This is our first time at the new look and format of the Le Mans Series, now called European, shrinked to just 3 hour races and losing ACO top prototype and GT classes, LMP1 and GTE Pro. It is also our first time out to Austrian Red Bull Ring, former Zeltweg, or also called Österreichring and A1-Ring in the past. And by the way, second time in Austria for a car racing, after Rechberg hill climb this spring. The track is generally interesting with quick parts as well as technical and slow curves. The European Le Mans Series race is just a support race to the World Series by Renault weekend, which will continue after today's Saturday's ELMS race through entire Sunday. Renault takes care of entire event, thus the entrance for spectators is free of charge this time. On the other side, there is no official race programme, just separate bulletins, or news info for ELMS and for the Renault Series. Also it is the first time we experienced that the Le Mans cars are not located with their entire equipment in the pits but further back in the paddock. The pite lane is filled with Formula Renault 3.5 litre, which are by far the fastest cars in the track this weekend, and also Renault Mégane Trophy cars. This have one positive side effect - the ELMS team are much easier to access and get to. This we had got two thirds of chassis numbers during the first trip to the media center, and most of the rest during the second time out. It was also good to meet here Janos Wimpffen and sort out some chassis number mysteries from previous races. We could also add some Le Mans 24 hour information, especially the chassis numbers and some tech data.
Entry
Now back to the ELMS event. It is just two day meeting, similarly like this year's WEC in Spa. Only two 1-hour practice sessions were on the programme yesterday. The entry list is pretty good compared to the last season. Even though saying that, we have lost several cars from the original published entry for the Red Bull Ring. Of the 29 cars three did not make the trip. The first and most notable withdrawal was announced earlier this weekend. Sadly one of quickest LMP2 team, Greaves Motorsport, suddenly lost sponsorship after Le Mans and had to withdraw. Audi R8 LMS in GT Cup class was withdrawn before publishing the final entry list too. But of the expected 27 cars we counted only 26. The one missing, and also disappearing from the actual Media Centre list is Lola B11/40 if DKR Engineering from Luxemburg, which is still listed on the official ELMS website.
First practice session
All twenty six cars passed the two free practice sessions without major problems and are getting ready for the qualifying, which will starts today's ELMS programme. There is no warm up scheduled. Soon after 8 o'clock, there have already been practices sessions of various Renault categories that will continue, until lunch, when the first races will start. The programme will be closed today by the 3-hour ELMS race, which starts at 16:30.
The first practice session had four Orecas at the top. Thiriet by TDS ahead of Alpine-badged car followed by Murphy Prototypes and Boutsen Tirion entry. All car in less than half a second. A lone Zytek and Morgan-christened Pescarolo were next, still pretty close - less than one second. Among the Le Mans Challenge cars, alias Formula Le Mans, the newcomer to the championship Algarve Pro Racing team was faster than all factory prepared and entered Oreca cars. One of them, the number 48, retired early in the session though, causing a short red-flag brake and also slowest time of the session. Ferraris were at the top 3 in the GTE class, followed by two Porsches and a short mix of those same makes, as there are no more variety in the class. The GT variety is saved by the GTC, alias GT3 class, however bringing only one Lamborghini and one BMW Z4 to the game while Audi is missing from the original entry. However there were three Ferraris at the top of this class as well.
The times within classes are pretty close. For example best GTC car is only slightly over one second slower than fastest GTE car, but still 7 GTE cars had beaten it. All GTC cars were within one second, and all but retired LMPC cars were within half a second.
Second practice session
The second session ended with quite different order at the top, particularly thanks to a fact the 7 or 8 present LMP2 cars are capable of running within a single second and thus it is very easy for any of them be fastest, or at the back. Example of that is the Alpine cars, before closely second, now seventh or Race Performance Oreca improving from 8th in the first session to actually win the session one. Thiriet by TDS entry seems to have been most consistent yesterday, taking second spot after winning the first session. The Zytek of Jota Sport was now third ahead of other two Orecas and the private Morgan - no factory OAK entry in ELMS this year.
All LMPC cars were again within half a second with best factory backed entry ahead the Portugal car by a fragment of a second. In GTE Am better of Proton Porsches broke among the Ferraris and was now second. Two more Ferraris and then three GTE Porsches followed. Then we have already best GTC entrants. Still two Ferraris at the top but Lamborghini third and BMW fourth suggests that neither of GT class is set to be a one make battle.
The car were nicely ordered by classes LMP2, LMPC, GTE and GTC except for one GTE of AF Corse Ferraris that was somehow lagging to their class competitors one and half seconds. However even the GTC cars are not much slower here at Red Bull Ring than the GTE cars so we expect both class might mix well during the endurance race. Said in numbers, while top Formula Renault cars ran between 1:17s and 1:19s on Friday, LMP2 cars were in high 1:24s to 1:26 (just one car no in1:25s), LMPC were all about 1:29, or very slightly quicker, GTE were all but one in 1:30s-1:31s. And finally GTC mainly in 1:32s, with one car into the high 1:31s. SMP Racing Ferraris always won this class but always with different car, so they seem to be slight favourites.
Qualifying session
It consisted, as is common nowadays, of two 20-minute sessions, separate for GTs and prototypes. To be honest, we much more prefer the Le Mans format as, especially during the prototype section, almost the first half was entirely boring from the spectators and photographers point of view, as only couple of Formula Le Mans cars circulated on the track separated by a couple of seconds. We immediately recalled the solution adopted in WEC, when two best times of two selected drivers are counted and averaged. Maybe better for spectators but from the racing point of view, even less acceptable. It was simply impossible not to recall old good days with qualifying sessions lasting for hours and being quite comparable with standard practice sessions or even racing. Today's format of having only a few cars on the track maybe good for the TV but otherwise, it was hard not to get nostalgic. At Le Mans still keep the format of the past (long sessions, all classes together).
The practice went OK, until one FLM Oreca spun in front of us. It happens but next two cars around, also FLM Orecas, spun as well, fortunately avoiding each other, and we were really afraid when quicker LMP2 cars approached. Track marshal displayed yellow with red flag, having the same feeling there might have been oil. Fortunately no other car had problems afterwards and all three LMPC cars returned and continued until they decided they were done with qualifying.
Having been on track, and no lights on the cars, unlikely in the past, or in current WEC, we can only comment final results. This time Alpine took the honours and would start from the Pole Position. The car is driven here by Ragues and Panciatici. The Zytek would start next to them from the second spot. This means that the best Oreca car by name would be only in the second row. Murphy Prototypes are third and Thiriet by TDS are fourth. Morand Racing Morgan-Judd is next. LMP2 cars took all first four row and their times varies from 1:23s to 1:25s but is within less than second and half.
The next two rows will belong to the four Le Mans Formula LMPC cars, now the Algarve team only third, so far the worst result for them. The cars are with 1.1 seconds. Only six tens behind the number 48 LMPC, the one that caused so far the only red flag in an ELMS session this weekend, was the best GTE car. This time it was not a Ferrari but rather the Proton Porsche no.77. With 1:29.3 it is less than two seconds off LMPC pole. It is followed by three Ferraris, though none of them AF Corse, which is along with SMP Racing represented by most cars in the field - both teams race here three cars - though neither of them entering them all in the same class. SMP is then the only team having an entry both among prototypes and GTs. So JWM Motorsport Ferrari was second and two RAM Racing Ferraris third and fourth.
While the best GTE teams were in 1:29s, the best GTC teams were in 1:30. This time three present Ferraris, by the way, two SMP and one AF, dominated the class, leaving the lone BMW and Lamborghini in the back.
Race
Before the race, some qualifying times were disallowed or amended. Except for some smaller changes at the back of the grid, the most notable effect of this was Alpine's loss of the provisional Pole Position. The team was penalised due to setting the pole time while part of the track under yellow. So the pole position will be taken by Jota Racing Zytek. The Zytek also took the lead in the early stages of the race and slowly increased its lead ahead of Murphy Prototypes Oreca that also started from the first row. Next three cars run very close to each other until the first series of pit stops. Those were Thiriet by TDS Oreca, which soon moved to third, closely followed by Morand Morgan and Race Perfmance Oreca. The next three LMP2 cars were more behind but also ran very close: SMP Racing kept Alpine and Boutsen Ginion (all Orecas) behind.
Of the LMPC cars, number 48 led number 49, while the remaining two ran among the better GTE cars, the class which was completely dominated by thee Ferraris, two RAM Racing and one of JMW Motorsport. But number 48 had to pit early and thus lost one lap and returned half a lap behind the Lamborghini, which was slowest car on the track during the first stint.
On the lap 10 Morgan overtook Thiriet by TDR Oreca. The pattern was then similar until pit stop of LMP2 cars. Most notably second until then second running Murphy Prototypes had suspiciously long pit stop, which originally looked as a standard one. One, two, three laps passed by and we knew the race is lost for the team. Finally, they pushed it to the paddock. It was great when the car appeared about half an hour later back on the track, in the full speed. Though desperately last.
Boutsen Ginion Racing team ended even worse, when the car suddenly ran slowly just before the second series of pit stops. After some repairs in the pit lane, the car re-entered the circuit. However it was obvious that the problem was not solved, so it returned back, thus causing the only retirement of the race. Other problems that we noticed were seen at the JMW Ferrari, which could not select gears while in front of Red Bull Tribune. By that time still fighting for second in GTE with one of RAM Ferraris lost almost half a lap before entering the next turn. On the next straight, the car seemed to recover and since then ran a trouble less race, catching that RAM Ferrari no.53 and finishing second behind the no.52 RAM Ferrari.
In the middle of the race, the Zytek was still leading when it turned to the pits earlier, than it should. While long like a standard stop, the car lost four positions and since it then followed standard patterns of pit stops, it never recovered back. Meanwhile Oreca no.1 Thiriet by TDS strengthened its lead to more than 20 second and won the race comfortably. The battle for the second was then between the Morgan and the Alpine. In fact the Alpine was quicker at this time, so the battle was decided in lap 73, when the Alpine overtook Morgan, which after that did not push so hard and just maintained third. Actually it was driven by the only woman driver in the race, Natasha Gachnang at the time. Race Performance Oreca was running close second behind Thiriet by TDS just after the Jota Zytek pitted unexpectedly. But a spin forced the car to fifth, behind the Zytek, which by the way spun too.
Positions then changed mainly only during the pit stops for a few laps, so we had for example the Jota Zytek running second during the laps 61 to 64 and then again from lap 95 to 99, out of 122 laps but general positions were already set and only a big mistake or failure could make a change. So the race was won by Pierre Thiriet & Mathias Beche in the Thiriet by TDS Oreca no.1, ahead of Pierre Ragues & Nelson Panciatici in Oreca-based Signatech Alpine no.36. The third were Natacha Gachnang & Franck Mailleuxi in the OAK-Pescarolo-based Morgan LMP2 no.43 of Morang Racing followed by Jota Racing Zytek no.38 driven by Simon Dolan & Oliver Turvey.
Behind the fifth Race Performance Oreca no.43 there were three of the Formula Le Mans Orecas in the LMPC class. Number 49 (Chatin/Hirsch) won the race with little problems, after the no.48 lost at the beginning of the race, though when Verdonck took over the number 47 he could have caught Hirsch in number 49, would have the race been longer. There were only 5 seconds between them at the end, while other cars were two laps down. Algarve Pro Team no.46 was third in LMPC class and ninth overall ahead of the leading Ferraris in the GTE class.
We have already mentioned GTE results. The winning RAM Ferrari was driven by Johnny Mowlem & Matt Griffin. There was also notable dominance of Ferraris over Porsches, taking top four positions ahead of four Porsche. Remaining AF Corse Ferrari was slowest of the class during the weekend.
And GTC class was also about Ferraris with Fabio Babini/Victor Shaitar/Kirill Ladygin in a SMP Racing Ferrari beating Andrea Rizzoli/Stefano Gai/Lorenzo Case in an AF Corse Ferrari. The race went smoothly, without any incidents and apart of the two delayed LMP2 prototypes, one of which finished last and the other became the only retirement there were no major technical issues. The weather was fine, almost too hot at times during the weekend. We feel that the European Le Mans Series in this form might became an established and strong series on European continent with some longer term future, however it would probably need a few more cars. Currently situation is quite OK but with two Lolas and the Greaves Zytek disappearing from the scene and with GTC losing the Audi, we could soon get into worrying numbers again, should this trend continue until the end of the season. It was also encouraging to see a new LMPC entry, first really Oreca-independent car. by the way, these cars were slowest of all classes per maximum speed measurement. Generally it is not easy for the prototypes to overtake almost same quick running GT cars on the straights, so usually late braking or slightly higher acceleration was used by the LMP drivers. Next race is held within two month, when Le Mans Series returns to Hungaroring. Last and the only time LMS was there, we still had four LMP1 cars in the field, which are now missing a bit, though with excellent LMP2 class the races are more open. But in the only visit to Hungary a LMP2 car won the race. It was Strakka Racing HPD. Now it is likely we will see another LMP2 overall winner but since HPD are no longer present in the ELMS. We will see and we will be back with another report.
