Forestier Racing by Panis Dominates at Imola

The Forestier Racing by Panis crew of Louis Rousset, Oliver Gray and Esteban Masson triumphed in the Imola round of the European Le Mans Series, denying United Autosports victory in the team’s 500th race.

A blistering final stint from Masson ensured the No. 19 Oreca 07 Gibson crossed the line some 52 seconds ahead of the No. 22 United Autosports entry of Griffin Peebles, Gregoire Saucy and Ben Hanley.

It was a second win of the season for the Forestier Racing by Panis crew to narrow the points deficit to the United Autosports squad, while the podium was completed by the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing machine of Matthias Kaiser, Tristan Vautier and Jake Hughes.

Rousset maintained the lead from pole at the start but was passed at the Villeneuve Chicane by Adrien Closmenil in the No. 37 CLX Motorsport machine that also started on the front row shortly before the first virtual safety car period of a chaotic opening to the four-hour contest.

However, Closmenil was the only of the leaders to elect not to stop during the following safety car period and the CLX crew’s race then began to unravel when Closmenil was handed a drive-through penalty for a startline infringement and the car then tumbled further down the order when it eventually stopped for fuel.

But it was not Rousset that inherited the lead as instead it was the No. 22 United Autosports machine of Peebles, after he made a move on Rousset at Tamburello.

Saucy continued to hold the advantage through a series of cautions during the middle stages of the race before then being put under considerable pressure by Gray, but the reigning ELMS champion was unable to find a route ahead.

Instead, Forestier Racing by Panis used the undercut at the penultimate round of stops to vault into the lead, aided by a blistering out-lap from Masson, who then stormed clear of Hanley (who relayed Saucy) by almost a second per lap.

Masson’s glowing reputation was highlighted by the way he continued to pull away in the closing stages to finish almost a minute ahead of his rivals.

Things were much closer in second as Hughes had closed to within a couple of seconds of Hanley before the United Autosports car took the checkered flag seven seconds to the good.

Fourth place went to the No. 18 IDEC machine of Valerio Rinicella, Jamie Chadwick and Laurents Hoerr, despite that car picking up a five-second penalty for hitting the LMP3 leader.

The No. 10 Vector Sport crew of Ryan Cullen, Vladislav Lomko and Pietro Fittpaldi was fifth on the road but demoted two places by a time penalty for an unsafe release.

Therefore in fifth overall was the sister No. 7 Oreca of Jens Reno Moller, Cem Bolukbasi and Lorenzeo Fluxa that topped the Pro-Am division.

Malthe Jakobsen was on a charge in the latter stages in the No. 20 Algarve Pro machine but fell four seconds adrift of class success.

The No. 21 United Autosports entry completed the Pro-Am podium in eighth overall while the top ten was rounded out by the No. 24 Nielsen Racing and No. 19 Rossa Racing by Virage crews, the latter of which lost time by being hit by the No. 10 Vector machine in the first hour.

It was a disappointing race for 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 winner Inter Europol Competition as its sequence of ELMS podium finishes that stretched over a year was brought to an end, not aided by the No. 34 being handed a 65-second stop-and-hold penalty late in the race for pit lane speeding.

CLX, TF Sport Take Dominant Class Wins

Louis Iglesias took victory on his ELMS debut in the LMP3 ranks in the No. 17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 Toyota that he shared with Paul Lanchere and Alexander Jacoby.

Lanchere had led from pole before the crew opted to make both of its longer stops during the first caution.

This brought the No. 85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 Toyota into the lead and it continued to run at the front for several hours before it was hit by Hoerr, which caused significant rear damage and dropped the crew almost a lap down.

Iglesias was therefore able to cycle back into the lead and crossed the line some 29 seconds clear of the No. 5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier of Alvise Rodella, Jose Cautela and Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen.

Pedersen had passed the No. 8 Team Virage crew with 20 minutes to go, with Daniel Nogales, Matteo Quintarelli and Louis Stern having to settle for third.

The pole-sitting TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. of Alec Udell, Blake McDonald and Charlie Eastwood led the LMGT3 leaderboard for much of the race and a first win of the year for the reigning champion squad never really looked in doubt.

The Corvette was the only one of the LMGT3 lead contenders to stop during the first caution but, such was its superiority, it had recovered to the front of the class by the start of the second hour.

Eastwood did emerge from his final stop in fourth but he soon stormed back into the lead, passing the No. 62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and the No. 54 High Class Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo in a couple of corners on the same lap.

Eastwood ultimately crossed the line just 1.898 seconds clear of the No. 62 Mercedes-AMG crewed by Abdulla Al-Khelaifi, Julien Hanses and Maxime Martin, while the No. 54 Porsche tumbled back to fifth.

Instead the podium was completed by the No. 77 Proton Competition Porsche of late call-up Martin Berry, Huub van Eijndhoven and Harry King, while the sister No. 75 machine of Matt Kurzejewski, Richard Lietz and Tom Sargent was fourth.

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Imola