Algarve Pro Takes Dramatic Paul Ricard Victory

Algarve Pro Racing won the 4 Hours of Le Castellet in a drama-filled race that saw two lead changes in the final 30 minutes.

James Allen wrestled the No. 25 Oreca 07 Gibson, which he shared with Kyffin Simpson and Alex Lynn, past Racing Team Turkey’s Louis Deletraz through turns 1 and 2 with just seven minutes remaining on the clock.

The Australian driver had rapidly closed the gap on Deletraz in the No. 34 Oreca throughout the final 20 minutes of the race.

This came after Deletraz was suddenly promoted to first place with 23 minutes to go when race leader Paul-Loup Chatin pitted with a puncture after assuming the race lead during the final round of pit stops.

This appeared to put the Pro-Am entered No. 34 machine on the path to its second consecutive overall win in ELMS until Allen moved up the inside of Deletraz out of Virage du Pont.

The two cars then ran side-by-side down the start-finish straight, after which Allen held on to complete the move through the first sequence of corners on the start of the following lap.

After losing the lead, Deletraz also lost out to the No. 30 Duqueine Team Oreca of Neel Jani, who charged past at Signes with four minutes remaining.

Jani, Nico Pino and Rene Binder finished second while Deletraz, Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood completed the overall podium and took their second LMP2 Pro-Am class victory of the season.

The No. 34 Inter Europol Competition crew of Rui Andrade, Olli Caldwell and Jonathan Aberdein crossed the line in fourth, ahead of the Cool Racing trio of Reshad de Gerus, Vlad Lomko and Jose Maria Lopez.

IDEC Sport finished sixth after the late puncture for the No. 28 Oreca piloted by Chatin, Paul Lafargue and Laurents Hoerr.

The overall top ten was completed by the No. 37 Cool Racing Oreca, Panis Racing’s No. 65 crew and Pro-Am entries from AF Corse and Nielsen Racing.

Porsche Takes 1-2 Victory in GTE

Proton Competition converted pole position to take victory in the GTE class, leading home Iron Lynx to claim a 1-2 for the German brand.

The No. 77 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Christian Ried, Giammarco Levorato and Julien Andlauer led from the start.

Ried retained the lead through the opening stages, although briefly ran third behind Spirit of Race’s David Perel and TF Sport driver Arnold Robin at the time of a mid-race safety car.

The neutralization occurred when Michael Fassbender was hit and spun around by the No. 50 Formula Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Johnny Laursen, scattering debris across the start-finish straight.

After Perel pitted to reinstall Bronze-rated co-driver Duncan Cameron and Robin was tagged into a spin at pit entry after the restart, Levorato reassumed the lead and held it.

This allowed Andlauer to bring the car to the checkered flag with a lead of 11.410 seconds over the No. 60 Iron Lynx Porsche driven by Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni and Matteo Cairoli.

After starting from the back of the GTE field, a well-timed pit stop just before the safety car put the Italian crew on course for its first podium of the season.

Porsche appeared to be heading for a podium sweep, until the No. 16 Porsche dropped from third place after Alessio Picariello made contact with the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Scott Huffaker with under ten minutes to go.

Huffaker, Takeshi Kimura and Frederik Schandorff completed the class podium, ahead of the No.95 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR.

Picariello, meanwhile, dropped to ninth in class after receiving a ten-second time penalty for the contact.

In LMP3, Racing Spirit of Leman took the class win by beating pole sitters WTM by Rinaldi Racing.

Antoine Doquin, sharing the No. 31 Ligier JS P320 Nissan with Jacques Wolff and Jean-Ludovic Foubert, overtook the No. 12 Duqueine D08 Nissan in the third hour before going on to open up a gap of ten seconds.

Torsten Kratz, Leonard Weiss and Oscar Tunjo dominated the opening phase of the race, but had an early lead of over 30 seconds slashed by the safety car.

The German squad finished second, ahead of the No. 17 Cool Racing Ligier of Marcos Siebert, Adrien Chila and Alejandro Garcia.

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Le Castellet