The 2016 European Le Mans Series LMP2 and LMGTE titles were both claimed in dramatic circumstances as the cars leading the two classes, the no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca and the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari, both encountered problems in the first half of the four hour event.

The race winners in each class, the no38 G-Drive Racing Gibson of Giedo Van Der Garde, Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell and the no99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Alex MacDowall, Andrew Howard and Darren Turner, secured enough points to overhaul their rivals to secure the European titles.

The LMP3 class was won by the no18 MRacing-YMR Ligier of Thomas Laurent, Yann Ehrlacher and Alexandre Cougnaud, the first ELMS win of the season for the team and drivers.

The race started with the no38 G-Drive Gibson of Giedo Van Der Garde moving into the lead at the first corner from the second row with Nico Lapierre in the no21 Dragonspeed Oreca on pole position being challenged by the no23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier of Fabien Barthez. Lapierre held the position with Barthez spinning at Turn 4. It wasn’t long before Lapierre was back on terms with the leading Gibson, passing Van Der Garde for the lead.

The no99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Alex MacDowall, which had started at the back of the grid, was soon on the move and by lap 14 was leading the LMGTE class after passing the rest of the field. MacDowall had championship leader Rory Butcher in the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari just 4 seconds behind.

2016 LMP3 Champion Alex Brundle started from pole position and soon had a good gap to his United Autosports teammate Wayne Boyd and the no9 Graff Ligier of Enzo Guibbert

As the pitstops approached on lap 31 Van Der Garde made a move to regain the lead on the inside of Lapierre’s Oreca-Nissan at Turn 2, with both drivers heading to the pits at the end of the lap. Lapierre handed over to Henrik Hedman and Van Der Garde to Simon Dolan, with Dragonspeed electing not to change tyres allowing Hedman back on track ahead of Dolan. Hedman made a mistake and went across the gravel at T3 and rejoined the track just in front of Dolan, who quickly took advantage and went into the lead.

In LMGTE the no66 JMW Ferrari went ahead of the leading no99 Aston Martin and soon built up a comfortable lead.

Back at the front the no38 Gibson had moved well ahead of the no21 Dragonspeed Oreca, with Nic Jonsson in the no40 Krohn Racing Ligier and Pierre Thiriet the no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca battling for third and closing on the second placed car. Another trip off the track for Hedman allowed the two cars through into 2nd and 3rd respectively.

At the end of the opening hour the no60 Formula Racing Ferrari retired with Johnny Laursen parking the car at T7. The no66 JMW Ferrari came in for the first stop and was delayed, losing a lap on the leaders. This was a taste of things to come for the championship leading team as smoke and fire was seen coming from the back of the F458 but Butcher kept the car circulating at speed until the next stop, when a gearbox failure forced the team to push it back into the garage. After 30-minutes Rob Smith emerged only for the car to be collected by a spinning Mike Guasch at Turn 2. Smith got the car back to the pits but the no66 Ferrari’s afternoon was done despite the herculean efforts by the mechanics to get the car back on track.
This left the leading Aston Martin, now with Andrew Howard at the wheel needing to win the race to secure the title, second or lower meant the JMW Motorsport crew would still be able to claim the 2016 titles.