Orlen Team WRT Take Home Win and 2021 ELMS Title

The Belgian team led for most of the race with Deletraz bringing the car home ahead of the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca and the no65 Panis Racing Oreca.

The LMP2 Pro-Am title race will also go down to the last round in Portugal with the no37 Cool Racing Oreca of Charles Milesi, Alexandre Coigny and Nicolas Lapierre finishing 4^th overall and ahead of the championship leading no25 G-Drive Racing Aurus.

1. The penultimate race of the 2021 ELMS season was held in dry and sunny conditions, with the no37 Cool Racing Oreca of Charles Milesi leading the 37-car grid into the tight first corner at La Source.
2. There was a problem for the no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus-Gibson of Roman Rusinov which was tapped into a spin by the no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca of Salih Yoluc and was then hit again by the Turkish driver as the Russian spun.
3. Several cars had to avoid the first corner chaos, with the no22 United Autosports Oreca of Phil Hanson limping back to the pits with damage and a rear left punctured tyre.
4. The no26 Aurus got back to the pits back then stopped at the side of the track on the Kemmel Straight, Rusinov forced to retire.
5. At the end of lap 1 the no37 Cool Racing Oreca was leading from the no41 Team WRT Oreca of Robert Kubica and the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca of Memo Rojas.
6. The Safety Car was deployed for the first time on Lap 2 when the no66 Ferrari and no6 Ligier went off into the gravel at T14.
7. The race went green with the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca of Patrick Pilet taking third place from Memo Rojas in the no30 Oreca.
8. The no32 United Autosports Oreca of Nicolas Jamin and the no24 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Richard Bradley clashed on Lap 7, with Jamin being given a drive through penalty as a consequence.
9. The no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca was also served a drive through penalty for the incident with the no26 Aurus at the start of the race.However, Yoluc’s race went from bad to worse when he went off into the gravel at T5 bringing out the first Full Course Yellow period.
10. This saw the front runners come in for their first pitstops and at the restart this resulted in Robert Kubica in the no41 Team WRT in the lead ahead of Patrick Pilet in second and the no37 Cool Racing Oreca in third after Milesi handed the car over to Alexandre Coigny.

1. At the top of the first hour the no24 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Diego Menchaca ran into the back of the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Michael Benham on the run into Les Combes, which resulted in Menchaca stopped on the inside of the corner. The Mexican tried to rejoin but went on track right in front of the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron, leaving the British driver with nowhere to go but into the back of the LMP2 car. With the track blocked, the second Safety Car was deployed to recover the damaged cars.
2. At the restart Julien Canal in the no65 Panis Racing Oreca moved up to third, just ahead of the no29 Ultimate Oreca of Jean-Baptiste Lahaye.
3. At the front of the field Robert Kubica and Patrick Pilet were battling for the lead, split by less than a second for lap after lap.
4. The no25 G-Drive Racing Aurus of Rui Andrade overtook the no37 Cool Racing Oreca of Alexandre Coigny for the lead of the LMP2 Pro-Am category but the Portuguese driver was then served with a 30 second Stop-Go penalty for not respecting the safety car procedures.
5. After the next set of pitstops the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca of Manuel Maldonardo was in front of the no41 Team WRT Oreca of Yifei Ye but the Chinese driver soon closed the gap and swept into the lead. He then opened up a 15 second gap to the chasing cars by the halfway point of the four-hour race.
6. The second Full Course Yellow period was declared with 100 minutes left on the clock when the no13 Inter Europol Competition Liger went off into the tyre wall at Turn 15.This brought a flurry of pitstops from the leading cars.
7. Tristan Gommendy in the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca and James Allen in no65 Panis Racing clashed on the Kemmel Straight while fighting for third, with the no30 Oreca getting the best of the situation. Gommendy then passed the no32 United Autosports for second place.