WRT Dominate On ELMS Full-Season Debut
It would be a result of ‘firsts’ at round 1 of the 201 European Le Mans Series at Barcelona, with first-time winners in each of the three classes, Belgium’s Team WRT taking the first overall victory for both their nation and their team in Le Mans Series/ ELMS history on their full-season LMP2 debut (Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye would score the fist victories for Poland and China respectively too, Louis Deletraz the first for a Swiss driver since 2017.
Rather oddly the classes all saw first time winners too, Iron Lynx taking their first ELMS race win in GTE, Cool racing scoring a long-awaited LMP3 victory and Ultimate Team scoring the win in the first race that featured LMP2 Pro-Am, though the French squad have won in LMP3 before.
The opening moments of the opening round proved hectic as Roman Rusinov backed up the field to walking pace before the lights went out – That tactic would later earn the #26 G-Drive Racing squad a drive through penalty as the knock-on effect came close to causing carnage further back in the field, at least one significant bit of subsequent contact in the LMP3 field the consequence (Tony Wells suffering significant front end damage to his Nielsen Ligier..
Rusinov initially at least got a massive jump and sped away from the WRT Oreca with Louis Deletraz behind the wheel.
Almost immediately though the first Safety Car was then scrambled, Nico Jamin making an error in T2 and ending up with his #32 United Oreca beached, then Henrik Hedman getting hit into the final complex by Salih Yoluc, then pulling off the circuit after intact with the team Virage Ligier, the Oreca’s day done with a burned out clutch.
In LMP3 Andrew Bentley attempted to hold on but was quickly passed by Laurents Horr in the DKR Duquine, settling into a very fast pace with Rob Wheldon and Michael Benham in pursuit.
GTE saw the #1 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Paolo Ruberti slice through the field following a disastrous qualifying to lead within a matter of laps.
As the race started to settle down, Deletraz hunted down Rusinov and passed the Russian for the lead, with Phil Hanson following suit a few corners later but the Briton proved unable to stay with Deletraz who started to build a gap lap after lap.
Early drama came for both the Virage and JMW outfit with Rob Hodes going down a lap in the Ligier LMP3 and Rodrigo Sales pitting early at the forty minute mark.
Approaching the end of the first stint for the LMP2’s Roman Rusinov had his hands full with former teammate Julien Canal in the Panis entry. The two dicing for laps but with the third-placed Russian holding station, albeit almost 30 seconds behind the leader in the race, with pro-driver Deletraz behind the wheel
The order switched around after the first pitstops with Panis Racing jumping the G-Drive car in the pits and a seemingly slow stop for Phil Hanson bringing the second placed United Oreca into reach of Julien Canal with Franco Colapinto taking over from Rusinov.
With the entire field now mired in traffic at the tight Catalunya track there was drama for Idec Sport as Paul Lafarque spun at turn 1, surely flatspotting his Goodyear tyres, necessitating another stop.
Ferrari’s dominated the opening hour of the GTE class with Ruberti and Mastronardi leading the way for Iron Lynx with the Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron and the third Iron Lynx entry of Manuela Gostner fighting over third.
The first round of pit stops brought drama in LMP3 with one of the fancied frontrunners hitting trouble. The #2 United car failing to restart after its scheduled pit stop with a failed starter motor the apparent issue. A slow start for the #3 United car meant that neither blue machine was in the hunt after the first stin with DKR clearly leading ahead of Cool Racing #19 and Pasini in the leading Inter Europol car.
Louis Deletraz continued to work on his overall lead over Phil Hanson but the real story in the second hour was a drive-through penalty for the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus, racecontrol penalising the team for disrespecting starting procedures as well as contact between Colapinto and Nick Adcock in the #6 Nielsen LMP3. Franco Colapinto’s day would get worse though as he got crossed up in traffic trying to fight back and losing time in a spin and then hitting a tyre during the scheduled pitstop, earning the #26 a seemingly permanent spot under investigation.
This was of no concern to WRT Racing, with Yifei Ye taking over from Deletraz at the second stop and defending a twenty second lead over Tom Gamble after the Brit took over driving duties in the United Autosport Oreca.
Things were also heating up in GTE as Gianmaria Bruni, having taken over from Christian Ried after the first stint, fought his way up to the tail of Claudio Schiavoni in the second placed Iron Lynx Ferrari. The two cars traded paint twice before the Porsche took the position, earning Bruni a warning from Race Control, the #77 emerging from the initial impact with a strake from the Ferrari’s rear diffuser embedded in the Ferrari’s s front bumper.
At the start of the third hour LMP3 saw a whole host of driver changes as the starting rivers, in most cases the bronze racers, vacated the cars. At the front of the field DKR Engineering swapped silver-rated Laurens Horr for Bronze Alain Berg who now had the task to defend a substantial lead for the next two hours. Cool Racing led the hunt with Niklas Kruetten over a minute back and Inter Europol in third.
With Nyck de Vries taking over the #26 LMP2 looked poised for a golden hour but it soon became appearant that the G-Drive car did not have the pace of Tom Gamble in the #22. The loss of its right front diveplanes cannot have helped the Dutchman as Gamble hunted De Vries down and passed him for third with 80 minutes to go.
Up the road WRT was still leading with Yifei Ye making as impressive an ELMS LMP2 debut as Tom Gamble’s, stretch the lead over Will Stevens in the Panis Racing Oreca to over 50 seconds.
In GTE Iron Lynx still led in front of the Weathertech liveried Proton Competition Porsche, Matteo Cressoni doing a stellar job in the Ferrari before handing over to Miguel Milina . Behind the lead pair there was drama though for the second Proton Porsche as Michael Fassbender spun after contact and Michell Gatting earning a drive-through penalty for abusing track limits.
As the race moved into the final hour the patern became clearer still with Robert Kubica taking over from Yifei Ye with 45 minutes to go and thus possibly able to go to the finish without another stop. The former Grand Prix winner defending a 30 second lead over Will Stevens. Third would normally have been the #22 United Autosports car but a slow stop that saw Jonathan Aberdein seemingly struggle to get into the car meant Patrick Pilet in the IDEC Sport entry was hot on the tale as the reigning champions exited the pits. Pilet quickly passed Aberdein before the Frenchman stopped for his own pitsstop and driver change.
Leading LMP2 Pro-Am and up to fourth overall at this point was a very stealthy Ultimate Oreca, staying out of trouble and capitalizing on others misfortunes. The French team on its LMP2 debut finishing a very credible fifth.
The final twenty minutes of the race saw a long anticipated change for the lead in LMP3 with Matt Bell hunting down Alain berg in the DKR Duqueine and passing without much ado. The Briton enjoying a strong weekend after being rapid in the Michelin Le Mans Cup and taking a popular win for Cool Racing.
A couple of laps after Matt Bell, Malthe Jacobsen sneaked past in the RLR machine for second, adding to the silverware for the British team after their win in the Michelin Le Mans Cup.
That looked to be the most of the pain for DKR but in the dying minutes both the 1 Aim Villorba Corse and Inter Europol cars passed Alain Berg as well, leaving the Luxembourg team in 5th at the finish. Damiano Fiovaranti and Ugo de Wilde squabbled for fourth with the young Belgian taking third in the final minutes for the Inter Europol squad, the move under investigation immediately for overtaking under yellow.
Robert Kubica never looked in trouble as he undertook his first stint in the ELMS and kept his advantage all the way to the finish, giving the WRT team their first win in sportscar racing and in convincing fashion too. Second went to the Panis trio and the #22 United car finished third.
GTE was dominated from lights to flag by the #40 Iron Lynx team, finishing well ahead of the #77 Proton Competition team that saw series newcomer Jaxon Evans holding off David Perel in the Spirit of Race Ferrari.
Results and pics to follow
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