Monza ELMS: G-Drive wins despite late penalty

The defending champions got off to a poor start in the second ELMS race of the season, with Rojas dropping from third to fifth in the first 10 minutes of the race.

However, the Russian squad brought itself back into contention by pitting under two separate Full Course Yellows in the first two hours.

At the second stop, Roussel took over the driving duties from Rojas and began hammering down the gap to the leaders.

The Frenchman first dispatched the #47 Villobra Corse before taking advantage of traffic to pass the #21 DragonSpeed entry to take the lead of the race.

A late drive-through penalty, assessed in the final hour for not obeying the speed limit in the second of the three Full Course Yellows, ultimately had no impact on the results as the G-Drive had built a comfortable 45-second cushion at the front of the field.

But the #21 DragonSpeed trio of Nicolas Lapierre, Ben Hanley and Henrik Hedman ultimately crossed the line just 2.245s behind in second after a roller coaster of a race.

Lapierre had taken over the lead from the #39 Graff Racing after undercutting the French outfit in the first hour.

However, a slow middle stint for gentleman driver Hedman dropped the #21 Oreca 07 well outside the top five, leaving Hanley with a mountain to climb in the final quarter of the race.

The Englishman was one of the quickest drivers in the final hour and managed to pass #49 High Class Racing’s Andres Fjordbach to secure the runner-up spot. Fjordbach and teammate Dennis Andersen completed the top three.

Over half a minute behind the podium finishers, the #39 Graff Racing crew of Eric Trouillet, Paul Petit and Enzo Guibbert finished fourth after leading the race from pole position in the first hour.

The #47 Villobra Corse completed the top five positions with its all-Italian line-up of Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto, Andrea Belicchi.

One-two finish for M.Racing-YMR in LMP3

Over in the LMP3 class, M.Racing YMR took a dominant one-two finish with its #19 Norma M30 beating the sister #18 Ligier JS P3 by over a lap.

The race marked Norma’s first victory in ELMS, the manufacturer having only unveiled its LMP3 car last year in the run-up to Le Mans.

Meanwhile, the #17 Ultimate Ligier claimed the final spot on the podium, as reigning class champions United Autosports had to settle for fourth place.

GTE: Ferrari wins on home turf

The #66 JMW Motorsport took the GTE honours for Ferrari, bidding a perfect adieu to their generation-old 458 Italia.

The British outfit, which will field a brand new 488 GTE at Le Mans, ran second for the first half of the race, before technical troubles for the pole-sitting #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari gifted it a farewell victory.

The #90 TF Sport entry finished seven seconds adrift, while the #99 Beechdean AMR made it two Aston Martins on the GTE podium. 

Race Results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	22	Leo Roussel   Memo Rojas   Ryo Hirakawa	Oreca 07	132 laps
2	21	Nicolas Lapierre   Henrik Hedman   Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	2.245
3	49	Anders Fjordbach   Dennis Andersen	Dallara P217	7.215
4	39	Eric Trouillet   Paul Petit   Enzo Guibbert	Oreca 07	33.980
5	47	Roberto Lacorte   Giorgio Sernagiotto   Andrea Belicchi	Dallara P217	54.798
6	32	Filipe Albuquerque   Will Owen   Hugo De Sadeleer	Ligier JSP217	1'06.385
7	23	Fabien Barthez   Timothé Buret   Matthieu Vaxivière	Ligier JSP217	1'38.640
	25	Matt McMurry   Andrea Roda   Andrea Pizzitola	Ligier JSP217	1 lap
8	40	Richard Bradley   James Allen   Franck Matelli	Oreca 07	1 lap
9	28	Olivier Pla   Patrice Lafargue   Paul Lafargue	Ligier JSP217	3 laps
10	29	Jan Lammers   Frits van Eerd	Dallara P217	5 laps
11	19	Ricky Capo   Erwin Creed	Norma M 30	8 laps
12	18	Alexandre Cougnaud   Antoine Jung   Romano Ricci	Ligier JS P3	9 laps
13	17	Jean Baptiste Lahaye   Matthieu Lahaye   Franqois Heriau	Ligier JS P3	9 laps
14	3	Mark Patterson   Christian England   Wayne Boyd	Ligier JS P3	9 laps
15	11	Giorgio Mondini   Davide Uboldi	Ligier JS P3	9 laps
16	13	Jakub Smiechowski   Martin Hippe	Ligier JS P3	9 laps
17	6	Terrence Woodward   Ross Kaiser   Tony Wells	Ligier JS P3	10 laps
18	7	David Droux   Antonin Borga   Nicolas Schatz	Ligier JS P3	10 laps
19	2	Sean Rayhall   John Falb	Ligier JS P3	10 laps
20	15	Alex Kapadia   Morten Dons   John Farano	Ligier JS P3	10 laps
21	66	Robert Smith   Jody Fannin   Jonathan Cocker	Ferrari F458 Italia	11 laps
22	90	Nicki Thiim   Salih Yoluc   Euan Hankey	Aston Martin V8 Vantage	11 laps
23	99	Darren Turner   Andrew Howard   Ross Gunn	Aston Martin V8 Vantage	11 laps
24	16	Eric Debard   Simon Gachet   Theo Bean	Ligier JS P3	11 laps
25	51	Gianluca Roda   Andrea Bertolini   Giorgio Roda	Ferrari F488 GTE	11 laps
26	77	Christian Ried   Joel Camathias   Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	12 laps
27	12	Andrea Dromedari   Maxime Pialat   Max Hanratty	Ligier JS P3	12 laps
28	50	Romain Brandela   Christian Philippon	Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06	12 laps
29	8	Henry Hassid   Vincent Beltoise   Lucas Légeret	Ligier JS P3	13 laps
30	34	Nigel Moore   Philip Hanson	Ligier JSP217	17 laps
31	4	Alexandre Coigny   Gino Forgione   Alexander Iradj	Ligier JS P3	21 laps
32	10	Davide Roda   Andres Mendez   Dario Capitanio	Norma M 30	27 laps
33	5	Jürgen Krebs   Tim Muller   Tristan Viidas	Ligier JS P3	30 laps
	55	Duncan Cameron   Matt Griffin   Aaron Scott	Ferrari F488 GTE	77 laps
	9	Maurizio Mediani   Alexander Talkanitsa Sr.  Alexander Talkanitsa Jr.	Ligier JS P3	115 laps