Three Wins In A Row for Thiriet by TDS Racing

Starting from pole position Mike Conway set the fastest lap of the race before handing over to Pierre Thiriet, who pitted during a Full Course Yellow period to hand the car over to Mathias Beche with a 60 second lead. 

The no9 Graff Ligier JS P3 of Eric Trouillet, Enzo Guibbert and Paul Petit also took a home win as the French team fought their way to their first victory in the LMP3 class ahead of the no19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier.

The LMGTE class win went to the JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rory Butcher, Rob Smith and Andrea Bertolini, their second in a row to give them the championship lead with two races remaining.

Here are the key moments of the 4 Hours of Le Castellet

• LMP2: The #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca (Mike Conway) and the #21 Dragonspeed Oreca (Nicolas Lapierre) side by side into Turn 1 at the head of the 40 car ELMS field.  Conway sets the fastest lap of the race on lap 2 with a 1m49.548.

• LMP2: Conway hands over to Pierre Thiriet who extends the lead of the #46 Oreca in his first stint.  Just as the pitstop was due a Full Course Yellow allowed Thiriet to pit and rejoin, extending the lead to over 1 minute when the race went green.  Mathias Beche took over from Thiriet to bring the car home 1 lap ahead of the #32 SMP Racing BR01.

• LMP2: #38 G Drive Racing Gibson-Nissan (Harry Tincknell) on the move, up to 7^th from 9^th on the opening lap.  Steadily moves up the field and up to second before handing over to Simon Dolan, who consolidates the gains made by Tincknell in his stint.  Guiedo van der Garde takes over for the last hour but drops back to 5^th as he is unable to hold off the challenge from the no33 Eurasia Motorsport and no21 Dragon Speed Orecas as the race drew to a close.

• LMP2: The #32 SMP Racing BR01 ran at the front of the field for the entire race and Stefano Coletti had a big advantage over the #33 Oreca of Tristan Gommendy in 3^rd when he had to serve a drive through penalty for not respecting the Full Course Yellow procedures.  The Italian was able to serve the penalty and rejoin the track to finish in second place 33 seconds ahead at the chequered flag.

• LMP2: #21 Dragonspeed Oreca takes final podium place with Lapierre passing Gommendy’s #33 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca after Gommendy gets tangled up in a LMP3 battle on the exit of Signes.  The #33 Oreca finished 4^th, which was a good result after the high speed crash on Friday morning, forcing the team to miss Free Practice.  Pu Junjin to watch the race from the garage  with Tristan Gommendy and Nico Pieter De Brujin sharing the driving duties

• LMP3: #26 Tockwith Motorsport Ligier (Nigel Moore), starting from pole position, takes control of the race from the start with the #9 Graff (Enzo Guibbert) just behind.  #26 ran at the front of the LMP3 field for most of the race until a spin by Philip Hanson with 45 minutes left on the clock dropped them down to 5^th.  At the chequered flag the car was 6^th on the team’s ELMS debut.

• LMP3: The #9 Graff Ligier took control of the class, with Paul Petit bringing the car home to take the chequered flag despite a determined challenge by Dino Lunardi in the #19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier.

• LMP3: The #2 United Autosports Ligier of Alex Brundle, Mike Guasch and Christian England maintain their championship lead finishing in 3^rd place, 27 seconds behind the #9 Graff, despite the drivers struggling with a reported lack of straight speed.

• LMGTE: #55 AF Corse Ferrari (Aaron Scott) got a good start to take the lead of the LMGTE class on the opening lap with the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari (Rory Butcher) in second and the no56 AT Racing Ferrari (Alexander Talkanitsa Jr) in 3^rd.  Pole position holder Andrew Howard in the #99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage ending the first lap in 5^th behind the no60 Formula Racing Ferrari (Mikkel Jensen)

• LMGTE: #66 takes class lead by passing #55 at Signes on third lap.  #55 keeps pace with #66 for the first hour.

• LMGTE: #55 AF Corse Ferrari (Duncan Cameron) is hit from behind as he was entering the pits.  The car stopped and Cameron eventually got the car back to the garage.  The #55 AF Corse Ferrari finished the race in 5th place.

• LMGTE: #60 Formula Racing Ferrari – the reigning LMGTE champions were having their best race of the 2016 season, finishing the race in second place 13 seconds behind the #66 Ferrari.

• LMGTE: #66 Ferrari (Rory Butcher) came in for a late splash and dash fuel stop with less than 10 minutes to the chequered flag, promoting the #60 Ferrari (Mikkel Mac) into the lead. However a lap later the #60 also had to pit one lap later for fuel, putting the #66 back into the lead.

• LMGTE: #99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage recovered to finish on the podium for the second time in 2016. 

• LMP2: #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing (Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche) are now on 76 points, 8 points ahead of #38 G Drive Racing (Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell, Giedo van der Garde) on 68 points.

• LMP3: #2 United Autosports (Alex Brundle, Mike Guasch, Christian England) are on 90 points, 30 ahead of the #19 Duqueine Engineering (Dino Lunardi, David Hallyday).

• LMGTE: #66 JMW Motorsport (Rory Butcher, Andrea Bertolini, Rob Smith) are on 67 points, 4 points ahead of the #99 Aston Martin Racing (Andrew Howard, Darren Turner, Alex MacDowall)

CLICK HERE for the result

CLICK HERE to watch the LMP3 press conference

CLICK HERE to watch the LMGTE press conference