Paul Ricard ELMS: G-Drive ends WRT and Kubica's unbeaten run
G-Drive Racing took an emphatic victory in the European Le Mans Series race at Paul Ricard, as Roman Rusinov, Nyck de Vries and Franco Colapinto ended Team WRT's unbeaten run.
Photo by: ELMS
The Algarve Pro Racing-run G-Drive car, an Aurus-badged ORECA 07-Gibson, beat reigning champion United Autosports and dominant series leader Team WRT in the third race of the season after four hours of racing.
At the start, Yifei Ye took the lead in the WRT ORECA that had won the previous two races at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona and Red Bull Ring, and proceeded to build up a substantial gap over pole starter Rusinov throughout the opening stint.
But a full course yellow just around the first pit window and a safety car at the halfway mark wiped out the championship-leading team’s advantage and it was further hampered by a penalty handed to Ye for beaching in breach of the rolling start procedure.
As the race settled down, the #32 United ORECA came to the fore, albeit under pressure from G-Drive.
United driver Job van Uitert, sharing with Manuel Maldonado and Nico Jamin, was hunted down by fellow Dutchman de Vries and then forced to surrender the lead with an hour left to go.
Mercedes Formula E ace De Vries then remained faultless throughout the final stint as United driver Tom Gamble in the #22 car he shared with Phil Hanson and Jonathan Aberdein passed team-mate Van Uitert just before the final round of pitstops.
De Vries crossed the line to win by 6.38s from the #22 and #32 United Autosport cars, while the Duqueine ORECA of Tristan Gommendy, Rene Binder and Memo Rojas pushed Ye, Louis Deletraz and Robert Kubica down to fifth at the flag.
#26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 - Gibson: Roman Rusinov, Franco Colapinto, Nyck De Vries,
Photo by: ELMS
The LMP3 class looked affected most by the on-track incidents as the field was immediately split on strategy, with some teams electing to pit early under yellow and others waiting it out. It soon became apparent however that strategy was not going to be enough to beat DKR Engineering at Paul Ricard.
The pole-sitting Duqueine machine was simply too quick in the hands of Laurents Horr and bronze-rated driver Jean-Philippe Dayraut, with the pair finishing well clear of championship leaders Nicolas Maulini, Matthew Bell and Niklas Krutten (Cool Racing) and reigning champions United Autosports’ lead entry of Wayne Boyd, Rob Wheldon and Edouard Cauhaupe.
Meanwhile in GTE, the Iron Lynx Ferrari team was able to celebrate victory as Matteo Cressoni, Rino Mastronardi and Miguel Molina took their second win and solidified their grip on the championship.
Ollie Hancock dominated the opening proceedings in his pole-sitting TF Sport Aston Martin before his lead was virtually wiped out by the safety car, diminishing the chance of a victory against the Porsches and Ferraris.
The most notable incident came when Manuela Gostner’s Iron Lynx Ferrari was spun by Hollywood actor Michael Fassbender's Proton Porsche mid-way through the second stint, taking both cars out of contention for victory.
Results
Cla | Driver | Car | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries |
Aurus 01 | 126 | 4:00'17.286 | |
2 | Philip Hanson Jonathan Aberdein Tom Gamble |
Oreca 07 | 126 | 4:00'23.671 | 6.385 |
3 | Job Van Uitert Nico Jamin Manuel Maldonado |
Oreca 07 | 126 | 4:00'41.558 | 24.272 |
4 | Tristan Gommendy Rene Binder Memo Rojas |
Oreca 07 | 126 | 4:01'00.457 | 43.171 |
5 | Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Ye Yifei |
Oreca 07 | 126 | 4:01'08.286 | 51.000 |
6 | Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood Harry Tincknell |
Oreca 07 | 126 | 4:01'12.053 | 54.767 |
7 | Diego Menchaca Ferdinand Habsburg Richard Bradley |
Oreca 07 | 126 | 4:01'42.127 | 1'24.841 |
8 | Julien Canal Will Stevens James Allen |
Oreca 07 | 125 | 4:00'31.710 | 1 Lap |
9 | Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Jean-Eric Vergne |
Oreca 07 | 125 | 4:00'33.618 | 1 Lap |
10 | John Falb Rui Andrade Roberto Merhi |
Aurus 01 | 125 | 4:01'09.408 | 1 Lap |
11 | Francesco Dracone Sergio Campana Markus Pommer |
Oreca 07 | 125 | 4:01'09.462 | 1 Lap |
12 | Alexandre Coigny Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga |
Oreca 07 | 125 | 4:01'37.823 | 1 Lap |
13 | Matthieu Lahaye Jean Baptiste Lahaye François Heriau |
Oreca 07 | 124 | 4:01'22.126 | 2 Laps |
14 | Vincent Capillaire Maxime Robin Arnold Robin |
Oreca 07 | 124 | 4:01'49.891 | 2 Laps |
15 | Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Gabriel Aubry |
Oreca 07 | 122 | 4:01'09.109 | 4 Laps |
16 | Laurents Hörr Jean-Philippe Dayraut |
Duqueine M30 - D08 | 119 | 4:01'17.825 | 7 Laps |
17 | Nicolas Maulini Matthew Bell Niklas Kruetten |
Ligier JS P320 | 119 | 4:01'41.644 | 7 Laps |
18 | Wayne Boyd Robert Wheldon Edouard Cauhaupe |
Ligier JS P320 | 119 | 4:02'09.517 | 7 Laps |
19 | Mike Benham Alex Kapadia Malthe Jakobsen |
Ligier JS P320 | 118 | 4:00'27.491 | 8 Laps |
20 | Tony Wells Colin Noble Jr. |
Ligier JS P320 | 118 | 4:00'29.716 | 8 Laps |
21 | Gustas Grinbergas Mateusz Kaprzyk Mattia Pasini |
Ligier JS P320 | 118 | 4:00'58.976 | 8 Laps |
22 | Eric Trouillet Sebastien Page David Droux |
Ligier JS P320 | 118 | 4:01'07.725 | 8 Laps |
23 | David Hauser Gary Hauser Tom Cloet |
Duqueine M30 - D08 | 118 | 4:01'32.221 | 8 Laps |
24 | Matthias Kaiser Rory Penttinen |
Ligier JS P320 | 118 | 4:02'04.247 | 8 Laps |
25 | Takuma Aoki Nigel Bailly Pierre Sancinena |
Oreca 07 | 117 | 4:00'24.549 | 9 Laps |
26 | Andrea Dromedari Joey Alders |
Ligier JS P320 | 117 | 4:00'38.646 | 9 Laps |
27 | Matteo Cressoni Rino Mastronardi Miguel Molina |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 117 | 4:00'47.292 | 9 Laps |
28 | Cresp Christophe Fabien Lavergne Adrien Chila |
Ligier JS P320 | 117 | 4:01'01.341 | 9 Laps |
29 | Duncan Cameron Matthew Griffin David Perel |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 117 | 4:01'01.970 | 9 Laps |
30 | Nick Adcock Austin McCusker Max Koebolt |
Ligier JS P320 | 117 | 4:01'07.010 | 9 Laps |
31 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 117 | 4:01'19.913 | 9 Laps |
32 | Christian Ried Cooper MacNeil Gianmaria Bruni |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 117 | 4:01'21.333 | 9 Laps |
33 | Claudio Schiavoni Giorgio Sernagiotto Paolo Ruberti |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 117 | 4:01'32.985 | 9 Laps |
34 | Jody Fannin Andrea Fontana Rodrigo Sales |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 115 | 4:01'03.415 | 11 Laps |
35 | John Hartshorne Ross Gunn Ollie Hancock |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | 115 | 4:01'11.879 | 11 Laps |
36 | James McGuire Duncan Tappy Andrew Bentley |
Ligier JS P320 | 113 | 4:00'35.922 | 13 Laps |
37 | Michael Fassbender Jaxon Evans Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 96 | 4:01'28.869 | 30 Laps |
Rob Hodes Garett Grist Charles Crews |
Ligier JS P320 | 94 | 3:11'53.733 | 32 Laps | |
Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Manuela Gostner |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 41 | 1:28'11.250 | 85 Laps | |
Martin Hippe Ugo De Ulysse De |
Ligier JS P320 | 28 | 56'22.408 | 98 Laps | |
Alessandro Bressan Andreas Laskaratos Damiano Fioravanti |
Ligier JS P320 | 20 | 38'01.162 | 106 Laps |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Related video
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments