VDS Panis Triumphant Again in 4H Spa

VDS Panis Racing delivered a second consecutive European Le Mans Series victory in the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps to extend its championship lead.

The No. 48 Oreca of Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson and Charles Milesi produced a composed performance to win by 24.330 seconds over the Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Tom Dillmann, Nick Yelloly and Jakub Smiechowski.

Silver-rated driver Gray hit the front with decisive moves in the opening hour on Jonas Ried (Iron Lynx – Proton) and polesitter Cem Bolukbasi (Nielsen Racing), each time with a better run from Raidillon to Les Combes.

Masson initially began his stint in second, following a safety car period that shuffled Vector Sport’s Vlad Lomko into the lead, but swiftly deposed him.

Inter Europol was the next crew to pose a challenge, after Yelloly followed Masson past Lomko, and jumped ahead in the third hour with a shorter stop. However, with another round of stops looming (to ensure their respective crews’ third drivers could complete their minimum one hour of driving time), Yelloly had to pit sooner to relay Dillmann, relative to Masson’s own handover to Milesi.

This was significant because when Masson did make his stop, it was just before a full course yellow triggered by an LMGT3 crash that mitigated his time loss, allowing Milesi to control the remainder of the contest.

The FCY timing also appeared to have benefitted the Genesis Magma Racing ‘trajectory program’ No. 18 IDEC Sport entry, which crossed the line 10.089 seconds behind in the hands of Mathys Jaubert.

However it was adjudged that Daniel Juncadella had entered the pits after the FCY was called – triggering the closure of the pitlane. The resulting three-minute stop-go penalty demoted Jaubert, Juncadella and Jamie Chadwick to an unrepresentative 19th place.

The No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca that Theo Pourchaire shared with Lorenzo Fluxa and Mathias Kaiser was similarly penalised while running third with less than 10 minutes to go.

The penalties boosted Nielsen trio Bolukbasi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Filipe Albuquerque to third, having also lost touch with the winners by making their final driver change under green.

APR’s No. 20 Oreca of Kriton Lentoudis, Olli Caldwell and Alex Quinn finished fourth overall and won the Pro/Am class, but are also under investigation for an FCY infringement.

Quinn made the car’s final stop with 23 minutes to go when the caution was declared for an LMP3 incident, which secured the victory after Caldwell had tracked United Autosports driver Oliver Jarvis for much of his stint.

Jarvis, Marino Sato and Alex Schneider ultimately finished second in class, seventh overall, after Mathias Beche was forced to pit his No. 29 TDS Racing Oreca for fuel on the final lap.

The class podium was completed by PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron and Louis Deletraz’s No. 99 AO by TF machine, which was delayed early on when a wayward Rodrigo Sales (TDS) clouted Hyett at the first corner – requiring a change of rear bodywork in the pits.

A quiet run for the No. 28 IDEC Sport Oreca of Paul Lafargue, Job van Uitert and Paul-Loup Chatin was rewarded with fifth place overall, ahead of the second Inter Europol entry of Pedro Perino, Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer and Luca Ghiotto.

Aston Martin denies Mercedes-AMG in LMGT3

Aston Martin became the fourth different manufacturer to win a race in the LMGT3 class this season as Valentin Hasse-Clot, Erwin Bastard and Clement Mateu denied Mercedes-AMG a first ELMS victory.

Mateu led the early stages after overtaking Duncan Cameron’s No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296, which had inherited pole position after Martin Berry was docked five grid places for causing a collision last time out at Imola, but the Racing Spirit of Leman Vantage GT3 Evo didn’t have things all its own way.

First Mateu lost out to Celia Martin in the Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R, which Bastard had to clear along with the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG Evo in which Berry had made excellent progress to vault Lorcan Hanafin into the lead after the first round of driver changes.

After Bastard had recovered the lead, Hasse-Clot then found himself behind Fabian Schiller (in for Hanafin) and unable to pass for the majority of the final hour. However, when both were forced to make late pit visits for fuel, the Frenchman rejoined ahead and successfully staved off a final lap charge from Schiller for victory.

The podium was completed by the Kessel Racing Ferrari in which Ben Tuck was joined by Takeshi Kimura and James Calado, after Michelle Gatting was forced to pit the Iron Dames Porsche with less than two minutes to go. Gatting, Martin and Sarah Bovy ultimately had to settle for fourth.

In the LMP3 class, a trouble-free run for Team Virage’s Julien Gerbi, Daniel Nogales and Rik Koen delayed the coronation of CLX Motorsport trio Paul Lanchere, Theodor Jensen and Adrien Closmenil.

Virage’s Ligier JS P325 – Toyota became the first team to break CLX’s domination of the championship on a day the Swiss team suffered three penalties and ended up in the gravel at Les Combes.

Despite a drive-through penalty for a start infringement, another for not serving the first correctly, and a further 10 second penalty for overtaking off the track, Closmenil was still in the hunt for second during the final half hour.

But he ran off the road while battling Eurointernational’s Ian Aguilera and the Frenchman could not make it back to the pits, ending a hitherto perfect season.

Aguilera was then penalised for turfing Mikkel Pedersen’s DKR Engineering Ginetta G61-LT-P325-EVO – Toyota into a spin at La Source, handing second to the RLR M Sport Ligier of Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock and Gillian Henrion.

Inter Europol Ligier crew Timothy Creswick, Douwe Dedecker and Reece Gold completed the podium despite a spin for the American at the Bus Stop while chasing Henrion, which almost allowed the recovering Aguilera back on terms.

Results: 4 Hours of Spa