Red Bull Ring ELMS: G-Drive scores second straight win
G-Drive Racing scored a second successive European Le Mans Series victory at the Red Bull Ring after a race-long strategic battle with Duqueine Engineeering in wet/dry conditions.
Photo by: ELMS
The #26 G-Drive Oreca had to work its way through the field after it switched to an alternative strategy, as Roman Rusinov jumped the start and was given a drive-through penalty.
Once Andrea Pizzitola took the wheel, he worked his way through the pack, helped by pitting under full course yellow periods, before handing over to newly-crowned Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne.
The Duqueine Engineering Oreca driven by Nelson Panciatici, Nico Jamin and Pierre Ragues, took the lead at the start of the race as Ragues overtook the polesitting IDEC Sport Oreca of Paul Lafargue.
From there, Ragues built a gap to the rest of the pack before handing over to Jamin. By the halfway mark, the gap had built up to almost half a minute to the #24 Racing Engineering Oreca.
Rain arrived at the halfway mark, and although it was not significant enough to tempt teams to switch to wet tyres, the more slippery track allowed the Dunlop-fitted cars to close the gap on the Michelin-shod Duqueine entry.
Vergne had to pit for one final time in the final 15 minutes of the race but the former Formula 1 driver was able to retain his lead as he had built a lead of almost a minute by that stage.
Panciatici brought the Duqueine car home second, 19s behind, narrowly fending off the advances of Olivier Pla in the Racing Engineering Oreca he shared with Paul Petit and Norman Nato.
United Autosports' #22 Ligier was the best of the non-Oreca runners in fourth, followed by the #28 IDEC Sport car which was delayed by contact with the #30 AVF Dallara and a subsequent penalty.
UPDATE: The second-placed Duqueine Engineering Oreca was later disqualified from second "because the fuel did not conform to the one indicated by the organiser".
It promotes the Racing Engineering Oreca to second and the United Autosports Ligier to third.
RLR takes LMP3 honours
John Farano, Job van Uitert and Rob Garofall won the LMP3 class in the #15 RLR Msport Ligier JS P3.
Van Uitert had battled hard for the lead with the #9 AT Racing Ligier of Mikkel Jensen hard in the opening hour but was able to build a gap when Jensen handed over to Alexander Talkanitsa Sr.
But as driver changes, rain, and strategy played out, the #15 car lost a lap of almost a lead in the closing stages, with Garofall coming home five seconds ahead of Alex Kapadia in the #7 Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen Ligier at the end.
The #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier finished third after a frantic race-long scrap involving the #7 car, the #17 Ultimate Norma and the #11 Eurointernational Ligier.
Porsche edges Ferrari in GTE
GTE class honours went to Gianluca Roda, Giorgio Roda and Matteo Cairoli in the #88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR which led for most of the race.
The polesitting Ferrari 488 GTE driven by Alex MacDowall was the first retirement of the race, but the #55 Spirit of Race car upheld Ferrari honour by finishing second, 8s down on the #88 Proton car.
There was late drama as the #83 Krohn Racing Ferrari had to pit late on after contact, and a drive-through penalty for the #77 Proton Porsche gifted a class podium for the #80 Ebimotors Porsche.
Report by Craig Woollard
Race results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Laps | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 26 | Jean-Eric Vergne Roman Rusinov Andrea Pizzitola |
Oreca 07 | 160 | 4:00'14.242 |
2 | 24 | Olivier Pla Paul Petit Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | 160 | 20.126 |
3 | 22 | Filipe Albuquerque Philip Hanson |
Ligier JSP217 | 160 | 54.166 |
4 | 28 | Paul-Loup Chatin Memo Rojas Paul Lafargue |
Oreca 07 | 160 | 56.087 |
5 | 21 | Nicolas Lapierre Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley |
Oreca 07 | 159 | 1 lap |
6 | 31 | Gustavo Menezes Harrison Newey Ryan Cullen |
Oreca 07 | 159 | 1 lap |
7 | 35 | Viktor Shaytar Matevos Isaakyan Egor Orudzhev |
Dallara P217 | 159 | 1 lap |
8 | 39 | Tristan Gommendy Jonathan Hirschi Alexandre Cougnaud |
Oreca 07 | 159 | 1 lap |
9 | 33 | Loic Duval François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | 159 | 1 lap |
10 | 23 | Will Stevens Julien Canal Timothé Buret |
Ligier JSP217 | 158 | 2 laps |
11 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Felipe Nasr |
Dallara P217 | 158 | 2 laps |
12 | 49 | Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen |
Dallara P217 | 158 | 2 laps |
13 | 40 | Jose Gutierrez James Allen |
Oreca 07 | 158 | 2 laps |
14 | 30 | Konstantin Tereshchenko Henrique Chaves |
Dallara P217 | 158 | 2 laps |
15 | 32 | Wayne Boyd Will Owen Hugo De Sadeleer |
Ligier JSP217 | 157 | 3 laps |
16 | 27 | Erik Maris Nicolas Minassian Patrice Lafargue |
Ligier JSP217 | 154 | 6 laps |
17 | 25 | Mark Patterson Tacksung Kim Ate de Jong |
Ligier JSP217 | 152 | 8 laps |
18 | 15 | John Farano Rob Garofall Job Van Uitert |
Ligier JS P3 | 148 | 12 laps |
19 | 7 | Alex Kapadia Colin Noble Christian Stubbe Olsen |
Ligier JS P3 | 148 | 12 laps |
20 | 13 | Jakub Smiechowski Martin Hippe |
Ligier JS P3 | 148 | 12 laps |
21 | 17 | Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau |
Norma M 30 | 148 | 12 laps |
22 | 9 | Alexander Talkanitsa Sr. Alexander Talkanitsa Jr. Mikkel Jensen |
Ligier JS P3 | 147 | 13 laps |
23 | 5 | Timur Boguslavskiy Alexey Chuklin Daniil Pronenko |
Ligier JS P3 | 147 | 13 laps |
24 | 88 | Gianluca Roda Matteo Cairoli Giorgio Roda |
Porsche 911 RSR | 147 | 13 laps |
25 | 11 | Giorgio Mondini Kay van Berlo |
Ligier JS P3 | 147 | 13 laps |
26 | 6 | Terrence Woodward Ross Kaiser |
Ligier JS P3 | 146 | 14 laps |
27 | 55 | Duncan Cameron Matthew Griffin Aaron Scott |
Ferrari F488 GTE | 146 | 14 laps |
28 | 18 | Laurent Millara Natan Bihel |
Ligier JS P3 | 146 | 14 laps |
29 | 4 | Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny Iradj Alexander-David |
Ligier JS P3 | 146 | 14 laps |
30 | 80 | Bret Curtis Fabio Babini Riccardo Pera |
Porsche 911 RSR | 146 | 14 laps |
31 | 77 | Christian Ried Marvin Dienst Dennis Olsen |
Porsche 911 RSR | 145 | 15 laps |
32 | 14 | Guglielmo Belotti Paul Scheuschner Luca Demarchi |
Ligier JS P3 | 145 | 15 laps |
33 | 3 | Matthew Bell Tony Wells Garret Grist |
Ligier JS P3 | 145 | 15 laps |
34 | 12 | Andrea Dromedari Max Hanratty James Dayson |
Ligier JS P3 | 144 | 16 laps |
35 | 83 | Andrea Bertolini Tracy Krohn Nic Jönsson |
Ferrari F488 GTE | 143 | 17 laps |
36 | 8 | Ricardo Sanchez Henning Enqvist Fabien Lavergne |
Norma M 30 | 142 | 18 laps |
37 | 16 | Francesco Dracone Jacopo Baratto |
Ligier JS P3 | 141 | 19 laps |
38 | 10 | Clément Mateu Andres Mendez Riccardo Ponzio |
Norma M 30 | 132 | 28 laps |
Ret | 19 | David Droux Lucas Legeret Alain Ferté |
Norma M 30 | 112 | 48 laps |
Ret | 2 | Sean Rayhall John Falb |
Ligier JS P3 | 70 | 90 laps |
Ret | 66 | Alex MacDowall Liam Griffin Miguel Molina |
Ferrari F488 GTE | 43 | 117 laps |
DQ | 29 | Nelson Panciatici Pierre Ragues Nico Jamin |
Oreca 07 | 160 | -- |
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