United Trio Jarvis, Garg, Siegel Take LMP2 Victory

United Autosports secured LMP2 class victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg and Nolan Siegel combined to deliver the Anglo-American team its second victory at La Sarthe.

Jarvis, Garg and Siegel steered the No. 22 Oreca 07 Gibson to victory by a margin of 18.651 seconds over the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition car, giving United its first triumph since the 2020 edition.

It marked a second class win for British veteran Jarvis following his 2017 triumph for Jackie Chan DC Racing, while American duo Garg and Siegel both picked up victories on their Le Mans debuts.

Rain at various points through the race and multiple safety car periods kept a larger-than-usual number of cars in contention into the closing stages.

The United car had dropped away in the evening hours when Siegel picked up a drive-through penalty for making contact with the No. 33 DKR Engineering car at the Ford chicane, but the mixed conditions allowed them back into the fight.

But impressive pace by Siegel in the morning saw the No. 22 car move back up the order, with the Indy NXT regular passing the No. 28 IDEC Sport car of Reshad de Gerus to take the lead in the 22nd hour.

From there Siegel handed over to Jarvis, with a quick stop when the final rain shower of the race giving the British driver a comfortable advantage of around 35 seconds over the Inter Europol driven by Clement Novalak.

That gap was roughly halved at the final round of stops as the United car spent 13 seconds longer on pit road, but Jarvis was able to gradually pull away from Novalak to seal the win.

Novalak brought home the Inter Europol car he shares with defending race winner Jakub Smiechowski and Vlad Lomko for second, the Polish squad recovering from losing a wheel that dropped the No. 34 off the lead lap on Saturday evening.

Completing the podium was the IDEC Sport machine of de Gerus, Paul Lafargue and Job van Uitert, 33 seconds down at the finish.

Nico Varrone secured fourth overall and top Pro-Am honors for the No. 183 AF Corse Oreca after making a late pass on the No. 10 Vector Sport car of Patrick Pilet, and fell less than two seconds shy of the final podium spot.

The No. 183 car Varrone shared with Francois Perrodo and Ben Barnicoat looked like a strong contender for overall LMP2 victory at half-distance, only for an advantage of nearly two minutes to be wiped by the second safety car period.

Vector’s No. 10 car meanwhile enjoyed a long spell in the lead on Saturday as one of two cars not to pit for wet tires during the first rain shower of the race, along with the Inter Europol entry before that advantage was neutralized by the first safety car.

Pilet was unable to trouble the fastest runners in class in the closing stages, with he and teammates Ryan Cullen and Stephane Richelmi ending up fifth.

The class pole-winning No. 14 AO by TF Sport car of Louis Deletraz, PJ Hyett and Alex Quinn finished a lap down in sixth and second of the Pro-Am cars.

Cool Racing’s No. 37 car shared by European Le Mans Series trio Malthe Jakobsen, Ritomo Miyata and Lorenzo Fluxa was one of the most fancied in cars in class and stayed in lead contention until a problem in the final hour dropped them down the order.

A half-hour trip to the garage following a spin for Jakobsen left the No. 37 machine 12th in class at the finish.

United’s Pro-Am entered car was last of the finishers in class, 25 laps down at the finish following multiple offs for Ben Keating, who reported that one of these excursions resulted in a broken alternator pulley.

Three LMP2 cars failed to see the finish of the race, all of which dropped out before the halfway mark.

First to drop out was the No. 9 Proton Competition Oreca that stopped on track in the sixth hour and was unable to resume.

Later in the evening, the No. 30 Duqueine car pulled off circuit with smoke billowing from the rear, while the final dropout was the No. 45 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry that was eliminated when it lost a wheel in the early morning hours.

RESULTS: 24 Hours of Le Mans