Prema Takes Dominant Win in Barcelona

Photo: MPS Agency

Louis Deletraz, Ferdinand Habsburg and Lorenzo Colombo have extended their points lead with Prema’s third victory of the European Le Mans Series season in Sunday’s 4 Hours of Barcelona.

The trio took their Oreca 07 Gibson to a dominant win in the fourth round of the season, with Deletraz finishing 22.926 seconds ahead of the No. 65 Panis Racing entry that was taken to the checkered flag by Job van Uitert.

Habsburg took over the lead on Lap 18, getting around the pole-sitting Panis entry of Julien Canal, who was later handed a five-second penalty for not respecting the start.

A further ten seconds was added to the result of the No. 65 entry of Canal, Uitert and Nico Jamin due to a subsequent pit stop infringement that was unable to be served during the car’s final scheduled stop that came under a Full Course Yellow.

The No. 37 COOL Racing Oreca of Nico Lapierre, Yifei Ye and Niklas Kruetten completed the overall podium in third, despite a nose change during one of Lapierre’s pit stops after sustaining right-front damage.

United Autosports’ solo LMP2 entry came home fourth ahead of the Pro-Am sub class-winning No. 83 AF Corse Oreca of Alessio Rovera, Nicklas Nielsen and Francois Perrodo.

LMP3 honors went to the No. 13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Nicolas Pino, Charles Crews and Guilherme Oliveira, which overcame a ten-second post-race penalty for exceeding track limits.

Oliveira crossed the line 15.205 seconds ahead of the No. 4 DKR Engineering Duqueine D08 Nissan of Sebastian Alvarez, which was enough to ensure the victory despite the penalty.

It came after a commanding run by the Polish squad, which virtually led the entire race.

The No. 17 COOL Racing Ligier completed the LMP3 class podium in third.

A late-race pass by Gianmaria Bruni gave Proton Competition victory in GTE, meanwhile.

The Porsche factory driver got around the No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of David Perl for the class lead with 23 minutes to go and crossed the line 14.392 seconds ahead of the Prancing Horse.

It marked Bruni and co-drivers Lorenzo Ferrari and Christian Ried’s second consecutive class win in the No. 77 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

The No. 66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari, which led the early stages of the race, finished third in class after being handed a drive-through penalty due to early race contact between Giacomo Petrobelli and the No. 93 Proton Porsche of Michael Fassbender.

The race saw multiple FCYs as well as a safety car period on the opening lap due to an accident for the No. 83 Iron Dames Ferrari of Sarah Bovy, who was put into the wall by a LMP3 car.

Both the No. 3 United Autosports Ligier of Jim McGuire and the No. 27 COOL Racing Ligier driven by Jean-Ludovic Foubert were also knocked out of the race after a collision later that lap.

RESULTS: 4H Barcelona

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John