The 2024 European Le Mans Series will go down as one of the closest LMP3 battles on record. This year marked the 10th season of the LMP3 category and the last with the current Nissan engine.
Ten cars were entered for the 2024 season with a good mixture of bronze, silver and gold drivers and nine of the best LMP3 teams in the world.
Reigning champions COOL Racing returned with a single car entry to defend the title they won in 2022 and 2023. The grid also included former championship winning teams RLR MSport (2018), with a two-car entry, Eurointernational (2019) and DKR Engineering (2021), 2023 Vice Champions WTM by Rinaldi Racing, four-time Vice Champions Inter Europol Competition, race winning team Ultimate, reigning Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 Champions Team Virage and 2022 MLMC LMP3 Champions Racing Spirit of Leman.
There were four different winners in the six races, with Eurointernational taking two wins in Imola and Spa-Francorchamps and Team Virage winning in Barcelona and Mugello.
Going into the final race of the season the top three teams, Eurointernational, Team Virage and RLR MSport, were split by just 2-points after 20 hours of racing on five of the toughest European tracks.
The LMP3 victory in Spain went to the no8 Team Virage Ligier, the reigning Michelin Le Mans Cup champions Julien Gerbi and Gillian Henrion, along with their Portuguese teammate Bernado Pinheiro making the perfect ELMS debut.Henrion took the chequered flag 8 seconds ahead of ELMS champions COOL Racing, with Manuel Espirito Santo adding another 18 points to the single point he secured in qualifying.
The no11 Eurointernational Ligier finished third, one lap behind the leading cars and 28 seconds ahead of the no15 RLR MSport in 4th.
Gael Julien picked up the first of his two pole positions in the no15 RLR MSport Ligier, with Michael Jensen taking the start at the head of the LMP3 grid.
However, a faulty gear shift saw Michael Jensen losing ground at the start, allowing the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine of Torsten Kratz to take the class lead with Matt Bell in the no11 Eurointernational Ligier in close contact.It wasn’t long before Bell caught and passed Kratz for the lead.
A Safety Car at the halfway point of the 4-hour race closed the grid back up again and when racing resumed the order had been mixed up due to changes in strategy, with the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Wyatt Brichacek now leading from the no17 COOL Racing Ligier, with Gael Julien in the no15 RLR M Sport on a charge.
In the final 30-minutes of the race Gael Julien was holding the lead thanks to a great strategy by the team that saw the no15 Ligier complete one less pitstop than the nearest rivals and Gael Julien took the chequered flag to take the victory 3.7 seconds ahead of the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine with the no35 Ultimate Ligier claiming the final podium position one lap down.
Matt Bell and Adam Ali claimed their first win of the 2024 season and their second in the ELMS in the no11 Eurointernational Ligier-Nissan, the Anglo-Canadian pairing finishing well ahead of the rest of the LMP3 field after starting 8th on the grid four hours earlier.
The no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine of Thorsten Kratz moved ahead of the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Alexander Mattschull at the start, with Matt Bell in the no11 Eurointernational Ligier getting a great start to move from 8th to 3rd in LMP3 by the end of the opening lap.
A Safety Car period just after 2-hours of racing saw the field close up and at the restart it was Adam Ali was now in the no11 Ligier and had starting to pull away from the rest of the LMP3 field led by Jean-Baptiste Lahaye in the no35 Ultimate Ligier and Gillian Henrion in the no8 Team Virage Ligier.
At the chequered flag it was victory for the no11 Eurointernational Ligier, with Ali finishing nearly 14 seconds ahead of the no8 Team Virage Ligier, with the noo35 Ultimate Ligier claiming another podium finish one lap down.Gael Julien brought the no15 RLR MSport Ligier in 4th, 34.9 seconds behind the third placed car.
Matt Bell and Adam Ali claimed their second LMP3 win in a row for Eurointernational.A trip into the gravel trap at Les Combes for Bell early in the race meant that they had to work hard and fight their way back up the order, with Ali taking the chequered flag 14 seconds ahead of the no31 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier.
The weekend had started well for the RLR MSport drew with Gael Julien claiming his second pole of the season to put the no15 Ligier at the front of the LMP3 grid in Belgium.
However, COOL Racing’s Miguel Cristovao moved up into the lead of LMP3 on lap 1, ahead of Michael Jensen in the no15 RLR MSport Ligier, with Torsten Kratz moving up in the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine. Kratz moved up to second on lap 3 and was soon challenging Cristovao for the lead.
However, the COOL Racing Ligier spun at Raidillon, rejoining in 9th in class as a result. In a separate incident the no11 Eurointernational Ligier driven by Matt Bell had been hit from behind at Les Combes, with the Ligier spinning into the gravel. Luckily Bell was able to recover the car just as the Safety Car was deployed for third time.
After the pitstop strategies had played out due to the multiple Safety Car periods, the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Wyatt Brichacek was leading LMP3 as the race entered the final stages, with Adam Ali moving up the order in the no11 Eurointernational Ligier.
The Canadian went into the lead and pulled away from the rest of the field to take the chequered flag 15 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, the no31 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier was second, the no17 COOL Racing Ligier recovering to take third and the no15 RLR MSport Ligier finishing just off the podium for the third time in four races.
In LMP3 Miguel Cristovao in the pole sitting no17 COOL Racing Ligier got a good run into the first corner to maintain his position, while the second place no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine dropped back to fourth as Alexander Mattschull was overtaken by Alexander Bukhantsov in the no88 Inter Europol Competition and Jacques Wolff in the no31 Racing Spirit of Leman.
The championship leading no11 Eurointernational Ligier driven by Matt Bell was moving up from a lowly 9th grid start and by lap 6 was up to 4th place. The no15 RLR MSport Ligier had started from 7th on the LMP3 grid and Michael Jensen was also making progress from the lowly grid position.
The no17 COOL Racing Ligier was still leading the LMP3 field but was pushed off the track by the no43 Inter Europol Competition, putting Cristovao back down the field and gifting the lead to the no88 Inter Europol Competition Ligier. Cristovao’s race went from bad to worse when a collision with the no8 Team Virage Ligier of Julien Gerbi spun the COOL Racing Ligier around, losing the Portuguese driver even more time.
The no17 COOL Racing Ligiers race came to an end in the barrier after being clipped by the no5 RLR MSport Ligier. This brought out another Virtual Safety Car period.
Once again, several Safety Car periods had mixed up the field thanks to different strategies being played out.This saw the no15 RLR MSport Ligier leading but Gael Julien had to pit for a splash of fuel dropping the French driver down to third and promoting Gillion Henrion into the lead in the no8 Team Virage Ligier.
However, Henrion was also expected to pit for fuel but as the clock counted down the no8 Ligier stayed out on track, the French driver saving fuel at every opportunity. Henrion crossed the line just 0.993 seconds ahead of Gael Julien, with the no88 Inter Europol Competition Ligier taking third one lap down.
The result in Mugello set up a grandstand finish in the final race of the season in Portimao.
After five events and 20-hours of racing the LMP3 title was decided in the final few laps of the 4 Hours of Portimao.
The no17 COOL Racing Ligier of Portuguese drivers Miguel Cristovao and Manuel Espirito Santo made the most of their pole position to lead the race in the final laps and secure their first victory of the 2024 season.
It was the drama behind that had everyone on the edge of their seats. Adam Ali in the no11 Eurointernational Ligier was in second place and on course to take the title. The no8 Team Virage Ligier of Gillion Henrion was keeping in touch with Ali but a clash with the no88 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Pedro Perino dropped the no8 Ligier down to 6th and out of contention.
However, Ali faced another danger as the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Gael Julien was coming up through the field.With less than 15-minutes on the clock Julien caught the Canadian and at T14 he swept by the no11 Ligier to take second place.
At the chequered flag the no17 COOL Racing Ligier was 10 seconds ahead of the RLR MSPort Ligier, with Eurointernational securing the final podium place.
Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock and Gael Julien celebrated their 2024 LMP3 European titles on the podium.
CLICK HERE for the final classifications for the 2024 European Le Mans Series LMP3 titles.
