G-DRIVE RACING BANK VITAL ELMS POINTS AT PAUL RICARD

The #38 Gibson 015S-Nissan, driven by regular trio Harry Tincknell, Simon Dolan and Giedo van der Garde, made up four positions from its grid slot of ninth, and had been running as high as second in the opening part of the four-hour race at Le Castellet.

Tincknell starred during his double-stint at the start of the race in the G-Drive Racing LMP2 car as he carved his way through the order in the early laps.

By the 20-minute mark, Tincknell had climbed to fifth, and after 40 minutes he had put the G-Drive Racing car in to a provisional podium position.

After 47 minutes, the #38 G-Drive Racing Gibson 015S-Nissan made its first pitstop, during which Tincknell stayed in the cockpit, and once he had resumed the Briton quickly caught and passed the Dragonspeed car of Henrik Hedman to move up into second place at the start of the second hour.

That was where Tincknell remained until handing over to Simon Dolan just shy of the 90-minute mark, although a poorly timed Full Course Yellow allowed the SMP Racing entry to sneak into second during the second round of stops.

Undeterred, Dolan managed to catch Julian Leal in the BR01 over the course of his stint, and was right behind the Colombian ex-GP2 driver when the race reached the halfway mark.

Dolan finally cleared his adversary right at the end of his stint, before bringing the car into the pits for a third time, although the SMP car – now in the hands of Stefano Coletti – managed to get back ahead in the pitstop phase.

Dolan was able to comfortably hold onto third place prior to handing over to Giedo van der Garde for the final stint with 45 minutes left on the clock.

The Dutchman came under threat from two of the fastest drivers in the LMP2 class in the form of Eurasia’s Tristan Gommendy and Dragonspeed’s Nicolas Lapierre late on, both Frenchmen armed with the class-leading Oreca 05 car.

Despite van der Garde’s best efforts at keeping his adversaries at bay, the G-Drive Racing car, operationally run by Jota Sport, slipped to fifth place in the final 15 minutes of the four hour event.

Nonetheless, the result still meant a healthy haul of 10 points for the G-Drive squad, which will be valuable in the ongoing championship fight, which is now led by the Thiriet by TDS Racing team with only two races remaining.

The next round on the ELMS calendar takes place at Spa-Francorchamps on 25 September.