APR Wins Dramatic Rain-Affected Silverstone Bout

Algarve Pro Racing trio Matthias Kaiser, Jake Hughes and Ben Barnicoat scored a first European Le Mans Series victory of the season during a dramatic, rain-affected 4 Hours of Silverstone.

The No. 25 Oreca 07 Gibson trio overcame a ten-second penalty for colliding with the No. 23 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo early in the race as the contest was turned on its head by a safety car and heavy rain arriving at mid-distance.

Late call-up Barnicoat eventually crossed the line 18 seconds clear of the No. 14 TDS Racing Pro-Am Oreca of Steven Thomas, Sami Meguetounif and Scott Huffaker with the order jumbled by the different strategies amid the rain.

The No. 37 CLX Motorsport Oreca of Theodor Jensen had looked unstoppable in the early stages as he blasted into the lead on the first lap, getting the better of Jakub Smiechowski in the pole-sitting No. 43 Inter Europol Competition machine through The Loop and Jensen proceeded to pull away at a rapid rate.

Jensen was soon over two seconds clear as Smiechowski fell into the clutches of those behind and was demoted to third by the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing car of Matthias Kaiser at Becketts on the second tour.

Further back, the driver on a charge was joint points leader Griffin Peebles in the No. 22 United Autosports machine that had started tenth.

Peebles was up to sixth by the end of the first lap and was up to third by the time of the first round of pit stops having made a series of aggressive moves.

But the Australian’s rapid rise featured a tangle with the No. 35 Ultimate Ligier JS P325 of Terrence Woodward and received a drive-through penalty that dropped Peebles to sixth.

Also in the wars was the No. 43 Inter Europol car as Nick Yelloly lost his left-rear wheel having just taken over from Smiechowski and it fell two laps down as Yelloly limped back to the pits and repairs were made.

But of more significance in the title battle was a spin at Brooklands for Oliver Gray in the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca that was joint points leader with the United Autosports crew going into the weekend, which caused reigning champion Gray to lose two laps while his car was recovered and fall out of contention.

Jensen enjoyed a lead of over 30 seconds at this stage from the No. 24 Nielsen Racing Oreca of Roy Nissany at the time of a virtual safety car after the No. 63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Ameerh Naran clattered into Andrew Gilbert’s spinning No. 74 Kessel Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo at Abbey.

The Nielsen crew had pitted just before the VSC was called and Edward Pearson therefore held the lead at the time of the restart as the order was jumbled by the Pro-Am contenders also having stopped earlier having reached the minimum drive time of the FIA Bronze-graded drivers.

With the rain having intensified, Pearson therefore led Jake Hughes, now aboard the No. 25 APR car, upon the resumption at the start of the third hour as Bijoy Garg aboard the No. 34 Inter Europol entry soon fell back from third.

But there was disaster for the No. 37 CLX crew as Ian Aguilera was spun at the Club chicane while lapping the No. 54 High Class Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, which dropped the long-time leader to the tail of the LMP2 runners.

When Pearson eventually pitted to hand over to late call-up Jack Aitken it put the No. 14 Pro-Am TDS Racing car of Meguetounif into the overall lead.

However, this car then briefly ground to a halt during a third FCY period as Meguetounif had to perform an electrical reset putting the No. 22 Pro-Am United Autosports to the front.

But Marino Sato’s lead did not last long before Barnicoat blasted clear with around 30 minutes left on the clock and went on to triumph.

The No. 14 TDS car held on to second overall to become the fifth different LMP2 Pro-Am winner from five races but faces an investigation into the circumstances of Meguetounif’s brief FCY stoppage.

Sato, Daniel Schneider and Oliver Jarvis made it two Pro-Am crews on the overall podium while the second of the Pro squads was the No. 18 IDEC Sport trio of Job van Uitert, Paul Lafargue and Paul-Loup Chatin.

The No. 19 Rossa Racing by Virage Oreca took fifth while the No. 21 United Autosports crew of Peebles, Gregoire Saucy and Ben Hanley had to settle for sixth overall, but it was still enough for them to take the points lead as the No. 29 Forestier by Panis car was classified ninth in class.

R-ace GP Duqueine, Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG Top Entertaining Class Battles

The sole Duqueine D09 Toyota of Fabien Michal, Pierre-Alexandre Provost and Hugo Schwarze took LMP3 glory after the points-leading No. 17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 Toyota of Alexander Jacoby spun out of the lead at The Loop during the tricky middle phases of the race.

The No. 85 R-ace GP Duqueine finished up 14 seconds clear of the opposition as the No. 17 recovered to second in the hands of Louis Iglesias, but Jacoby and Paul Lanchere missed out on the chance to wrap up the class title with a round to go.

Iglesias was flying in the final stages to narrow the gap but was unable to get close enough to challenge Schwarze.

Third place was set to go to the No. 5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier of Jose Cautela, Alvise Rodella and Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen until it ground to a halt with seconds remaining, promoting the No. 13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier in dramatic fashion.

The No. 62 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R were the top-two in LMGT3 for much of the race and it was the Mercedes-AMG trio of Abdullah Al-Khelaifi, Ralf Aron and Julian Hanses that prevailed.

Blake McDonald had guided the Corvette into the lead on the opening lap and continued to hold the advantage until the third hour when the Mercedes-AMG moved ahead.

However, the No. 57 Kessel Ferrari jumped the pair of them during the final round of stops but Mathys Jaubert was reeled in during the final stages and was passed by both Hanses and Charlie Eastwood in the Corvette when the Ferrari ran wide at Luffield with ten minutes to go.

Eastwood then launched an attack on Hanses and the pair made contact as they went side by side for half a lap, but Hanses just about emerged ahead to take the spoils.

Eastwood fell to three seconds back at the flag but he, McDonald and Alec Udell have now regained the lead of the championship.

Jaubert, Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra had to settle for fourth after a flying Harry King in the No. 77 Proton Competition Porsche nabbed the final spot on the podium on the last lap while the sister No. 75 Proton Porsche lost the points lead after finishing seventh.