WRT, Kubica win dramatic Red Bull Ring ELMS race

In a race affected by a heavy rainstorm mid-way through proceedings, the championship leading team managed to keep its head to come out on top after four hours.

Logan Sargeant proved to be the big surprise on Saturday with the sportscar rookie taking pole-position on his debut for Racing Team Turkey as he filled in for the absent Harry Tincknell following a date clash with a Mid-Ohio IMSA sportscar race.

Salih Yoluc started the pole-sitting ORECA-07 Gibson, entered in the LMP2-AM class by virtue of the Turkish racer’s bronze rating, and was quickly overtaken by similarly rated John Falb.

The American clung on to the lead for fifteen minutes while United Autosports duo Nico Jamin and Phil Hanson breathed down his neck but as the lead car hit traffic, both Jamin and Hanson found a way through.

The early running was then made by the United cars before the first stops suddenly brought Nyck de Vries and G-Drive racing to the fore with the Mercedes Formula E star benefitting from a quick stop and proving extremely rapid.

De Vries would speed away from the nearest opposition, now coming from Kubica in the WRT car that had steadily made up ground courtesy of a strong opening stint by Ye.

#41 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson: Louis Delétraz, Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The rhythm race changed completely at the half way point with a heavy shower drenching the Styrian track and bringing out the safety car.

The ensuing melee left only the WRT and G-Drive cars on the lead lap and the final stint battle between G-Drive’s Franco Colapinto and Deletraz was dramatic.

The youngster pushed hard on a drying track to stay ahead of the more experienced Deletraz, taking a lot of risks in the process.

It was not to be for the Argentinean though, as Deletraz capitalised on Colapinto running deep at Turn 3 to pass on the exit and claim a second win in as many rounds.

LMP2-AM and third overall went to G-Drive Racing, with former Formula 1 driver Roberto Mehri proving particularly quick in the changeable conditions and keeping well clear of a charging Logan Sargeant to win together with team-mates John Falb and Rui Andrade.

LMP3 was initially dominated by United Autosports before the rain-induced safety car ended the British team’s challenge.

Victory then seemed to go to Graff Racing until a late penalty for a pitstop infringement handed the win to Cool Racing trio Matt Bell, Niklas Kruetten and Nicholas Maulini, the same team that won the opening round at Barcelona.

The GTE class was dominated by the #80 Iron Lynx Racing Ferrari until the chaotic second half of the race, leaving AF Corse to pick up the pieces.

Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Emannuel Collard taking victory after fighting back from a drive through penalty early on.

The next race of the European Le Mans Series will take place at Paul Ricard on 6 June.

Results

Cla	Driver	Car	Laps	Gap
1	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Ye Yifei	Oreca 07	149
2	Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries	Aurus 01	149	21.511
3	John Falb Rui Andrade Roberto Merhi	Aurus 01	149	1'32.227
4	Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood Logan Sargeant	Oreca 07	148	1 Lap
5	Matthieu Lahaye Jean Baptiste Lahaye François Heriau	Oreca 07	148	1 Lap
6	Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet	Oreca 07	148	1 Lap
7	Philip Hanson Jonathan Aberdein Tom Gamble	Oreca 07	148	1 Lap
8	Diego Menchaca Ferdinand Habsburg Richard Bradley	Oreca 07	148	1 Lap
9	Tristan Gommendy Rene Binder Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	148	1 Lap
10	Alexandre Coigny Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga	Oreca 07	147	2 Laps
11	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel	Oreca 07	146	3 Laps
12	Henrik Hedman Ben Hayley Ricky Taylor	Oreca 07	146	3 Laps
13	Vincent Capillaire Maxime Robin Arnold Robin	Oreca 07	145	4 Laps
14	Julien Canal Will Stevens James Allen	Oreca 07	145	4 Laps
15	Francesco Dracone Sergio Campana	Oreca 07	145	4 Laps
16	Nicolas Maulini Matthew Bell Niklas Kruetten	Ligier JS P320	143	6 Laps
17	Andrea Dromedari Cem Bolukbasi Joey Alders	Ligier JS P320	143	6 Laps
18	Eric Trouillet Sebastien Page David Droux	Ligier JS P320	143	6 Laps
19	Martin Hippe Ugo De Julien Falchero	Ligier JS P320	142	7 Laps
20	Julius Adomavičius Alessandro Bracalente Mattia Pasini	Ligier JS P320	142	7 Laps
21	Wayne Boyd Robert Wheldon Edouard Cauhaupe	Ligier JS P320	142	7 Laps
22	Cresp Christophe Fabien Lavergne Adrien Chila	Ligier JS P320	142	7 Laps
23	Job Van Uitert Nico Jamin Manuel Maldonado	Oreca 07	142	7 Laps
24	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	142	7 Laps
25	Laurents Hörr Alain Berg	Duqueine M30 - D08	141	8 Laps
26	Duncan Cameron Matthew Griffin David Perel	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	141	8 Laps
27	Matteo Cressoni Rino Mastronardi Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	141	8 Laps
28	James McGuire Duncan Tappy Andrew Bentley	Ligier JS P320	141	8 Laps
29	Nick Adcock Austin McCusker Max Koebolt	Ligier JS P320	141	8 Laps
30	Tony Wells Colin Noble Jr.	Ligier JS P320	141	8 Laps
31	Michael Fassbender Felipe Fernández Laser Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	141	8 Laps
32	Jody Fannin Andrea Fontana Rodrigo Sales	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	140	9 Laps
33	Christian Ried Cooper MacNeil Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	140	9 Laps
34	Claudio Schiavoni Giorgio Sernagiotto Paolo Ruberti	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	140	9 Laps
35	John Hartshorne Jonathan Adam Ollie Hancock	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	139	10 Laps
36	Matthias Kaiser Rory Penttinen	Ligier JS P320	120	29 Laps
	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Manuela Gostner	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	140	9 Laps
	David Hauser Gary Hauser Tom Cloet	Duqueine M30 - D08	93	56 Laps
	Mike Benham Alex Kapadia Malthe Jakobsen	Ligier JS P320	38	111 Laps
	Alessandro Bressan Andreas Laskaratos Damiano Fioravanti	Ligier JS P320	1	148 Laps
	Rob Hodes Garett Grist Charles Crews	Ligier JS P320	1	148 Laps
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