It’s a drama-filled weekend of action on the Michelin Road To Le Mans, now a traditional event for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Thursday’s race was won by the #22 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine of Torsten Kratz and Leo Weiss in LMP3, and the #12 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Frederic Jousset and David Fumanelli, but the race was stopped a quarter of an hour early. remaining due to an incident on the approach to Indianapolis, necessitating the use of red flags.
Louis Rossi’s Graff Racing Ligier #9 was pictured stopping on track with extensive damage to the entire car, after colliding with an Armco barrier at high speed on the fastest section of the circuit. Luckily Rossi was able to get out of the car under his own power, but the car and the barrier were badly damaged.
Earlier, the drama started before the race even started, with the suspension of Alex Bukhanstov’s #34 Inter Europol Competition Ligier exploding on the formation lap, wheels coming off and bodywork falling off. #34’s cleanup and recovery forced additional formation turns.
When the race finally got underway, Torsten Kratz quickly moved from 4th on the grid to the lead, while Andunn Gudmundsson also moved in the #77 Team Thor Ligier, to 3rd. In GT3, David Fumanelli also made a strong start to lead the class from 3rd.
However the race was neutralized quickly to deal with some wall contact and the recovery of several cars, including the #50 Reiter Engineering Liger of Horst Felbermayr in the second Mulsanne Chicane, and the #42 Steller Motorsport Ligier of Sennan Fielding. The safety car came out for 23 minutes, and all cars took the opportunity to make mandatory pit stops at that point.
This initially left Emmanuel Collard’s #82 Ferrari Corse AF in the lead, ahead of the two Blackthorn Aston Martins; Locran Hanafin’s #90 was second.
The green flag was raised with 18 minutes remaining, but Louis Rossi’s incident meant the race ended early. Race results are announced in the order determined by the lap immediately before the safety car.
RACE RESULTS 1 >>
Saturday Morning’s Race 2 saw Fabien Michal’s #85 R-Ace GP Duqueine jump away from the field, while Torsten Kratz in the #12 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine moved up to third in the early stages. In GT3, Custodio Toledo’s #88 AF Corse Ferrari led the way, ahead of teammate Charles-Henri Samani in the #82 Ferrari.
There was an early safety car on the first lap, to recover the #29 MV2S Racing Ligier of Christophe Cresp on the gravel, as well as recovering the #62 Bretton Racing Ligier which had suffered a puncture in the early close quarters.
The race returned to green and saw Kratz jump into second on the Mulsanne Straight, passing the #20 High Class Racing Ligier. A slow zone from the start/finish straight into the Dunlop Curve to recover the #23 Biogas Motorsport Ferrari then caused chaos for the leading GT3 cars, as the #82 Ferrari ran behind the class-leading #88 as the cars slowed to the 80km/h mark. Samani in #82 suffered the most serious damage, the Ferrari’s hood was ripped off, and fluid was pouring from the front end. Both he and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari behind him, spun towards Dunlop.
The Slow Zone was removed, but other cars coming out of the final corner brought out another Safety car, allowing some cars to make early pit stops and jump the field. The #29 Ligier MV2S of Cristophe Cresp and Maximus Meyer and the #90 Blackthorn Racing Aston Martin of Martin Berry and Locran Hanafin made early stops, and returned to the track effectively leading their class, while the rest of the field continued to advance. next round.
When the race restarted, David Droux in the #97 Cool Racing Ligier was in charge, challenging the #6 ANS Motorsport Ligier of Clement Moreno for second, finally making a pass outside Indianapolis with 6 minutes remaining. .
In the final lap, Droux closed in on Meyer for the lead, but the MV2S racer was able to hold on, winning the race by 0.935 seconds. Droux was second, with Tommy Foster in the #20 High Class Racing Ligier in third.
Lorcan Hanafin took the #90 Blackthorn Aston Martin he shared with Martin Berry to victory in GT3, 10 seconds ahead of championship leaders Matt Kurzejewski and Alessandro Balzan in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, with the #18 High Class Racing Porsche of Nick Jones and Sven Müller in third position.
RACE 2 RESULTS >>
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