The conditions were ideal this Friday, 17th of March, on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, to kick off this V de V Endurance Series season 2017, for its 25th year.
For this Spanish event V de V Endurance Series, there are several endurance and sprint races featuring GT/Touring cars/LMP3/PFV and CN in endurance and Funyo, single-seater in sprint.
GT / Touring cars
Free Practices
The GTV1 category is thriving – and when this weekend’s entry list was published, it was easy to see why! With such a variety and quantity of cars on track on Friday, it was hard to predict who would top the time sheets.
Sure enough, Team Visiom, reigning 2016 champions, placed their trio Pagny/Perrier/Bouvet (Ferrari 488 GT3 #1) in the highest slot, just ahead of Teneketzian/De Narda (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 #46, AB Sport Auto). Third fastest was the trio Van de Vyver/Thybaud /Jousse (Renault R.S. 01 #11 - AB Sport Auto and V de V), who thereafter set the fastest times during the remaining sessions.
In Free Practices 2, behind the Renault, Visiom set the second fastest lap time, followed by AB Sport Auto’s second entrant, and Narac/Cornac (Porsche 991 GT3 #76 - IMSA Performance).
Mouez/Loger/Andlauer (Ferrari 458 GT3 #44 - CMR with Sport Garage) were next in line, who set a fantastic lap time during Night Practice, placing them second overall. AB Sport Auto’s Lamborghini completed the top 3.
Within the GTV2 class, Martinet/Tremblay/Palette (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S #65 - Porsche Alméras) dominated each session.
Qualifying Practices results
GTV1
Van de Vyver/Thybaud/Jousse (Renault R.S. 01 #11 – V de V/AB Sport Auto) 1:44.323
Pagny/Perrier/Bouvet (Ferrari 488 GT3 #1 - Team Visiom ) 1:45.719
Teneketzian/De Narda (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 #46 - AB Sport Auto) 1:46.436
GTV2
Martinet/Tremblay/Palette (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S #65 - -Porsche Alméras) 1:48.050
Mallegol/Blank/Bachelier (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup #56 – RMS) 1:52.193
The race
First in the last race of the 2016 season, winner of the opening round of the 2017 season, the pair Narac/Cornac passes under the checkered flag with 2 laps ahead of the title holder Pagny/Perrier/Bouvet on the Ferrari 488 GT3 n°1 Visiom. The trio Mouez/Loger/Andlauer climbed onto the third step of the podium with a gap of 4.813 seconds, followed by Van de Vyver/Thybaud /Jousse (Renault R.S. 01 #11 - – V de V/AB Sport Auto) unfortunately missed out on a podium finish, right at the end of the race, and instead took fourth ahead of Tenketzian/De Narda (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 # 46 - AB Sport Auto), which also claimed fastest lap during the race in 1:47.945 at the lap 75.
In the GTV2 class Mallegol/Blank/Bachelier (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup #56 – RMS) crossed the finish line in front of Martinet/Tremblay/Palette (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup #65 -Porsche Alméras) to took the victory.
LMP3 / PFV
On the PFV (protos fermés VdeV, Closed protos VdeV) front, tree Ginetta G57-P2 are confronted in one Renault Sport R.S.01, on LMP3 eight Ligier JSP3 are faced with one new Norma M30.
Free Practices
In Free Practices 1 Fontaine/Decultot/Perroy (Ligier JSP3 #93 - N’Race) topped the time sheets. The two following sessions belonged to Duqueine Engineering however, after the no. 8 car, entrusted to Borga/Enqvist set the quickest time during the day, and sister car n°9, driven by Duqueine/Droux/Panciatici took its place in Night Practice.
The PFV class revealed a battle between Simpson Motorsport and Pegasus Racing, with Robertson/Fielding/White (Ginetta G57-P2 #52 - Simpson Motorsport) arriving on top in Free Practices1 and Free Practices3. In between the two sessions, it was however Simpson/Muston/Sanders (Ginetta G57-P2 #57 - Pegasus Racing) who gave the best performance of the field. Perrodo/Vaxivière (Renault R.S. 01 Trophy #28 - R-ace GP) took the third fastest time in Free Practices2.
Qualifying Practices results
LMP3
Duqueine/Droux/Panciatici (Ligier JSP3 #9 - Duqueine Engineering) 1:41.670
Fontaine/Decultot/Perroy (Ligier JSP3 #93 – N’Race) 1:41.825
Borga/Enqvist (Ligier JSP3 #8 - Duqueine Engineering) 1:42.431
PFV
Robertson/Fielding/White (Ginetta G57-P2 #52 - Simpson Motorsport) 1:39.075
Simpson/Muston/Sanders (Ginetta G57-P2 #57 - Pegasus Racing) 1:39.298
Scheinet/Raffin (Ginetta G57-P2 #29 - Pegasus Racing) 1:41.786
The race
On the LMP3 class Duqueine/Droux/Panciatici took the victory (second overall), just ahead of Fontaine/Decultot/Perroy (best time of the category in 1:43.550) at 0.447 and Trouillet/Gauvin/Deguffroy (Ligier JSP3 #39 – Graff racing) who complete the podium. For its first race in Europe DB Autosport’s Norma M30, entrusted to drivers Foubert/Wolff/Maulini finished in the seventh place of the LMP3 classification. The team Inter Europol Competition endured a difficult race despite their hard efforts to resolve an issue with their cars’ drive trains, leaving their two Ligier prototypes #22 (Smiechowski/Still) and #33 (Scheuschner/Michel) in a disappointing position.
Robertson/Fielding/White took the pot in PFV and overall, despite a mistake after 40 minutes which made them backtrack in the bottom of ranking. Not releasing anything, his drivers came back in the game and took advantage of the worries of the Ginetta #57 of head at one hour of the arrival. They are ahead of Scheinet/Raffin (Ginetta G57-P2 #29 - Pegasus Racing) and the astonishing as well as performing Renault R.S. 01 Trophy #28 R-ace GP of Perrodo/Vaxivière.
Other races
Endurance Proto
Sixteen prototypes, Norma M 20 FC, took the start Sunday mid-morning of this six-hour race.
The team TFT realizes the double with Vilarino/Ferte/Illiano car #2 followed by Bazaud/Thirion/Caillon #6. The podium is completed by the family Robert (father (Lionel) and son (Antoine, 16 years old)) associated with Perroy (RC Formula #66).
Challenge Monoplace V DE V
Hat-trick for Hörr Laurents (Formule Renault 2.0 #77 -Dutt Motorsport)
Challenge Funyo V DE V
Race 1/Race 2
Quelet Jean (Super Proto SP05 #11 - AGR Bleu Mercure Racing Team)
Malinconi Renaud (Funyo 5 #81 - TOTAL Cloud)
Race 3
Cannard Nicolas (Super Proto SP05 #20 - HMC Racing)
Malinconi Renaud (Funyo 5 #81 - TOTAL Cloud)
My favourite of the Week End
In the continuity of the last season, here is the section my favourite of the Week End. For this first in 2017, my favorite goes to the team Graff Racing, which presented a car in each of the categories LMP3 and CN.
In LMP3, one Ligier JSP3 was the representative of the team in the 4 hours race. With the number 39 (identical to its chassis number) driven by Trouillet/Gauvin/Deguffroy held the lead five minutes from the checkered flag, before finally finishing 4th overall and 3rd in the LMP3 standings.
Tenth in qualifying of the Endurance Proto 6 hours, the Norma M20 FC #9, blue/white/red of the Graff Racing, entrusted to Marroc/Trouillet /Fort, has rejoined the finish to the feet of the podium.
(Based on V de V endurance series Press release)