ELMS Debutants Prema Racing Win the 4 Hours of Le Castellet

The race was interrupted early on by three Safety Car periods, and also by two Full Course Yellows, which meant that several teams altered their race strategies, and this kept everyone guessing who was going to be out in front at the end of the four-hour race.

The no9 Prema Racing Oreca finished 10.9 seconds ahead of the no19 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Sophia Floersch and Bent Viscaal, with the no65 Panis Racing Oreca of Job Van Uitert, Julien Canal and Nico Jamin in third.

The no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca of Salih Yoluc, Jack Aitken and Charlie Eastwood took the victory in the Pro/Am class, finishing 6^thoverall.

The LMP3 win was claimed by the no17 Cool Racing Ligier of Maurice Smith, Michael Benham and Malthe Jakobsen, with Jakobsen closing down a large gap to finish ahead of the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Nicolas Pino by just over 3 seconds at the chequered flag.

The LMGTE victory was claimed by the no32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari F488 GTE EVO, with Nico Varrone holding off a determined challenge in the closing laps by Gianmaria Bruni in the no77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19.The two cars were side by side coming out of the final corner, with Argentine driver taking the chequered flag by just 0.120s, the narrowest race win ever in the ELMS.

The no93 Proton Competition Porsche finished third, with Michael Fassbender scoring his second ELMS podium in a row alongside Richard Lietz and Zacharie Robichon.

4 HOURS OF LE CASTELLET RACE FACTS

1. ·No31 TDS Racing x Vaillante Oreca of Tijmen van der Helm led the 42 car field into the first corner.The no9 Prema Racing Oreca of Lorenzo Colombo moved ahead of the no22 United Autosports Oreca of Phil Hanson after running wide at T1/T2 and had to give the position back.
2. ·The no3 United Autosports Ligier of Jim McGuire spins off at the last corner and several cars go off, including the no69 Oman Racing by TF Sport Aston Martin of Samuel de Haan, which was left stranded by the side of the track.
3. ·The no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca of Salih Yoluc dropped from 4^thto 7^thon lap 2.
4. ·The no83 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Sarah Bovy moved up to 2^ndin LMGTE, passing the no77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried.
5. ·SAFETY CAR: On Lap 3 the Safety Car was deployed to recover the no69 Aston Martin Vantage.
6. ·The race went back to green with 3 hours 47 minutes on the clock, with the no22 United Autosports Oreca taking the lead at Turn 9.
7. ·PENALTY: The no14 Inter Europol Competition Ligier (Mateuz Kasprzyk) was given a drive through penalty for causing the earlier collision at T14.
8. ·On Lap 7 Sarah Bovy in the no83 Ferrari took the lead in LMGTE, passing the no32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Pierre Ehret on the inside at T13.
9. ·There was a change of lead in LMP3 as the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Charles Crews passed the no17 Cool Racing Ligier of Maurice Smith in the final corner after 22 minutes of racing.
10. ·The no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Horst Felbermayr Jr ran onto the kerbs at Signes and spun across the track, hitting the concrete wall on the inside.
11. ·SAFETY CAR: The second Safety Car period was declared after 23 minutes of racing to recover the no15 Ligier.
12. ·After 10 minutes the race went green again.
13. ·Bovy in the no83 Ferrari came under pressure from the no77 Porsche (Ried) and the no18 Absolute Racing Porsche (Andrew Harayanto) as they negotiated heavy traffic but continued to lead in LMGTE.
14. ·The no93 Proton Competition Porsche of Michael Fassbender passed the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Giacomo Petrobelli for 3^rdin LMGTE but Petrobelli retook the place before the end of the lap.Fassbender then span off at T2 and pitted for fuel and new tyres.
15. ·The LMP2 cars started to come in for their pitstops after 45-minutes of racing.The leading no22 United Autosports Oreca had a problem with the front left wheel at the stop, which took the mechanics several extra seconds to change.This dropped the car down to 5^th.
16. ·The clock was showing 3 hours and 10 minutes of the race remaining when the no27 Cool Racing Ligier of Jean-Ludovic Foubert was hit by an LMP2 car. As the French driver tried to get back on track, the rear left tyre delaminated, damaging the rear bodywork and spraying debris across the track.
17. ·SAFETY CAR: The third Safety Car period was declared to allow the track to be cleared.
18. ·12 minutes later the race went green again.

1. ·The no37 Cool Racing Oreca of Yifei Ye had been making steady progress through the field after starting at the back of the grid.The Chinese driver passing Phil Hanson in the no22 Oreca for 5^thon Lap 33.
2. ·The no17 Cool Racing Ligier was given a drive through penalty for abusing track limits.
3. ·The no19 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Sophia Floersch was making progress, passing the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca to move into 3^rdoverall.
4. ·A Full Course Yellow was declared to remove debris at T14 after 80 Minutes of racing, with all the front runners coming into the pits for a stop and driver change.
5. ·The no31 TDS Racing x Vaillante Oreca was leading prior to the stops but was demoted one place by the no9 Prema Racing Oreca, now with Ferdinand Habsburg rejoining at the head of the field.
6. ·When the race went green the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Charles Crews was leading LMP3 from the no7 Nielsen Racing Ligier of Tony Wells.
7. ·LMGTE was now led by the no32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Memo Gidley, who was ahead of the no93 Proton Competition Porsche of Michael Fassbender.
8. ·Bronze rated Philippe Cimadomo in the no31 Oreca was passed by the no37 Cool Racing Oreca of Niklas Krueten, the no22 United Autosport Oreca of Duncan Tappy, the no65 Panis Racing Oreca of Nico Jamin and the no19 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Bent Viscaal.
9. ·Duncan Tappy pitted the no22 Oreca unexpectedly a few laps later, which put him out of sequence with the rest of the field.
10. ·The no2 United Autosports Ligier of Bailey Voisin moved ahead if the no7 Ligier to finish the second hour of the race in 2^ndplace in LMP3.
11. ·There was a collision between the no47 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca and the no51 Team Virage Oreca, which delayed the no47 Oreca.The Team Virage car was given a stop and go penalty for causing the collision.
12. ·The no65 Panis Racing Oreca of Nico Jamin passed the no37 Oreca of Niklas Kruetten for second overall on lap 63 and Kruetten lost another place to Duncan Tappy in the no22 United Autosports Oreca at Signes a lap later.
13. ·Jamin closed the gap to the leading Prema Racing Oreca and for the next 30 minutes the two cars tussled for the lead, with Ferdi Habsburg defending his position until the next pitstop.
14. ·The no9 Prema Racing Oreca rejoined the track after the pitstops 3 seconds behind the no22 United Autosports Oreca, which had yet to stop. Louis Deletraz got the run on the leader into Signes Corner and swept into the lead.Duncan Tappy pitted at the end of the lap to hand over the no22 Oreca to Tom Gamble.
15. ·The no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Sebastien Alvarez spun off into the gravel trap at T7 and another Full Course Yellow was declared to allow the car to be recovered.
16. ·At the restart the no93 Proton Competition Porsche of Richard Lietz caught and passed the no83 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Michelle Gatting for third place in LMGTE.
17. ·The no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Nicolas Pino passed the no2 United Autosports Ligier of Joshua Caygill for the lead of LMP3 at Signes with 45 minutes left on the clock.
18. ·In the LMP2 Pro-Am battle the no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca (Charlie Eastwood) emerged from the pits ahead of the no88 AF Corse Oreca (Nicklas Nielsen).The two cars fought for the class lead as they negotiated heavy traffic, with Nielsen getting ahead on Lap 106.However Eastwood started another challenge, which was resolved the no88 Oreca came into the pits for a splash and dash with 8 minutes left.
19. ·The no19 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Bent Viscaal was leading the race thanks to a change in strategy by the team and led until the Dutch driver had to pit for fuel with 15 minutes of the race remaining,He emerged behind the no9 Prema Racing Oreca of Deletraz but just ahead of Job Van Uitert in the no65 Panis Racing Oreca.
20. ·The two Dutch drivers battled for the podium places, with Viscaal finally getting a gap to Van Uitert as the chequered flag approached.
21. ·In LMP3 the no17 Cool Racing Ligier, with Malthe Jakobsen at the wheel, was on a charge, passing the no2 United Autosports Ligier for second and closing the gap to the leading no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Nicolas Pino, which was 10 seconds ahead of the Dane with 5 minutes remaining. Jakobsen rapidly closed the gap and took the lead just before the chequered flag was shown.
22. ·The LMGTE battle was equally close with the no77 Proton Competition Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni rapidly closing on the leading no32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Nico Varrone.Bruni was right on the rear wing of the Ferrari on the final lap, with Varrone defending at every turn.At the chequered flag the two cars were side by side out of the final corner, with the Ferrari taking the win by just 0.12 seconds, the closest ever winning margin in the ELMS.

1. ·The no9 Prema Racing Oreca-Gibson of Louis Deletraz took the chequered flag to claim the victory ahead of the no19 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Bent Viscaal to claim a debut win for the Italian team.
2. ·The second place finish for Bent Viscaal and Sophia Floersch also made ELMS history as Floersch became the first female driver to finish second on the overall ELMS podium, going one better than her own third place finish in Portimão last October.

LMP3 RESULT UPDATED AFTER POST RACE SCRUTINEERING: During the post race scrutineering the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier was found to have breached Article 6.1 of the ELMS Sporting Regulations because the Belleville washers in the differential presented at the final scrutineering of the race were not in conformity.

The stewards decided that the no13 Ligier would be disqualified from the race results (Stewards Decision no15).This promoted the no2 United Autosports Ligier into second place and the no5 RLR MSport Ligier of Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock and Alex Kapadia into the final LMP3 podium position.

CLICK HERE for the result for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet.