Thiriet by TDS Racing Make it Two Wins in a Row

The Eurasia Motorsport team celebrated their first ever ELMS podium as Tristan Gommendy, Pu Junjin and Nico Pieter De Brujin stood on the second step of the podium, ahead of the no38 G-Drive Racing Gibson of Giedo Van Der Garde, Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell.

The no19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier of David Droux, David Hallyday and Dino Lunardi  finished first in LMP3, however the celebrations were short lived as the team were handed a 4 second penalty for a pitstop infringement that dropped them to second place. The no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rory Butcher, Robert Smith and Andrea Bertolini headed an all Ferrari LMGTE podium.

The race started dry but with heavy cloud cover that had all of the teams keeping an eye on the weather radar in case rain decided to head towards the Red Bull Ring during the four hour race.  A large crowd of nearly 15000 enjoyed an action packed day of entertainment both on and off the track.

The no23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier of Timothe Buret started from pole position and led the 38 strong field into the first corner and held off the challenge of the no38 G Drive Racing Gibson-Nissan of Giedo Van Der Garde, who had moved ahead of Pierre Thiriet at the start.  The G Drive car then suffered a puncture which forced the Dutch driver into the pits for a new front left tyre but not before Tristan Gommendy had taken 2^nd place in the no33 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca and was soon challenging Buret for the lead.

The LMP3 class was led by the no19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier of David Droux after a great start from third on the class grid, with Mark Patterson in the no3 United Autosports Ligier in second.  However Alex Brundle in the no2 United Autosports Ligier was on the move and by the end of the second lap was past the no16 Panis Barthez Ligier and Patterson’s Ligier to move into second place. 

Patterson then went off at Turn 1 with a puncture, putting Valentin Moineault’s Panis Barthez Ligier back up into third.  Sean Rayhall in the no10 Graff Ligier then attempted to pass Moineault but the American ended up spinning off at the last corner after contact with the no16 Ligier.

The LMGTE battle was just as fierce with the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rory Butcher and the no56 AT Racing Ferrari of Alexander Talkinitsa Jr moving ahead of the pole sitting car, the no88 Proton Competition Porsche of Gianluca Roda.  This battle raged for several laps but then contact between the no66 Ferrari and the leading LMP2 car nearly caused an upset.

The no23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier continued to hold the overall lead for the first 27 laps but then disaster struck when Buret tried to lap the no66 Ferrari.  Rory Butcher turned in to the final corner not seeing the LMP2 leader and contact resulted in the Ligier spinning across the kerbs on the entry to the main straight.  Buret recovered but not before Tristan Gommendy, Nicolas Lapierre in the no21 Dragonspeed Oreca and Pierre Thiriet in the no46 TDS Racing Oreca had swept past.

Things then went from bad to worse for Buret when he was handed a drive through penalty for not respecting the formation at the start of the race and then went off into the barriers at Turn 6.

After the pitstops the no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca was now in the lead with Ryo Hirakawa at the wheel ahead of Stefano Coletti in the n032 SMP Racing BR01, Nico Pieter De Brujin in the no33 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca and Simon Dolan in the no38 G Drive Gibson.

The first Full Course Yellow was called on lap73 when the no7 Villorba Corse Ligier-Nissan had to be recovered from the gravel at Turn 5.  At the same time the no56 AT Racing Ferrari of Alexander Talkinitsa Sr suffered a rear right puncture and had to head to the pits.  While the FCY was displayed Robert Smith brought the no66 JMW Ferrari into the pits to hand over to Andrea Bertolini.

With 90 minutes left on the clock the pitstops mixed up the order at the front of the field once again.  Mathias Beche took over the driving duties in the no46 Oreca and once all the stops had been completed the Swiss driver had a 43 second advantage over De Brujin in the no33 Eurasia Oreca.  The no32 SMP Racing BR01 of Coletti was being caught by Harry Tincknell in the no38 G Drive Gibson when the BR01 was involved in an incident with the no11Eurointernational Ligier of Marco Jacoboni, who was leading LMP3, and the no29 Pegasus Racing Morgan.

Jacoboni headed to the pits and spent a long time as the team worked to repair the damage, handing the LMP3 class lead to Dino Lunardi in the no19 Duqueine Engineering entry, with Christian England in the no2 United Autosports Ligier not far behind.  The no32 SMP Racing car was able to rejoin in 3^rd but with a reduced gap to the flying Harry Tincknell.  The British driver caught and passed the Monegasque on the inside at Turn 2 and just before the SMP BR01 had to go into the pits to have the rear lights replaced.

Tincknell then closed the gap to the no33 Eurasia Oreca and made his move at Turn 2 to take second place.  The final set of stops were in the offing and afterwards the order was largely unchanged.  Tincknell was on a charge but then the no29 Pegasus Racing Morgan spun in front of him at Turn 2 and left the English driver with no escape.  The damage forced Tincknell to pit for a new left hand light pod but the debris on the track forced the Race Director to deploy another Full Course Yellow.  Tincknell emerged from the pits in 3^rd place behind Gommendy’s Eurasia Oreca and both were a long way behind the leading TDS Racing Oreca as the final part of the race unfolded.

In LMGTE the no66 JMW Ferrari held a 60 second advantage over the no99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Alex MacDowall, which was being challenged by the no51 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Aguas.  The two cars were running side by side  and after a bit of rubbing the Ferrari got the upperhand.  MacDowall was demoted a further place when Alessandro Pier Guidi also passed the Aston Martin with 20 minutes of the race remaining.

With 7 minutes left on the clock the race result looked set when Tracy Krohn in the no40 Krohn Racing Ligier went into the gravel at Turn 5 bringing out the third and final Full Course Yellow.  The marshals worked really quickly to snatch the green coloured Ligier to safety and then final 2.5 minutes of the race were run under green flag conditions. 

At the chequered flag the no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05-Nissan of Pierre Thiriet crossed the line to the cheers of the team on the pitwall, 51.6 seconds ahead of the no33 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca of Tristan Gommendy and a further 7.4 seconds in front of the no38 G Drive Racing Gibson. 

After three races the G Drive Racing team and crew hold a 8 point advantage on 58 points, compared to the 50 points that the Thiriet by TDS Racing team and crew hold going into the second part of the season.

While the no19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier of Dino Lunardi crossed the line first, 3.4 seconds ahead of the no2 United Autosports Ligier, the LMP3 result was overturned when the no19 car was handed a 4 second penalty for not respecting the mandatory pitstop time on two occasions (Stewards Decision 28) and so the win was given to the no2 United Autosports Ligier – Nissan of Alex Brundle, Michael Guasch and Christian England, their third straight win in three races.  The no19 crew finished second with the no6 360 Racing Ligier of Terrence Woodward, Ross Kaiser and James Swift in third.

This has given the no2 United Autosports crew, who are on 75 points, a 33 point advantage over the no19 Duqueine Engineering (42 points) at the halfway point of the season.

The no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia crew of Robert Smith, Rory Butcher and Andrea Bertolini enjoyed the view from the top step of the podium after finishing a lap ahead of the no51 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Aguas, Marco Cioci and Pierguiseppe Perazzini, with the no56 AT Racing of Alexander Talkanitsa Senior and Junior, along with Alessandro Pier Guidi finishing just 1.2 seconds behind the no51 car to give Ferrari a 1-2-3 podium lockout in Austria.

The no56 AT Racing crew are now leading the championship on 48 points, just one point ahead of the no99 Aston Martin Racing trio of Andrew Howard, Alex MacDowall and Darren Turner.

The next round of the 2016 European Le Mans Series will take place at Le Castellet on Sunday 28 August.  For more information visit the official website at www.europeanlemansseries.com

CLICK HERE for the result from the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring

CLICK HERE for the championship positions after Round 3

CLICK HERE to watch the LMP2 press conference video