DC Racing and AF Corse Are the First Road To Le Mans Winners

In the Michel GT3 Le Mans Cup the no57 AF Corse Ferrari F488 of Russian drivers Alexsey Basov and Victor Shaitar finishes 11.2 seconds ahead of the no55 FFF Racing Team by ACM McLaren of Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Adrian Quiafe-Hobbs.

The Road To Le Mans got underway with plenty of action as soon as the 37 cars crossed the start line.  In LMP3 the no32 Lawrence Tomlinson Ginetta-Nissan of Charlie Richardson was right behind the pole position car of Martin Brundle in the no2 United Autosports Ligier as they went up the hill towards Dunlop for the first time.  Richardson left his braking late and his bravery paid off as he moved into the lead.  The no61 Graff Ligier of James Winslow also made up places on the opening part of the first lap and was up to third from sixth on the grid.  Winslow then soon caught and passed Brundle’s Ligier for second place.

In the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup, Egidio Perfetti in the no88 Mentos Racing Porsche made the most of his pole position to stay ahead of the no57 AF Corse of Alexsey Basov, the Norwegian soon opening up a comfortable gap to the chasing Russian as the race progressed.

Further back the no34 TF Sport Aston Martin of Salih Yoluc started to catch the no55 McLaren of Hiroshi Hamaguchi and was soon in a position to attempt to overtake.  However the Turkish driver ran wide at the Forza Chicane while attempting to pass the McLaren and this allowed Japanese driver to open up a gap again.  Yuloc then reeled the McLaren back in and passed Hamaguchi into Indianapolis.

Ahead of them the no17 Duqueine Engineering Ferrari of Lonni Martins caught and passed Basov’s no57 Ferrari for second place but the Russian fougt back and retook the position in a daring move at Indianapolis.  The no19 Tockwith Motorsports Audi of Philip Hanson had to limp back to pits when a front right tyre blew.   

Back at the front Richardson had opened up a 2.7 second lap to Winslow, who had Brundle’s United Autosports LMP3 filling his rear view mirrors.  Two laps of the 13.6km circuit later and Martin Brundle moved back into second place.

The no7 Scuderia Villorba Corse Ligier of Roberto Lacorte caused the first Slow Zone of the race to e declared when the Italian went off into the gravel at the Forza Chicane.  After 5 minutes the car was recovered and the Slow Zone was removed.

At this time the pitstop window opened and cars started to come in for their pitstops.  A few cars were reported to the stewards for speeding in the pitlane including the GT3 race leader, the no88 Mentos Racing Porsche.  A ten second stop and go penalty  was the result and Klaus Bachler had to come into the pits to serve the penalty.

The no85 DC Racing Ligier of Thomas Laurent was back of the pits and challenging the no32 Ginetta after Charlie Richardson had handed over to Lawrence Tomlinson.  Laurent overtook Tomlinson on the run into the Dunlop corner and soon opened up a comfortable gap.  Tomlinson’s race then took a turn for the worse when he span at Dunlop and the Ginetta went off into the gravel  bringing out the second Slow Zone of the race and dropping the English driver down the order as a result.

After the pitstops and the penalty for the no88 Porsche, the race lead now fell to the no57 AF Corse Ferrari, which now had Victor Shaitar at the wheel, who had the no34 TF Sport Aston Martin of Euan Hankey, the no26 Classic & Modern Racing Ferarri of Matthieu Vaxiviere and the no55 FFF Racing McLaren of Adrian Quaife-Hobbs in contention for the remaining podium places.

With ten minutes of the race remaining the no34 Aston Martin spun at Dunlop while Hankey was trying to work his way through some of the slower LMP3 competitors allowing Vaxiviere and  Quaife-Hobbs through, with Bachler’s no88 Porsche now in 4^th and closing on the leading cars.  The no26 Ferrari of Matthieu Vaxiviere slowed, allowing the following cars to move up.

In LMP3 the Laurent held a comfortable 14s lead in the no85 DC Racing Ligier from Christian England in the no2 United Autosports Ligier, with the no18 M Racing-YMR Ligier of Romano Ricci in 3^rd but being caught by John Falb’s no77 Graff Ligier.  The American fought his way into contention and with minutes left on the clock he passed Frenchman to take the final podium place.

At the chequered flag the all French team of Alexandre Cougnaud, Thomas Laurent and DC Racing stood on the top step of the podium at Le Mans and celebrated a famous victory ahead of Martin Brundle and Christian England, with John Falb, who had competed on his own, completing the top three in the LMP3 class.

In the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup the AF Corse Ferrari of Alexsey Basov and Victor Shaitar finished 11.2 seconds ahead of the FFF Racing Team by ACM McLaren of Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, with Klaus Bachler completing a good recovery drive in the no88 Mentos Racing Porsche after the earlier penalty and was joined by Egidio Perfetti on the podium.

The next round of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup will be at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Saturday 16 July, with the LMP3 competitors taking part in Round 3 of the European Le Mans Series on Sunday 17 July.

CLICK HERE for the result from the Road To Le Mans