Red Flags Disrupt 4H Silverstone After Roda, Berry Crashes

The European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Silverstone has been halted by red flags for a second time after Giorgio Roda’s heavy accident on the Hangar Straight.

Less than 10 minutes of green flag running had been completed after the first stoppage, required to repair barrier damage following Martin Berry’s heavy accident in the first hour.

Roda’s Proton Competition Oreca 07-Gibson was spun into the wall on the exit of the Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel complex after contact from Nick Adcock’s RLR M Sport Ligier JS P325-Toyota, which had itself been unsettled by a touch from Roda’s LMP2 Pro-Am class rival Francois Perrodo.

As the two Orecas passed either side of Adcock, a slight move left from Perrodo sent the LMP3 machine into the side of Roda, whose car was fortunately not collected by the approaching PJ Hyett after being left stranded in the middle of the straight.

Roda walked away from his damaged car unaided.

Race control has announced that the action will resume at 12:50 BST (7:05 a.m. EDT).

A frenetic opening to Silverstone’s first ELMS race since 2019 was originally interrupted when Berry, whose Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 had been running fourth in the LMGT3 class, was hit in the left-rear corner by Alexander Malykhin’s CLX Motorsport Oreca.

The Australian also walked away from his badly damaged car, which had speared across the gravel before impacting a tire barrier at high speed.

Malykhin was himself recovering from opening lap dramas, having incurred damage when he was turned around by LMP2 Pro-Am polesitter Hyett at the Loop.

The first round of LMP2 stops had just begun prior to the stoppage, with Oliver Gray leading throughout in the VDS Panis Racing Oreca. Duqueine driver Benjamin Pedersen had just pitted from second, while Nielsen Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque was third.

A Virtual Safety Car was already required on the first lap after a three-car LMP2 Pro-Am crash at Maggotts and a skirmish at Luffield that left Jacques Wolff’s Racing Spirit of LeMan Ligier JS P325-Toyota in the gravel.

The race start was moved forward by an hour on Saturday, in anticipation of heavy rain arriving later on Sunday.