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European Le Mans Series

Silverstone ELMS Pre-Race Notebook

Marcel ten Caat’s pre-race notebook for the Silverstone ELMS round…

Photo: Marcel ten Caat

Photo: Marcel ten Caat

***38 cars will start the race this afternoon. With Boris Rotenberg not at Silverstone this weekend, the Russian team therefore decided to withdraw the No. 57 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3. Rotenberg was set to share with Mika Salo and Maurizio Mediani for the event.

***The No. 43 Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan, which was involved in an incident with the No. 95 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia yesterday, has been repaired and was out in qualifying again – in which it suffered damage to the same corner again. Cedric Sbirrazzuoli was reprimanded and fined for causing the accident.

***Following its shunt at the Official Test Days in Paul Ricard last month Race Performance has been forced to use its second tub in order to race here at Silverstone. The crashed tub will be repaired and Michel Frey told Sportscar365 that the team could use that chassis if it is repaired in time for the Le Mans rebuild.

***Michel Frey and Franck Mailleux are in the No. 34 Oreca 03 Judd this weekend, with a third driver for Le Mans not revealed yet. “Our Le Mans line-up will be officially announced next week,” said Frey, “and it is going to be a British driver in the car.” Unless something unexpected comes up between now and then, expect Jon Lancaster to be in the car for Le Mans.

***The minimum driving time for the GTC category has been modified. Drivers in a two-driver line-up will now have to drive at least 90 minutes, while in the case of three-driver line-ups, without any Gold or Platinum driver, they will have to do a minimum time of 45 minutes each.

***Last year’s 3 Hours of Silverstone had 23 entries. Last year’s winner was Jota Sport, followed by Race Performance in second position. The two teams will start today’s race in the exact same order. GTE and GTC will see different winners, as Proton Competition and Ecurie Ecosse are not competing at Silverstone.

***Heavy rain cut short the race after 48 laps in 2013. There is a chance of rain later today, but it is not expected to be as bad as it was last year.

Marcel ten Caat (@marceltencaat) is a contributor to Sportscar365 and other publications including Autosport.nl.

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