Silverstone, 10 – 11 April, 2015
The European Le Mans Series kicked off with a double header
event, in conjunction with the FIA World Endurance
Championship inaugural round at Silverstone, with the ELMS race
on the Saturday afternoon, and the FIA WEC one on the Sunday
afternoon. They were supported by three European F3
Championship races, with all races in the programme featuring
healthy grids. In 2013 the ELMS race fell foul of the vagaries of
the British Spring weather, with heavy rain bringing it to a
premature end, whilst in 2014 the race enjoyed fine weather, with
the FIA WEC race on the Sunday getting the rain. This year,
apart from some rain early on the Saturday morning, the weekend
was mainly bright and sunny, although the FIA WEC competitors
had to put up with a strong blustery wind on Sunday.
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The ELMS field comprised of 11 entries in the top LMP2 class, 5
in the new LMP3 class, 9 in the top GT class for GT2
specification cars, LMGTE, and 6 cars in the GTC class for GT3
specification cars. The entrants had two 90mins practice
sessions on the Friday, with separate qualifying sessions for the
sports prototypes anf GT Cars on the Saturday morning. The
sports prototype qualifying session saw the # 41 Greaves
Motorsport entered Gibson 0155-Nissan, driven by Hirsch /
Wirdheim / Lancaster, take the overall pole position. Next
quickest, almost half a second off the pole time, was the similar #
38 Jota Sport entry of Dolan / Alberquerque / Tincknell, fractions
of a second ahead o the # 46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca
05-Nissan of Thiriet / Bady / Gommendy, with less than 1sec
covering the top five runners. In the LMP3 class it was the pair of
Team LNT entries that topped the table, with the # 3
Ginetta-Nissan of Hoy/Robertson beating the sister # 2 car of
Simpson/Paletou by just over half a second. It is interesting to
note that in these two classes, all but the # 40 Krohn Racing
Ligier JS P2 were Nissan powered, with the Ligier having a Judd
engine.
In the GT groups, it was the # 81 AF Corse entered Ferrari 458
GT2 of Wyatt / Rugolo / Aguas that took the class pole in the
LMGTE division, a fraction over 1/10sec ahead of the # 88 Proton
Competition entered Porsche 911 RSR of Bachler / Qubaisi /
Ried, with the # 56 AT Racing entered Ferrari 458 GT2 of
Talkanitsa / Talkanitsa Jr. / Pierguidi third quickest. In this class
there even more cars within 1sec of the pole time, with seven
under that figure, whilst the remaining two were only fractions
behind, so there was definitely going to be some fierce
competition come the race. The GTC cars were headed by the
colourful # 59 BMW Z4 GT3 of TDS Racing, driven by Perera /
Lunardi / Dermont, followed by a trio of AF Corse entered Ferraris,
in the order # 63, # 62 and # 64.
As the field rushed towards the green lights signalling the start of
the race on the Saturday afternoon, the # 62 Ferrari of Flohr /
Castellacci / Hall was muscled into the pit wall, and its race was
run before it had even started. Meanwhile, at the head of the field
there was more action as the field bunched up going into the first
real corner after the start, Village, and round into The Loop, where
the # 29 Pegasus Racing entered Morgan-Nissan was tapped into
a spin and then speared across the track into one of the AF
Corse entered LMP2 Oreca 05-Nissan’s, with both cars
sustaining enough damage that meant a slow crawl back to the
pits. However, both cars were repairable and reappeared later,
although out of contention for any significant placings. Fortunately
they were the only early race incidents, so after this hiccup the
protagonists could to do battle without interruption, at least for a
while.
Throughout the race the main lead battle was between the three
quickest qualifiers, the # 41 and # 38 Gibson 015S- Nissans and
the # 46 Oreca 05-Nissan, particularly when a safety car period
with 90mins remaining closed the field up. This was occasioned
by contact between the # 63 AF Corse Ferrari and the # 68
Massive Motorsport Aston Martin coming onto the pit straight,
saw the Aston Martin go backwards into the pit wall, with no way
of moving it without bringing a recovery vehicle onto the track.
When the safety car went in, it was the # 46 Oreca 05-Nissan in
the lead, followed by the # 38 and # 41 Gibson 015S-Nissans,
which were rapidly chasing it down, and swapping places in the
process, with some “hard” moves along the way. As the race
moved into the final minutes, the two Gibsons were hounding the
Oreca, and the ~ 41 example driven by Jon Lancaster went for the
lead coming out of The Loop, there was contact, and the Oreca
driven by Tristan Gommendy spun, which dropped it down to 3rd
place after he had collected it all together. The # 38 Gibson driven
by Harry Tincknell set after the # 41 car, and although he closed
right up to it he ran out of laps, and had to be content with 2nd
place, 0.37sec in arrears at the chequered flag, the closest finish
in ELMS history.
In the LMP3 class the # 3 Team LNT Ginetta-Nissan driven by Sir
Chris Hoy and 18 year old rising star Charlie Robertson, took a
comfortable class win by one lap, despite a couple of spins, from
the sister # 2 team car of Simpson/Paletou. The final podium spot
went to the # 7 University of Bolton entry, driven Garofall /
Petersen. In the LMGTE class, it was the # 86 Gulf Racing UK
entered Porsche 911 RSR of Wainwright / Carroll / King that
ended up supreme, after the class pole sitting # 81 AF Corse
Ferrari retired early in the race. The AF Corse team’s # 51car was
a retirement shortly afterwards, but their # 55 car driven by
Cameron / Griffin / Scott took the final class podium spot, behind
the # 66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari driven by Richardson / Smith /
Tordoff. The debuting # 59 TDS Racing BMW Z4 GT3 driven by
Perera / Lunardi / Dermont turned its class pole position into a
class win, convincingly 2 laps ahead of the # 64 AF Corse Ferrari
458 GT3 of Rasmussen / Barreiros / Guedes. The final podium
spot went to the # 85 Gulf Racing UK Lamborghini Gallardo
LP560 GT3 driven by Goethe / Brown / Hamilton, although it was
some way in arrears of the 2nd place car, after a problematic run.
ELMS r# Model Chassis # Team Colour Drivers Position
O/A Cl.
Class LMGTE
66 Ferrari 458 GT2 2808 JMW Motorsport Yellow-Red- Chrome G.
Richardson/ R. Smith/ S. Tordoff 9th 2nd
55 Ferrari 458 GT2 2854 AF Corse Orange-White D. Cameron/
M. Griffin/ A. Scott 10th 3rd
60 Ferrari 458 GT2 2876 Formula Racing Red-White-Black J.
Laursen/ M. Mac/ A. Rizzoli 13th 6th
56 Ferrari 458 GT2 2824 AT Racing Black-Red A. Talkanitsa/ A.
Talkanitsa Jr./ A. Pier Guidi 15th 7th
51 Ferrari 458 GT2 2848 AF Corse Red-RWG St’s P. Mann/ R.
Giammarea/ M. Cressoni DNF DNF
81 Ferrari 458 GT2 2846 AF Corse Red S. Wyatt/ R. Aguas / M.
Rugolo DNF DNF
Class GTC
64 Ferrari 458 GT3 3496 AF Corse Red-White M. Rasmussen/ F.
Barreiros/ F. Guedes 18th 2nd
63 Ferrari 458 GT3 3492 AF Corse Red G. Roda/ I. Melnikov/ M.
Cioci DNF DNF
62 Ferrari 458 GT3 3246 AF Corse Silver-Red Stripe T. Flohr/ E.
Castellacci/ S. Hall DNF DNF
Keith Bluemel
04/2015
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