AO by TF Wins Incident-Filled 4H Spa

Jonny Edgar, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz converted pole position to victory by winning an incident-filled 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, securing AO by TF’s first European Le Mans Series win of the season in the process.

Deletraz, piloting the No. 14 Oreca 07 Gibson, held off a charging Tom Dillmann to take victory by a margin of 1.100 seconds after four hours of racing were completed.

The Swiss racer had initially emerged out of the pits with a lead of some five seconds over Dillmann when the final round of stops was completed, but the Frenchman chipped away at the lead rapidly as Inter Europol Competition sought its second win of the campaign.

Dillmann and co-drivers Sebastian Alvarez and Vlad Lomko ultimately had to settle for second in a race that the No. 43 car had led amidst a period of consecutive safety cars in an incident-filled opening half of the race.

However, a slower pitstop for Inter Europol during the race’s second virtual safety car (which eventually became the fourth safety car) caused it to drop back.

AO by TF also briefly fell back behind an off-sequence No. 22 United Autosports Oreca, only for Kubica to catch and overtake Filip Ugran at Les Combes before opening a significant gap.

That advantage eventually proved a sufficient buffer for the No. 14 car even as Dillmann closed on Deletraz towards the end, allowing AO by TF to claim its first win of the season.

Deletraz, meanwhile, achieved the notable distinction of having secured overall victories with four different entries for each of his four seasons in ELMS, adding to previous race wins with Team WRT, Prema and the Racing Team Turkey squad.

IDEC Sport completed the overall top three with its No. 28 car piloted by Marcos Siebert, Reshad de Gerus and Job van Uitert.

The French squad came out on top in a rapidly evolving battle for the final spot on the podium that saw three different teams move into the position in the final ten minutes.

Cool Racing initially looked to be headed for the podium with its No. 37 car in the hands of Malthe Jakobsen, only to fade and fall behind Van Uitert and the No. 65 Panis Racing Oreca of Charles Milesi.

Milesi subsequently passed Van Uitert for third out of La Source with eight minutes to go, only for the Frenchman’s pace to drop off significantly in the closing laps.

While IDEC moved back in to third, Panis faded to sixth behind the No. 34 Inter Europol Oreca, as well as Jakobsen.

The No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca finished seventh, ahead of the LMP2 Pro-Am-winning No. 83 AF Corse machine driven by Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Giorgio Roda, Rene Binder and Bent Viscaal took second for Proton Competition in Pro-Am in ninth overall, while Vector Sport completed the overall top ten.

Kessel Victorious in LMGT3 Race of Attrition; Eurointernational Doubles Up

Kessel Racing led a Ferrari 1-2-3 in an incident-packed race in the LMGT3 class that saw half of the cars in the category wiped out before the halfway point of the race.

Each of the four safety cars during the opening two hours came because of an incident that involved or eliminated a car in the LMGT3 class.

First, JMW Motorsport’s John Hartsthorne hit the wall exiting Pouhon after he lost control of his No. 66 Ferrari 296 GT3 when Ryan Cullen made contact passing around the outside.

A second safety car was triggered when the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R of Sarah Bovy hit the No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari driven by Matt Griffin whilst in battle at Les Combes, which resulted in both Griffin and Formula Racing’s Johnny Laursen hitting the barriers.

Griffin was eliminated with suspension damage while Bovy and Laursen continued, although both cars would retire not much later as a result of separate incidents at Eau Rouge and Raidillon.

Bovy’s race came to an end when she came up behind and hit the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Hiroshi Hamaguchi, which appeared to have suffered damage after colliding with Carl Wattana Bennett’s No. 47 Cool Racing Oreca shortly before.

Hamaguchi also retired after hitting the barriers at Eau Rouge, which ultimately triggered the safety car for the third time.

A fourth intervention was needed not much later when Gregoire Saucy’s No. 29 Richard Mille by TDS Oreca and the No. 50 Formula Racing Ferrari went off together at the restart.

After that, the race remained green for the second half, with Kessel taking control after a charging stint from Silver-rated Esteban Masson brought the No. 57 Ferrari into the lead.

Masson, Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra went on to finish 37.282 seconds ahead of the No. 86 GR Racing Ferrari of Mike Wainwright, Riccardo Pera and Davide Rigon.

A late-race overtake from Nico Varrone, passing the No. 59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo at La Source, ensured the Prancing Horse locked out the podium as the No. 51 AF Corse machine finished third.

In LMP3, Eurointernational captured a second consecutive class win with its No. 11 Ligier JS P320 Nissan driven by Adam Ali and Matthew Richard Bell, overcoming an early collision that put the car in the gravel at Les Combes.

Bell was pitched into a spin by the No. 12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine D08 Nissan of Torsten Kratz around the same moment that Bovy and Hamaguchi collided at Eau Rouge.

However, the Italian squad bounced back to win by 14.917 seconds over the No. 31 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier driven by Jacques Wolff, Jean-Ludovic Foubert and Antoine Doquin.

The No. 17 Cool Racing Ligier completed the class podium in third, while DKR Engineering saw a top-three finish fall apart on the final lap when Wyatt Brichacek spun at the Bus Stop chicane just before taking the checkered flag and fell to seventh.

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps