Inter Europol Takes Breakthrough LMP2 Victory at Le Mans

Inter Europol Competition took an unexpected LMP2 class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by holding off a challenge from Team WRT.

The No. 34 Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Jakub Smiechowski, Albert Costa and Fabio Scherer crossed the line 21 seconds ahead of the No. 41 car of Rui Andrade, Louis Deletraz and Robert Kubica.

It marks the team’s best-ever FIA World Endurance Championship result and only its second LMP2 victory following a win in the second round of the Asian Le Mans Series earlier this year.

The Polish-flagged squad started the race outside the top ten but survived through an eventful opening phase that included multiple rain showers.

The No. 34 car gained the race lead halfway through the seventh hour, with WRT’s No. 41 machine slotting into second place and setting up a duel that would last through the rest of the contest.

A key factor in the battle was an injury for Inter Europol’s Gold-rated driver Scherer, who drove the vast majority of the race with an injury after his foot was run over by the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

Despite the injury, Scherer battled his way round the outside of WRT driver Robert Kubica at the second Mulsanne Chicane to take the lead on Saturday morning.

The two cars then switched places twice more as Kubica overtook Silver-rated Smiechowski an hour later, only for positions to revert back ahead thanks to a shorter pitstop when Costa took the No. 34 car over.

Fortunate timing with two consecutive slow zones triggered by incidents for other cars saw Inter Europol then extend the gap to the chasing Belgian team.

The time gain allowed it to retain the lead when the No. 43 car later served a drive through penalty for a safety car infringement.

There was some confusion over a potential second penalty hanging over the team for a pitstop infringement, but that was later revoked by the stewards following further technical investigation.

A late pitstop for the second WRT car saw Duqueine Team and its No. 30 Oreca driven by Nico Pino, Rene Binder and Neel Jani completed the podium.

Frijns, Sean Gelael and Ferdinand Habsburg dropped to fifth position, finishing behind the No. 36 Alpine Elf Team trio of Matthieu Vaxiviere, Charles Milesi and Julien Canal.

A late rear puncture dropped IDEC Sport to sixth, finishing ahead of Vector Sport and the No. 23 United Autosports Oreca.

The Anglo-American squad ran a troubled contest, with both cars involved in notable incidents.

Its No. 23 car, which Tom Blomqvist shares with Josh Pierson and Oliver Jarvis, was eliminated from contention when Blomqvist crashed after a loss of brakes on Saturday night.

The No. 22 sister car fell away when Frederick Lubin made hard contact with the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 entering the Mulsanne Straight.

Alpine’s No. 35 car finished ninth, with LMP2 Pro-Am class winners Algarve Pro Racing completing the overall top ten in class.

CrowdStrike by APR Dominates LMP2 Pro-Am

The No. 45 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca 07 Gibson of George Kurtz, Colin Braun and James Allen put a commanding drive to take victory in the LMP2 Pro-Am subclass.

The Portuguese squad ran a clean race to finish five laps ahead of the No. 37 Cool Racing Oreca driven by Nico Lapierre, Alexandre Coigny and Malthe Jakobsen.

The No. 43 DKR Engineering trio of Tom van Rompuy, Ugo de Wilde and Maxime Martin completed the podium in class.

The class win marks a prolongation of the team’s class Pro-Am victory at the event 12 months ago.

They were able to clinch the victory after a number of major opponents fell away from contention through a number of notable incidents.

Both Nielsen Racing and Tower Motorsports retired from the race following separate, significant crashes in the opening phase.

During the early evening, the No. 923 Racing Team Turkey Oreca was also eliminated when Dries Vanthoor hit another car at Indianapolis. It was later retired with persistent suspension issues.

Algarve Pro then saw its sole remaining competitor, AF Corse’s No. 80 car, crash at the Porsche Curves with Ben Barnicoat at the wheel.

RESULTS: 24 Hours of Le Mans