ELMS LMP3 Teams Take on the Rest of the Best at Le Mans

Forty-two LMP3 cars entered the 2018 Road to Le Mans, with ten entrants from teams competing in the European Le Mans Series. So how did they fare in the two 55-minute races against teams from around the globe?

The podium for race one on Thursday evening was topped by the no11 Eurointernational Ligier-Nissan of Kay Van Berlo and Mikkel Jensen. After starting in pole position the Dutch-Danish pairing finished 19.5 seconds ahead of fellow ELMS competitors, and reigning LMP3 champions, John Falb and Sean Rayhall in the United Autosports Ligier. 

This was Van Berlo’s second victory of the season after finishing on the top step of the podium in Monza with Giorgio Mondini. While the Road to Le Mans doesn’t count towards the ELMS championship, it was still an important victory for the young Dutch driver.

In race one four of the top ten finishers were ELMS teams, with the no16 M.Racing-YMR Norma finishing fourth behind Michelin Le Mans Cup championship leaders Jens Petersen and Leonard Hoogenboom in the no3 DKR Engineering Norma-Nissan.  The no76 Ecurie Ecosse/ Nielsen Ligier was 8^th overall at the end of the 55-minute race.

Race two of the Road to Le Mans event took place on Saturday morning in front of over 200,000 fans who had started to gather for the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  The race was won by Michelin Le Mans Cup regulars Duncan Tappy and Michael Benham in the no25 Lanan Racing Norma, finishing just 0.6 seconds ahead of the no33 United Autosports Ligier of Sean Rayhall and John Falb, the ELMS champions taking a second podium finish at Le Mans.  They will be hoping to convert this pace into a podium at the next ELMS race in Austria on the 22 July and get their title defence back on track.

Two other ELMS teams finished in the top 10, with the race one winners Jensen and Van Berlo finishing 6^th, 31 seconds behind the winning car and 3.2 seconds ahead of the third placed ELMS team in the no5 NEFIS by Speed Factory.

The Road to Le Mans is part of the 2018 Michelin Le Mans Cup with all teams and drivers entered scoring points in that championship.  The ELMS competitors now return their own series for Round 3 of the 2018 season, the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring on Sunday 22 July, where they will be joined by the Michelin Le Mans Cup on the schedule, with round four of the 2018 season on Saturday 21 July.

CLICK HERE for more information on the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring.