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Estoril European Le Mans Series: Signatech champion, Loeb team wins

Signatech Alpine successfully defended its European Le Mans Series titles at Estoril, as Sebastien Loeb Racing won in LMP2 for the first time

Nelson Panciatici, Oliver Webb and Paul-Loup Chatin eventually took the LMP2 driver and team titles in the Alpine-branded Signatech entry despite two separate stop-go penalties, the second of which lost them two laps.

Sportscar rookie and erstwhile GP3 title contender Jimmy Eriksson paired up with Vincent Capillaire in the Loeb car and enjoyed a trouble free run, which paid dividends when most of the other runners suffered delays.

Jota Sport's Filipe Albuquerque had led from pole position, tailed by Panciatici.

But after Albuquerque handed over to Simon Dolan, contact with Duncan Cameron's AF Corse Ferrari and then a brake issue induced excursion lost the Jota Zytek-Nissan valuable momentum.

At the same time as Jota hit problems, Signatech received a stop/go penalty for having one too many personnel working on the car in a pitstop.

When Webb served this penalty, he inadvertently spun his wheels leaving his pit apron, triggering another breach of pitlane etiquette and this time earning a three-minute stop/go.

That relegated the car to an eventual fifth, but Jota's third place was not enough to stop the title heading for the French squad (pictured below).

Morand's Morgan-Judd finished second to the Loeb car. Christian Klien, Pierre Ragues and Gary Hirsch should have been in a position to challenge for victory had it not been for an extra pitstop to adjust Hirsch's seatbelts after they were not done up properly.

Another team ruing misfortune was TDS. Tristan Gommendy had driven an excellent second stint and taken the Ligier-Nissan coupe into the lead before handing over to team-mate Ludovic Badey, only for a terminal oil leak to strike.

SMP Racing celebrated a double title success in the LMGTE and GTC classes. Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Sergey Zlobin scored an unlikely LMGTE title victory, overturning a 21-point deficit to the #55 AF Corse pairing of Matt Griffin and Cameron.

As well as their brush with the Jota Zytek, the British pair suffered contact with one of the ART McLarens and finished outside the points at Estoril, opening the way for the SMP trio to snatch the title when they took the lead of the category from the Gulf Aston Martin in the final hour.

SMP's Olivier Beretta, David Markozov and Anton Ladygin cruised to the GTC title, playing the percentage game in third position.

Marc VDS trio Markus Paltalla, Bas Leinders and Henry Hassid took their BMW to the GTC win on their ELMS debut.

LEADING FINISHERS - 146 LAPS:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 LMP2 V.Capillaire, J.Eriksson Sebastien Loeb Racing ORECA/Nissan 4h00m27.461s
2 LMP2 C.Klien, G.Hirsch, P.Ragues Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan/Judd 35.399s
3 LMP2 S.Dolan, H.Tincknell, F.Albuquerque JOTA Sport Zytek/Nissan 43.713s
4 LMP2 M.Frey, F.Mailleux, P.Niederhauser Race Performance ORECA/Judd 1 Lap
5 LMP2 P-L.Chatin, N.Panciatici, O.Webb Signatech Alpine Alpine/Nissan 1 Lap
6 LMP2 P.Derani, J.Littlejohn, T.Wells Murphy Prototypes ORECA/Nissan 2 Laps
7 LMP2 M.McMurry, M.Faisca, J.Fletcher Greaves Motorsport Zytek/Nissan 2 Laps
8 LMP2 J.Schell, N.Leutwiler, J.Coleman Pegasus Racing Morgan/Nissan 5 Laps
9 LMGTE A.Bertolini, V.Shaytar, S.Zlobin SMP Racing Ferrari 7 Laps
10 LMGTE P.Perazzini, M.Cioci, M.Lyons AF Corse Ferrari 8 Laps


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