United Autosports dominate ELMS 4 Hours of Le Castellet
- Aaron Carroll
- 18 minutes ago
- 10 min read
Griffin Peebles, Gregiore Saucy and Benjamin Hanley have won the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) 4 Hours of Le Castellet in dominant fashion ahead of the No.34 Inter Europol and No.28 IDEC Sport entries.
LMP2 Pro/Am was decided in the final minutes, with the No.27 Nielsen car of Kriton Lentoudis, James Allen and Alex Quinn, after the No.83 AF Corse got a late penalty and the No.47 CLX needed a late splash of fuel.
Henry Cubides Olarte, Chun Ting Chou and Alexander Bukhantsov won LMP3 in the No.13 Inter Europol Competiton car.
Meanwhile in LMGT3, a mega final stint from Mathys Jaubert won the race for him, Takeshi Kamura and Daniel Serra after some uncertainty on fuel for some runners.
As it happened
1988 Le Mans 24 Hours winner and former Formula One driver Jan Lammers waved the French flag on the grid to send the cars off on their first of two formation laps at 11:54 local time, getting ready for a 12:00 race start.
After qualifying yesterday, the No.29 Forestier Racing by Panis car will start from pole alongside the No.22 United Autosports. Both the No.18 IDEC (originally fourth in LMP2) and the No.30 Duqiene (originally pole in LMP2 Pro/Am) had their laps deleted post qualifying, meaning they would start at the back of their respective classes.
The No.4 DKR Engineering Ligier was on pole in LMP3, and the No.62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes headed the LMGT3 field.
Just as the cars were heading to the pit straight to take the start of the race, the No.5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier LMP3 stopped in the middle of the track in the final sector. Driver Jose Fernandes Cautela seemed to just re-cycle the car and get moving again. The stoppage was long enough however, to warrant an extra formation lap. While the race hadn't properly started, the clock did start ticking down.
We did actually get going at the second time of asking, and it was a good getaway from Louis Rousset in the pole sitting car, leading Griffin Peebles in the No.22 and Bijoy Garg in the No.34 Inter Europol.
The front two however made a small breakaway from the Inter Europol behind, and Peebles didn't wait long to put a move on Rousset. He made it stick in the final sector to take the lead of the race.
Back at turn 2, the No.3 DKR Engineering LMP2 Pro/Am was sent for a spin on the exit.
Meanwhile the No.14 TDS of Steven Thomas had taken the lead of LMP2 Pro/Am from PJ Hyett in the No.99. Hyett was all over the back of him in the early stages though, those two making a small gap to the No.19 Rossa by Virage entry.
In LMP3 the No.4 fell from pole to third in the hands of Antti Rammo, losing the lead and second place to the No.13 Inter Europol of Alexander Bukhantsov and the No.85 R-ACE GP Duqiene of Fabien Michal respectively.
Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi lost the lead in LMGT3 to the No.33 TF Sport Corvette of Blake McDonald. The two of those had broken away from the pack too, even getting ahead of one or two LMP3s.
Clement Mateu in the No.59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin LMGT3 went for a move on the No.74 Ferrari ahead of him into turn one, but he couldn't make it stick, leaving him vulnerable to both the No.55 and No.57 Ferraris behind, but he managed to hold on to sixth in class.
Giorgio Roda in the No.30 Duqiene LMP2 Pro/Am was making great progress in the first 10 minutes of proper racing, up to sixth after 15 minutes had come off the race clock.
The No.7 Vector Sport LMP2 Pro/Am, No.19 Virage (3rd in LMP2 Pro/Am) and the No.62 Mercedes LMGT3 (2nd in LMGT3) were all given drive-through penalties for start infringements.
After just over 20 minutes, there was a five way battle in LMP3 for the lead. The No.13, No.85, No.11, No.4 and No.17 were all involved, in that order. At the same time, the overall leader was just catching that group. Peebles had opened up almost eight seconds in the lead.
There was a big incident at turn 11, the No.88 Proton LMP2 Pro/Am went for a move up the inside of the No.77 Porsche and the No.50 Ferrari. At the same time, the Porsche was trying to overtake the Ferrari, and the three got pinched together. The No.59 went flying off into the barriers, and the No.88 spun off but got going again. The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was called out to retrieve the stricken Ferrari.
The No.77 got a drive-through for the incident, while the No.88 was given just five seconds.
Many of the LMP3 cars took this as an opportunity to pit, considering that two of the pit stops the teams have to complete in that class have to be run to a minimum time. So the stoppage is a cheap way to get one of those out of the way.
Outside of that, the No.37 CLX and No.25 APR pit in LMP2, as did all of the LMP2 Pro/Ams except the No.14, No.21 and No.3.
On the next lap the overall leader came into the pits, Peebles taking a top up of fuel. He was followed in by the No.34 and No.29, as did the most of the rest of the LMP2 class.
The No.10 Vector Sport and the No.28 IDEC Sport LMP2's were side by side coming out of the pits, but Paul Lafargue was in the fast lane first, so Ryan Cullen in the No.10 had to cede position.
The SC came out after most of the field had pit for the first time. After a couple of laps behind the SC, Peebles led the field to green and got the jump on Rousset in the No.29. He immediately opened a small gap behind him.
During the stops, Hyett had retaken the LMP2 Pro/Am lead, and the No.11 Euro International car took the LMP3 lead from the No.13 Inter Europol on track. They continued battling as a few LMP2 Pro/Ams sifted through.
Roda in the No.30 had made his way up to third place in class after starting the race from the back of the grid.
The No.57 Ferrari of Takeshi Kamura was spun around at the final corner by Al-Khelaifi in the No.62 Mercedes, while the No.63 Mercedes also went for a spin. Not a good lap for the Iron Lynx crews. Al-Khelaifi got a second drive-through for the incident.
At the front of that class, the No.75 Proton and No.54 High Class Porsches were jostling for second place in class. McDonald in the leading Corvette had pulled a gap of almost 10 seconds ahead of the two Porsches while they were battling.
The No.19 Virage LMP2 Pro/Am of John Falb made a brave move on Michael Jensen at Siene corner to move into fourth in class. Jensen lost even more time too, under pressure from Francois Perrodo in the No.83 AF Corse behind straight after.
Meanwhile out front, Peebles had extended his lead to 12 seconds from Rousset in the No.29.
Michael Birch in the No.23 United Autosports McLaren stopped on the entry of turn 1. The Briton had just left the pit lane, but lost power and had to crawl to a stop. He did get moving again, but very slowly.
The No.74 Ferrari and No.59 Aston Martin had a coming together at turn 1, with the Aston going for a brief spin. In the LMGT3 class too the No.62 of Al-Khelaifi was recovering after his first drive-through penalty, fighting the No.54 and No.75 for second.
He got past both, but not without 3/4s a lap of fighting from Matthew Kurzejewski in the No.75.
The No.14 had a coming together with Matt Wainwright in the No.86 GR Ferrari, locking up and spinning the Brit around at turn 11. The LMP2 Pro/Am car got a 10 second penalty for the hit.
Meanwhile there were pit stops and driver changes for the LMP2 Pro/Ams and the LMP2s. That No.14 led Pro/Am in the hands of Sami Meguetounif.
With just over two and a half hours remaining, the track was declared wet. There was only a few drops of rain here and there though, nothing to affect the drivers too much.
There was a battle for fourth in LMP2 between the No.25 APR and No.37 CLX. Jake Hughes in the No.25 came out on top, as the No.28 and No.18 IDEC cars got involved too.
Peebles had handed over to Gregiore Saucy in the No.22, that car holding onto it's lead. Behind him was Luca Ghiotto in the No.43 and Oliver Gray in the No.29 Forestier. They were 16 seconds behind, and deep into a battle for second overall.
The No.11 Euro International LMP3 had a mechanical issue coming into the pit lane, blocking the No.68 and the No.31 cars path into the pits. All three were held up significantly, before the marshalls were able to push the car into it's pit box.
As we crossed the halfway mark, the No.22 still lead overall in the hands of Saucy. Megetounif led Pro/Am in the No.14, while the No.4 led LMP3 and the No.33 still controlled LMGT3.
Quite soon after though the No.4 DKR car lost it's lead to Paul Lanchere in the No.17 CLX car.
The Pro/Am leader still had a 10 second time penalty outstanding for it's earlier collision with the No.86.
Another round of pit stops came and went, with Saucy staying in the lead car and still holding their gap out front. The No.10 Vector car was defending from the No.24 Nielsen car, with the latter ending up off the road at one stage, putting an end to that feisty battle.
For what felt like the first time since McDonald took the lead, the No.33 Corvette was under pressure for the lead of LMGT3 from the No.54 Porsche. Alec Udell feeling the pressure from Anders Fjordbach.
The Full-Course Yellow came out with an hour and 45 minutes to go for a stricken bollard at turn 12. It was a short lived stoppage though, as marshalls quickly removed the bollard.
There was another battle for second place in Pro/Am too, Fuoco in the No.83 was all over the back of Edgar in the No.99 AO.
Fuoco went for the inside into the north chicane and was squeezed by Edgar, he couldn't make it stick there so he got the switch and the better exit onto the second part of the Mistral and slotted down the inside of Siene corner to take second.
Meanwhile the LMGT3 battle had gone from two cars to four cars. The No.33 and No.54 were caught by the No.75 Proton Porsche of Richard Lietz and the No.74 Kessel Racing car of Romain Leroux.
With 80 minutes left, the No.74 Kessel Ferrari had an issue with it's rear right tyre. He was in the battle with the No.75 Porsche, but no contact was made, the wheel just snapped off by itself. Thankfully, it did stay attached to the car so it didn't cause further problems for other unsuspecting drivers. The incident brought out the VSC.
Pretty much the entire field took the opportunity to come into the pits during this intervention. Benjamin Hanley was in the No.22 lead car, ahead of Esteban Masson in the No.29 Forestier Racing. Scott Huffaker led the Pro/Am field in the No.14.
Alexander Jacoby led LMP3 in the No.17 CLX Ligier and Charlie Eastwood had taken over the leading No.33 Corvette.
Hanley got away well from the restart with an hour remaining. He was helped by the No.25 APR car who was a lap down and second in the restart queue, so Masson and Adrein Closmenil in the No.37 CLX were both held up.
Tristan Vautier in the APR car proved troublesome for Masson and Closmenil, actually trying to unlap himself after he had just been lapped.
Closmenil had a moment, spinning off in the final sector on his own. He made a mistake on the brakes on entry and dropped from third down to seventh. That left Richard De Gerus in the No.34 Inter Europol in third, and putting the pressure on Masson.
In LMGT3 the battle was eating up between Eastwood and Mathys Jaubert in the No.57 Kessel Ferrari. Thomas Sargent in the No.75 and David Perel in the No.55 were getting feisty just behind those two.
Jaubert went for it into the final corner with 45 minutes to go, late on the brakes and down the inside of Eastwood. He made the move stick and took the lead of the race.
Behind the top two, there was a train of nine cars all in the hunt for third place in class.
Masson in the No.29 slowed on track with a mechanical issue, entering a pit lane that was closed for a FCY to retrieve a bollard. The Forestier car dropped down to 20th in class.
The No.4 DKR Engineering Ligier led LMP3, but got called into the pits with a black and orange flag for an issue they had with the door. That gave the lead to the No.85 R-ACE GP Duqiene, but they soon got a 30 second stop/go penalty for ignoring black and orange flags.
In LMP2 Pro/Am, Mathieu Vaxiviere in the No.83 took the lead from Huffaker in the No.14 TDS Racing car. Meanwhile the No.8 LMP3 also had a brief spin on the exit of the final corner. The No.19 Virage car also spun around, but both got going again.
With half an hour to go, Jaubert had extended his lead in LMGT3 to 10 seconds over Eastwood, who was still under a bit of pressure from the train behind.
Back at the front, De Gerus went for a move on Hanley for the lead, they made contact and both spun around at the north chicane. Hanley got back face the right direction quite quickly, and retained his lead. De Gerus wasn't as lucky though, he dropped down to fourth behind the No.18 and No.28 IDEC Sport cars.
De Gerus pulled into the pits a lap later, as did Paul-Loup Chatin in the No.28 IDEC car. They were very close to colliding on pit exit, but Chatin just about held his position. Laurants Horr in the No.18 sister IDEC pit the lap after, coming out behind both Chatin and De Gerus. Hanley also pit, but retained his gap out front.
De Gerus was all over the back of Chatin though, and he got the run out of the north chicane and made the move stick around the outside of Siene corner. De Gerus would soon be put under investigation for a pit stop infringement.
Vaxiviere was controlling Pro/Am in the No.83, but they were given a drive-through penalty for a yellow flag infringement, dropping them down the order with less than 10 minutes left. That would hand the lead over to the No.47 CLX of Charles Milesi.
Milesi was running very tight on fuel though and had to come into the pits with three and a half minutes remaining for a splash and dash. That put the No.27 Nielsen car of Alex Quinn into the net lead.
LMGT3 had turned into a fuel saving race for everyone, with Jaubert's lead out to 16 seconds. LMP3 was also led comfortably by Henry Cubides Olarte in the No.13 Ligier.
Everyone turned out to be just okay on fuel though, so Hanley came through to win the race for United Autosports in dominant fashion.
Pro/Am honours went to Nielsen after two other winners fell out of contention, LMP3 went to the No.13 Inter Europol car and LMGT3 was won by the No.57 Kessel Ferrari.
The No.34 Inter Europol got a five second penalty post race, but that did not affect their finishing position.
View the full results here.
