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Iron Lynx Extend their Championship Lead at Le Castellet

The early pace in the LMGTE class was made by Ollie Hancock in the no95 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage but the championship leading no80 Iron Lynx Ferrari came through to record their second win, with Miguel Molina crossing the line 14 seconds ahead of the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Matt Griffin.

06/06/2021

The no95 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Ollie Hancock led the class into T1 but was displaced by the no77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried. However, the German had gained the place by cutting two corners to avoid accidents with wayward LMP3 cars and Ried, sensibly, gave the place back on the Mistral Straight.
Duncan Cameron in the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari also made rapid progress on the opening lap, moving from 8^th to 3^rd and then 2^nd on lap 3, getting ahead of Ried’s Porsche.
·Hancock pulled out a big lead in the no95 Aston Martin, placing several LMP3 cars between him and the trailing pack of GTE cars led by Cameron.
Rino Mastronardi was also moving up through the order in the no80 Iron Lynx Ferrari and on Lap 9 moved ahead of the no55 Ferrari to take second place at T5.
The no83 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Manuela Gostner and the no93 Proton Competition Porsche of Michael Fassbender were battling for 6^th.
The first Full Course Yellow lasted for 5 minutes in the first hour of the race when the no18 LMP3 Ligier stopped on track.
·At the restart Cooper MacNeil in the no77 Porsche was now challenging Duncan Cameron’s Ferrari for 3^rd spot but it took four laps before the American could get ahead of the British driver.
At the top of the first hour the Safety Car was deployed to recover the no13 LMP3 Ligier and after 14 minutes the race resumed, with Ollie Hancock still holding a reduced lead in the no95 TF Sport Vantage, while Rino Mastronardi now had Cooper MacNeil’s Porsche right behind.
The earlier battle between Manuela Gostner and Michael Fassbender ended in tears as the Porsche tried an audacious move down the inside of the Ferrari only to clip Gostner’s car into a spin which then resulted in heavier contact as the 488 spun into the path of the Porsche 911. Both cars limped back to the pits with the Ferrari retiring with suspension damage and the Porsche rejoining after lengthy repairs.Fassbender received a warning for causing the collision.

4 Hours of Le Castellet LM GTE