A tough battle ahead at Paul Ricard

A regular points-scorer with its Alpine A450b, Signatech Alpine now heads the LMP2 category with 50 points while JOTA Sport, which has claimed extra points for its three pole positions, is only four behind the leaders.  The Swiss Race Performance team has regularly stacked up the points over the first three rounds, and holds third place with 39 points ahead of Thiriet by TDS Racing which, having changed its chassis after Imola, was unlucky in Austria (35 points).  The No.41 of Greaves Motorsport holds fifth place with 32 points, and is followed by the Swiss NewBlood by Morand Racing team with 25 points and sixth place in the Teams' rankings.  Following thereafter are Sébastien Loeb Racing (24pts), Greaves Motorsport's No.28 (20pts), Pegasus Racing (14pts), and Murphy Motorsport and Larbre Compétition.

In the Drivers' classification, Nelson Panciatici, Oliver Webb and Paul-Loup Chatin are four points ahead of their JOTA Sport rivals, Filipe Albuquerque, Harry Tincknell and Simon Dolan. Franck Mailleux and Michel Frey (Race Performance) have 39 points in third place, and are in turn ahead of Thiriet by TDS Racing's Ludovic Badey, Pierre Thiriet and Tristan Gommendy (35 points). Fifth place in the standings belongs to Matt McMurry and Tom Kimber-Smith (32 points - Greaves Motorsport), while Gary Hirsch and Christian Klien hold sixth with 25 points.

Ferrari dominates LMGTE

In LMGTE the battle for the top is no less exciting.  Thanks to its victories in England and Austria, the No.55 F458 Italia of AF Corse is at the top of the table with 56 points, just three ahead of the No.72 Ferrari of Russian team, SMP Racing.  Thirteen points in arrears is JMW Motorsport with 40 points, the British team just 2.5 points ahead of Kessel Racing (37.5pts), and holding a four point lead over AT Racing (36pts).  IMSA Performance Matmut's No.76 Porsche is in sixth place with 23 points.

For the drivers in this class the battle will be even more tightly fought at Paul Ricard, especially between Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin who currently hold the lead with 56 points and Andrea Bertolini, Sergey Zlobin and Viktor Shaitar who are on 53 points.  Third in class is Michele Rugolo who has 50 points on the board.  Ten points back from their closest rivals, Daniel McKenzie and George Richardson hold fourth place (40 points), while Matteo Cressoni and Thomas Kemenater have accumulated 37.5pts, just 1.5 more than sixth-placed Alexander Talkanitsa Senior and Junior and their teammate, Pierre Kaffer.

And it is no less tight in the GTC class...

While the No.73 Ferrari 458 Italia of SMP Racing is now well ahead in the class (54pts), just 11.5 points separates it from its rival Formula Racing in second with 42,5, and by 13 points to the Russian team's sister car (No.71 SMP Racing).  Newcomers to the ELMS this year and regular points-scorers in the first three rounds, ART Grand Prix's No.99 McLaren MP4 12C GT3 is fourth with 34 points. Team Ukraine, which won the only race in which it has taken part (Silverstone) has a total of 25 points and holds fifth place in the standings, just ahead of the second, No.98 McLaren (20 points).

Anton Ladygin, David Markosov and Olivier Beretta are at the head of the GTC Drivers' standings with 54 points, ahead of Johnny Laursen and Mikkel Mac's 11.5 points and Aleksey Basov, Kirill Ladygin and Luca Persiani with 13 points in third. Alex Brundle, Karim Ajlani and Ricardo Gonzalez have amassed 34 points each, while Andrea Piccini – who has only run at Imola – has 26.  Sixth place is occupied by Alessandro Pier Guidi, Andriy Kruglyk and Sergii Chukanov (25pts). The 4 Hours of Paul Ricard promises some great battles, as there will no doubt be at the final round in Portugal, but who knows what will happen?  Everything is up for grabs, and the teams and drivers will be doing all they can to gather the maximum number of points at each of the remaining two events.

It's all happening at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France on 13th and 14th September for a race which will undoubtedly be hotly contested in all three classes.

Reservations & Ticketing HERE