MurphysMen set the pace at Paul Ricard

Starting from pole position thanks to a blistering performance from Nathanaël Berthon in Qualifying, the team's newest signing Pipo Derani lead the field away just after 1pm. The young Brazillian looked like a seasoned sportscar professional in the opening laps of the race keeping the field at bay until being bawlked by a backmarker. Pitting the car while running second, Derani handed the car over to the team's Silver driver Rodolfo González for the team's main stint of the race.

Returning to the circuit in third, González who has been improving all season settled himself into a very comfortable pace. During his stint, Rodolfo fought hard to move into the lead of the race. Inside the final hour, the Venezuelan driver handed the car over to Nathanaël Berthon in third.

Now with a full fuel load and new tyres, Berthon returned to the circuit in fourth. A mix of his superb pace and the leaders still having to pit, Nathanaël was ready to return the Murphy Prototypes ‘Fairlane Flyer' to a race lead. However the French fans were about to be robbed of a thrilling battle for the lead as the team was handed a drive through penalty.

The reason given by the organisers was ‘engine running while refuelling', the incident had occurred during a fuel only pitstop in the middle of Rodolfo's stint. Loosing 29 seconds as a result of the penalty, Berthon was now on a mission to regain as much of the lost time as possible.

Once again, the Hertz Car Sales sponsored Oreca 03 Nissan proved to be the fastest car in the field setting the fastest lap of the race while closing the gap to third. Approaching the final 30 minutes of the race, Berthon managed to take the final position on the podium and consolidate it to the flag.

Pipo Derani - Driver, #48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03 Nissan: “When you are fighting for P1 on your debut its defiantly nice. I'm a bit disappointed to finish third but at the end of the day I have to think that its only my first endurance race so third is not bad at all. I have been learning that in a four hour race you have to put everything together. Today we had one or two issues which probably cost us the fight for the win but I am pleased to be on the podium and the guys did a great job. Rodolfo drove very well and Nathanaël did a very good job to put it on pole. It was nice to start on pole and I enjoyed my battle with Harry in the beginning. Unfortunately I need to work on going through the traffic where I lost the lead but overall I think it's a great result.”  

Rodolfo González - Driver, #48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03 Nissan: “The first stint was very tough trying to get through the traffic with the older tyres. On the second stint when I got the new tyres the car just felt mega. I have to thank the team for such a great job. The car was perfect for me. Today I enjoyed myself a lot, I had some exciting battles with the Jota car and Christian [Klien]. Pipo did a fantastic job in his first race and jumped in at the deep end a little bit. Nathanaël as always was really solid. I'm a bit disappointed with third place with the issue we had at the end, but we have to take this podium as a positive and move forward and upwards.

Nathanaël Berthon - Driver, #48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03 Nissan: “Obviously it was unfortunate to get the penalty as I was fighting for the lead which would have been good. Thank you to all the team and to my teammates who did a good job. I am pretty happy with my performance and the result is not to bad getting on the podium which is good for Murphy Prototypes.

Greg Murphy - Team Owner, Murphy Prototypes: “I think today is definitely one of those bitter sweet results. We have proven all weekend that our car is the fastest car on the track and once again we had one of the strongest if not the strongest line up on the grid and looked certain to win the race. All three drivers did a great job for the team today, looking after the car and being fast at the same time. We were delighted to play host to a lot of guests this weekend to enjoy the race from both Hertz Car Sales and Trend Micro, so I am delighted to have been able to give them a podium finish to celebrate with us this weekend.”