24h Le Mans
Here’s our round-up of today’s Porsche Carrera Cup and Ferrari Challenge qualifying sessions. We also look back at Road to Le Mans Race 2 which saw motorcycle star Valentino Rossi win in GT3 with his French teammate Jérôme Policand.
Laurent de Meeus got off to a dismal start when his Ferrari 488 GT3 refused to join the formation lap of the second Road to Le Mans race this morning, leading him straight into the pits instead.
Right from the get-go, the frontrunners headed into the Dunlop curve four abreast. Yesterday’s winner, Martin Rich in the #58 Team Virage Ligier JS P320, compromised his chances of victory when he spun at Tertre Rouge. In GT3, Timothy Creswick led the way in the #86 Porsche, while Jérôme Policand battled with George Kurtz for second place. There were skirmishes aplenty in the opening laps, and several cars found themselves in trouble, with the Team Virage #16 and #59 Ligiers seeing any hope of a decent finish evaporate.
Torsten Kratz stormed into the lead from the first turn, putting more than seven seconds between his #33 Duqueine M30 D08 and his closest rival, Belen Garcia in the #25 Ligier JS P320. After finishing the first race in fourth place, the #12 Ligier JS P320 fielded by Racing Spirit of Leman was forced to retire following a rear-end collision. Race control deployed the Safety Car and driver changeovers began. There was a scramble in the pits as Valentino Rossi prepared to take over from Jérôme Policand, with the crowd scanning the circuit for the arrival of the #46 BMW. Rossi emerged in fourth position in the GT3 class, while the Safety Car was still on the track.
Rossi moved into third place in his class, fending off Vincent Abril in a Lamborghini and clocking up the fastest lap time of 3:58.844 in lap 7. He then tackled the #86 Porsche driven by Anders Fjordbach. They waged a duel for the length of the Mulsanne Straight, though none of the three braking manoeuvres worked in the Italian’s favour.
With four minutes to go, the battle for second place in LMP3 was also in full swing between Leonard Weiss and David Droux. Rossi continued to press and eventually got the better of the #86 Porsche at the entrance to Tertre Rouge. A penalty issued to the #51 Ferrari 296 GT3 turned his second position into a win. It was a one-two for Vincent Vosse’s Belgian team, WRT. In LMP3, Colin Noble was the first to cross the line, 3.5 seconds ahead of David Droux, and more than five seconds ahead of Leonard Weiss. The #77 Ligier team was penalised for failing to respect the minimum time during their stop and relegated to 15th place. The top spot of the podium went to the drivers of Cool Racing’s #97 prototype.
Results of Race 2:
1. #97 Ligier JS P320 | Cool Racing – Sanjuan/Droux
2. #33 Duqueine M30 D08 | WTM by Rinaldi Racing – Kratz/Weiss
3. #2 Ligier JS P320 | CD Sport – Michal/Smal
4. #69 Ligier JS P320 | M Racing – De Oliveira Cristovao/Lehmann
5. #22 Ligier JS P320 | United Autosports – Kraut/Andrews
GT3 Classification:
1. #46 BMW M4 GT3 | Team WRT – Policand/Rossi
2 #31 BMW M4 GT3 | Team WRT – Whale/Hesse
3. #57 Mercedes AMG GT3 | Winward Racing – Kurtz/Ward
Forestier Racing CLRT’s Dorian Boccolacci (#98 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) will front the grid for this Saturday’s Porsche Carrera Cup race which combines Porsche Carrera Cup France and Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia. The French driver nailed the qualifying session with a helping hand from his teammate.
Marvin Klein got off to an impressive flying start, completing his first lap in just 3:58.293. The #1 from TFT Racing stormed into first place with the best lap time recorded since the start of the week. But Boccolacci and Benjamin Paque – who drive for the same team – are a finely tuned duo. Bocco leveraged his teammate's slipstream on the Mulsanne Straight to nudge a speed of 300 kph. Teamwork that translated to the time sheet, with a lap time of 3:57.365. Boccolacci returned the favour on the following lap, where Paque settled in behind the #98. The pair’s I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine technique proved to be a smart move, with Paque moving into third place with a time of 3:58.208.
Alessandro Ghiretti in the #22 Martinet by Alméras came fourth. The PCCF championship leader drove alone, as did Marvin Klein (#1 TFT Racing) who finished second. The best Pro/Am driver was Marc Guillot (#2 Herrero Racing), who finished 15th overall. The best Am driver was Sébastien Poisson (#73 ABM), 35th overall. Guest driver Julien Fébreau, came second in the Am category. A fine performance for the journalist’s one-off gig!
With a cluster of 25 competitors in a window of less than five seconds after practice, we’re in for some nail-biting action in all classes! The race starts at 10:45 on Saturday 11 June.
The 70 Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo cars took to the track for the only qualifying session on the programme. Thomas Neubauer, who is also racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for JMW Motorsport, got straight down to business in the #6 Ferrari fielded by Charles Pozzi GT Racing. He got the better of his rivals but didn’t immediately break the four-minute barrier. The session was interrupted by a red flag following an accident before Indianapolis. The #9 Penske Sportwagen Hamburg Ferrari driven by Danilo Del Favero came off, but fortunately the driver was unhurt.
Once the barriers had been repaired, the drivers picked up the pace again. On his second flying lap, Neubauer improved his time to 3:56.559, the best time recorded this week. Then a second red flag was brandished due to another incident in the same place. The race did not resume due to lack of time.
Neubauer will start from pole position, ahead of Eliseo Donno in the #19 Ferrari fielded by Radicci Automobili, current leader of the Pirelli championship. The fastest time in the Coppa Shell class was racked up by an excellent driver and a familiar figure at Le Mans: Manuela Gostner has competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice with the Iron Dames, in 2019 and 2020.
We’ll be back at the track at 9:30 tomorrow for a 35-minute race.
