41 Cars For ELMS At Barcelona
The 2022 European Le Mans Series season resumes with the 4 Hours of Barcelona on Sunday 28 August, with 41 cars entered across the Championship’s three major three categories and a number of driver changes to report
LMP2 – 16 Entries
After taking victory at Le Castellet and Imola, and finishing 5th at Monza, Prema Racing are leading the championship by 13 points. Reigning LMP2 Champion Louis Deletraz returns to the circuit with the Italian team that saw the Swiss driver, Ferdinand Habsburg and Robert Kubica, take their first ELMS victory on their series debut.
Paul Lafargue, Paul Loup Chatin and Patrick Pilet moved up the championship standings after securing their first win of the season for IDEC Sport at the 4 Hours of Monza last month. The French team are currently on 47 points, just two ahead of the #65 Panis Racing Oreca of Job Van Uitert, Julien Canal and Nicolas Jamin who secured their second podium of the season at Monza.
In the LMP2 Pro/Am category, the #34 Racing Team Turkey trio of Salih Yoluc, Jack Aitken and Charlie Eastwood hold a comfortable 16-point lead after two wins and a second in the opening three races of the season. Nielsen Racing are currently second on 52 points after taking the category win in Monza, with the TDS Racing x Vaillante Oreca in third on 44 points.
At present the Team Virage Oreca has a TBC alongside Gabriel Aubry and Rob Hodes, Jazeman Jafaar apparently not travelling to Spain.
The #40 Graff Racing Oreca is not listed after racing in the first half of the season.
LMP3 – 13 Entries
The #17 Cool Racing Ligier of Maurice Smith, Michael Benham and Malthe Jakobsen are still leading the LMP3 class after three races, despite a DNF in Monza last month. Jakobsen has secured all three pole positions for the Swiss team, with a win at Le Castellet and a third place in Imola giving them a total of 43 points from the first three races.
Alex Kapadia, Michael Jensen and Nick Adcock have scored one podium and two fourth place finishes this season so far and this consistency has put them in second place in the championship standings, just 4 points behind Smith, Benham and Jakobsen.
The #3 United Autosports Ligier took the win in Imola with Andrew Bentley and Kay Van Berlo sharing the driving duties for that race.
In Barcelona they will be joined once again by Jim McGuire and will be hoping to close the 8-point gap to the RLR Msport Ligier ahead of them in the championship table.
In Monza Inter Europol Competiton secured their first victory of the season thanks to a great performance by Charles Crews, Guilherme Olivera and Nicolas Pino, moving them up to fourth in the championship standings with 29 points.
Freddie Hunt, who has shown real form in the Reiter Engineering Ligier in both Michelin Le Mans Cup and Prototype Cup Germany, joins the #10 Eurointernational line-up whilst a further reshuffle in the sister #11 car sees Louis Rousset join Jerome de Sadeleeer and Max Koebolt.
LMGTE – 12 Entries
12 cars will contest the GTE class with some key driver changes to report here too.
The first three races have seen three different winners, with Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche all taking a win apiece. The battle for the ELMS title is very tight with just 17 points covering the top 6 cars, so there is all to play for in Barcelona.
Proton Competition are the current championship leaders with Christian Ried, Gianmaria Bruni and Lorenzo Ferrari on 44 points following their victory from pole position at Monza in the #77 Porsche last month.
Round 1 winners Nicolas Varrone and Pierre Ehret are lying in second place on 36 points, with Italian Diego Alessi joining them in the #32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari in Spain.
The next three cars are all on 28 points after the first three rounds of the series, with Round 2 winners Ahmad Al Harthy, Marco Sorensen and Sam De Haan classified as third in the #69 Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage. The #57 Kessel Racing and #83 Iron Lynx Ferraris are also on 28 points.
The #83 Iron Lynx Ferrari also sees a driver change with Doriane Pin replacing Rahel Frey in the car for the Spanish round of the 2022 ELMS season.
And JMW Motorsport draft in Miguel Molina for his home race, Matt Payne steps back for this one
The 4 Hours of Barcelona will start on Friday 26 August with Free Practice, followed by Qualifying on Saturday 27 and the race on Sunday 28 August.
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