rousset and Peebles, who had pit and retained their positions. However, there were three LMP3s between Closmenil and the duo behind, allowing him to pull out a gap while they overtook the traffic. The No.19 Virage car of Falb led Pro-Am from sixth overall, with the No.30 of Roda down in 11th overall being his closest challenger.
Abdulla Ali Al-Khelafi in the No.62 Iron Lynx Qatar Mercedes, led LMGT3, a class which was entirely ahead of the LMP3 field after the pass-around. Fabien Michal in the No.85 R-ACE GP Duqiene led that class, almost a lap behind the GTs.
We went green and Peebles got a good jump from third, going side-by-side with Rousset through Tamburello, and getting into second place. Closmenil used the traffic to his advantage well, gaining six seconds on those behind.
MacDonald in the No.33 Corvette was looking quick in LMGT3, getting all the way around the outside of Tosa on the No.50 Ferrari of Costodio Toledo, and getting past Matthew Kurzejewski in the No.75 Proton Porsche a couple of laps later. He moved the pole-sitting car up into second place.
Toledo, Closmenil, the No.24 Nielsen car of Roy Nissany, the No.47 CLX car of Giorgios Kolovos, the No.59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin of Clement Mateu and the No.57 Kessel Ferrari of Takeshi Kimura took a big hit, all getting a drive-through penalty for a start infringement. A massive hit for the overall race leaders.
Just after 45 minutes gone in the race, the No.28 IDEC Sport LMP2 of Paul Lafargue lost the car into the gravel by himself, bringing out the races first Full-Course Yellow. Crucially for the former leaders who had just served their penalty, they would not be able to pit and fuel up - the only LMP2 car not to have done so yet.
When we went back to green, there was absolute chaos in LMP2. Roda in the No.30 immediately found the tyres very cold and understeered straight off the road into the barrier at Tosa. He was able to reverse it out though and get back to the pits.
Then the No.28 IDEC of Lafargue had another spin, this time at Variante Alta, once again into the gravel. The FCY was brought out once again to remove him from the gravel.
Falb was spun around at Tamburello too, going off into the gravel but he was able to keep it going under his own steam. The No.27 Nielsen Racing Pro-Am, and the No.3 DKR Engineering Pro-Am cars also had spins, but they did not end up off the track and continued on their way.
The action didn't stop for long, we soon went back to green and MacDonald was on the charge once again in LMGT3. He got the jump on Khelafi and went through into the lead of the race.
After just a lap of green flag racing, Mikkel Jensen in the No.20 Algarve Pro Racing (APR) car had almost the exact same incident as Roda did, understeering into the wall at Tosa. He got moving again though, as did Kriton Lentoudis in the No.27 car who had a second spin.
The grip of the Oreca 07 LMP2 cars seemed to be less than optimal, as race leader Peebles also had an off, briefly taking to the grass before Tosa. He lost about two seconds to Rousset behind, who was now six seconds behind.
We didn't get too much further, as after we crossed the one hour mark, Takeshi Kimura in the No.57 Car Guy Kessel Racing Ferrari found himself in the gravel at Piratella, bringing out the VSC once again.
The vast majority of the field used this yellow period to complete a scheduled service, and many of those cars took aboard new drivers. Gregoire Saucy took over from Peebles in the lead car, with Oliver Gray taking over from Rousset and Jamie Chadwick in third in the No.18 IDEC Sport car.
LMP2 Pro-Am in the No.7 Vector Sport car of Cem Bolukbasi leads the way from 10th overall, with the No.85 still leading LMP3 in the hands of Michal, and MacDonald in the lead of the GT class still at the wheel.
We couldn't quite get back to green flag racing though, as Dane Cameron in the No.99 AO Racing Pro-Am car lost his front left wheel out on track, and had to limp back to the pits for repairs. To add incident to injury, they entered a closed pit, so would have to come back in once we went green.
With just over two and a half hours remaining we did finally get back to green, and all the leaders got away in single file in both LMP2 and LMP2 Pro-Am, and LMGT3, where MacDonald quickly opened out a 10 second lead.
Back in LMP3 though, Michal was defending the lead from Matthew Richard Bell in the No.11 Euro International car. Michal eventually was able to pull away though, pulling out about five seconds not long before the halfway point in the race.
The No.63 Iron Lynx Mercedes of was battling in the No.54 High Class Porsche for fourth in LMGT3, when Clement Mateu in the No.59 Aston Martin came from behind, going too late on the brakes in Tamburello.
He jumped over the kerb on the inside and couldn't slow down enough before he collided hard with the Mercedes. Both cars went off with big damage, and couldn't rejoin the race, bringing out the VSC once again.
Due to this, the No.24 Nielsen car of Edward Pearson slowed leaving Aqua Minerale, but Maceo Capietto in the No.3 DKR Engineering car didn't catch it in time and went into the back of him. Sami Meguetounif in the No.14 car was also caught out, hitting the back of Capietto at the same time.
The No.14 TDS car came away with big damage, ending their race, with smaller damage to the other two cars.
With all of the cars and debris cleared, we went green once again and Saucy led the way from the No.37 CLX car, which was a lap down but trying to get a lap back. In second place (third in the train) was Gray in the No.29.
In LMP2 Pro-Am Horst Felix Felbermayr in the No.88 Proton car led from the No.21 United Autosports car of Oliver Jarvis. R-ACE GP and TF Sport still led the way in LMGT3 and LMP3.
The Pro-Am leader was however given a 10 second stop-go penalty for a VSC infringement, putting United Autosports into the lead of both LMP2 classes in their 500th race.
Speaking of the leaders, Gray had cleared the CLX car, so the battle for the lead was nose to tail - Saucy vs Gray. The two went side-by-side multiple times, but Gray couldn't quite find a way through. These two were completely in a class of their own, with a gap of 10 seconds to Tristan Vautier in the No.25 APR in third.
The No.13 InterEuropol LMP3 had a coming together with the No.47 CLX LMP2 Pro-Am, leaving the LMP3 with damage. There was some debris on the track, so race control called a FCY to allow marshalls to remove it.
When we went back to green both the No.3 DKR LMP2 and the No.23 McLaren both had brief offs into the gravel, but continued on their way. The latter of which had a problem with the brakes, which took it into the garage.
The LMP3 leading No.85 in the hands of Pierre Alexandre-Provost had an off at Aqua Minerale, but got back onto the track still in the lead thanks to the large lead he had already built up.
Soon after though, they had an incident where the No.18 IDEC Sport car ran into the back of them, giving them damage that dropped them right down the order. The No.47 and No.35 cars also had incidents, but both kept moving.
Then came a round of pit stops for the field, with the No.29 coming out in front of the No.22, with the two cars taking Esteban Masson and Benjamin Hanley onboard. It was Masson's rapid out lap that sealed the lead of the race with an hour remaining.
After it was the turn of the LMGT3 cars to pit. It was also time for these cars to install their Pro drivers. The No.54 High Class Racing Porsche came out in front in the hands of Klaus Bachler, but at the time it was uncertain if he needed a splash at the end of the race or not.
The No.75 Proton Competition Porsche of Thomas Sargent was second, with Maxime Martin in the No.62 Mercedes giving charge behind. As the Porsche only took two tyres during the stop, Martin made quick work of him for second place.
Fourth was Charlie Eastwood in the No.33 Corvette that had led the vast majority of the race, who was giving chase to all three. He also caught the back of Sargent, moving that car back into third place.
The gaps between the three all closed right up, and we had a three way battle for the lead. Eastwood in third found his was past Martin, and kept the momentum going to take the lead from Bachler on the same lap. Martin also found his way past the Porsche, albeit with a bit of door-to-door contact on the way into Rivazza.
In Pro-Am the No.47 CLX car of Charles Milesi was trying to get by Richard Verschoor in the No.30 Duqiene. The Alpine factory driver was piling on the pressure, forcing Verchoor into a lock-up at Rivazza and getting past for sixth in class. But Milesi would be given a penalty for an earlier incident with the No.20.
With 10 minutes to go Laurants Horr in the No.18 IDEC car got past Pietro Fittipaldi for fourth on the road, but he had a five second penalty to take at the end of the race.
Meanwhile Malthe Jakobsen put himself past Jack Doohan for seventh overall, that meant the No.20 APR driver could get after Lorenzo Fluxa in the No.7 Vector Sport car for the lead of Pro-Am.
He couldn't do enough though, and Fluxa crossed the line to win by around four seconds. Masson took the win for Forestier racing overall, while LMP3 was won by the No.17 CLX and Eastwood securing the win for Corvette in LMGT3.
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