The LMP3 victory went to the no2 United Autosports Ligier with Wayne Boyd bringing the car home after claiming pole position in yesterday’s qualifying session to claim maximum championship points.
A typical summers day on the Cote D’Azur greeted the competitors for the opening round of the 2020 European Le Mans Series, with blue skies and warm temperatures.
Tom Gamble led the 12 car LMP3 field from pole position in the no2 Ligier and finished the opening lap ahead of the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Malthe Jakobson and the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Martin Hippe.Davide Droux in the no8 Realteam Racing Ligier was closing on the top three cars and made a pass on Hippe to take third place.
By Lap 16 Gamble had opened up a 6.3 second gap to Jakobsen, the Dane holding a similar gap to Droux, with Hippe falling back with a 7.7 second gap.
On lap 21 the no93 Proton Competition Porsche of Michael Fassbender had to brake hard going into Turn 1 when the no8 Realteam Racing Ligier cut across after passing him in the braking zone.The Porsche spun off into the barriers and had to limp back to the pits to repair the damage.The no8 Ligier was later given a drive through penalty for causing the accident.
Another LMP3 casualty was the no7 Nielsen Racing Duqueine M30 of Tony Wells when the rear wing detached on the run into Signes Corner.The British driver was pitched into a high speed spin when the rear lost grip and luckily Wells managed to keep the car out of the barriers.
After the first Full Course Yellow to recover the damaged no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari after an accident involving the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca, the teams completed their first driver changes with the no15 RLR MSport now leading with James Dayson and Rob Wheldon in second in the no2 United Autosports Ligier.
The LMP3 field had settled down and with 90 minutes of the race run the Safety Car was deployed to recover the no31 Panis Racing Oreca that had gone off at the final corner.
When racing resumed Dayson still led from Wheldon, with Martin Hippe in third ahead of the no9 Graff Ligier of Vincent Capillaire.
Wheldon started to catch Dayson and just after the halfway point of the race the no2 United Autosports Ligier swept into the lead at Signes.
