ELMS: Greaves takes 4 Hours of Le Castellet after the flag

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 It was a great race at the front of the ELMS 4 Hours of Le Castellet with Jota taking the flag but Greaves took the win after a driver time infringement…JRXT2270LMP2

The JOTA Sport Gibson-Nissan of Harry Tincknell took the chequered flag at the end of an exciting 4 Hours of Le Castellet but a penalty for Filipe Albuquerque, after the Portuguese driver exceeded the permitted 90 minute driving time by 1m 57s, gave the team a 45 second penalty. This demoted them down to third place behind the no41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson-Nissan and the no21 AF Racing BR01 which had finished the race in second and third places respectively.

The LMP3 title was decided in fine style with a win for Charlie Robertson and Chris Hoy after controlling the race from the front. The task was made a little easier when the no2 Team LNT Ginetta pulled off the track with a suspected drive train issue and Robertson took the chequered flag 110 seconds ahead of the no5 Villbora Corse Ginetta.

Simon Dolan in the no38 JOTA Sport Gibson-Nissan started the race from pole position but was passed at the start by the two AF Racing BR01s and the no29 Pegasus Racing Morgan of Leo Roussel. The two BR01s were fighting for the lead with Mikhail Aleshin leading Nicolas Minassian, the French driver being challenged by Roussel. Roussel passed the no20 AF Racing BR01 but was soon back to third as Minassian fought back to regain the advantage. The fastest lap of the race was set by Aleshin on the second lap underlining the pace in the new 2015 LMP1 chassis.

The no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA 05 of Ludovic Badey had to give ground to two cars after gaining an advantage after an off track moment at the start. Things went from bad to worse when Badey was forced to pit with a suspected rear left puncture. It later became apparent that the car had a brake problem and a visit to the garage for repairs blunted an excellent fight back up the field by the French team that saw Tristan Gommendy leading the race at the 2-hour mark.

A big accident for Michael Lyons in the no48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA03R at the end of the Mistral Straight brought the safety car out on track to allow the recovery of the stricken car. Lyons walked away from the wrecked car and the team reported he was OK.

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Jon Lancaster in the no41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson was flying in the third hour of the race and after an excellent battle with the Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA of Pierre Thiriet and the BR01 of Victor Shaytar, the Englishman moved from 4th to 2nd with some impressive overtaking moves, aided in part by the traffic. After Thiriet pitted to repair the brakes on the ORECA with 45 minutes of the race remaining, Harry Tincknell held a comfortable lead in the JOTA Gibson, which he held to the chequered flag.

However after the podium celebrations were complete a 45 second penalty was handed to JOTA for Albuquerque exceed the permitted driving time for a platinum driver. This has set up an exciting situation for the final round in Estoril in four week’s time with Albuquerque and his British teammates Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell, will head to the last race of the 2015 season in Portugal next month with a slender one point lead in the championship over the no41 Greaves Motorsport team of Jon Lancaster, Bjorn Wirdheim and Gary Hirsch and 10 points ahead of the no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA-Nissan of Ludovic Badey, Pierre Thiriet and Tristan Gommendy.

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LMP3

Charlie Robertson in the no3 Team LNT Ginetta started the race and built up a big lead before handing the car to Chris Hoy. Hoy maintained the lead before handing the car back to Robertson for the final 20 minutes of the race to take the chequered flag. The win means that British Olympic cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy adds his first European motorsport driver’s title to his impressive sporting CV. The Scottish duo, along with Team LNT, now head to Estoril with their eyes on securing their fourth victory in 2015.

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In LMGTE Formula Racing took their second win in a row when Andrea Rizzoli crossed the finish line in the no60 Ferrari 458 ahead of the no52 BMW Team MarcVDS Z4 of Jesse Krohn.

Once again the LMGTE category provided some of the best action of the very exciting race with the no56 AT Racing Ferrari of Alexander Talkanitsa Jr leading the way in the early stages of the race from pole position, with the no60 Formula Racing Ferrari of Johnny Laursen and the no 86 Gulf Racing UK Porsche of Phil Keen putting pressure on the leader.

A series of penalties for the Austrian team dropped them out of the running with the no55 AF Corse Ferrari of Aaron Scott joining the battle at the front of the field. The no52 MarcVDS BMW Z4 was soon on the way up the field after starting on the 11th row of the grid and Andy Priaulx and Jesse Krohn were in contention for their first podium finish of the 2015 season, which Krohn duly took in second place 1 lap behind the Formula Racing Ferrari and ahead of the flying JMW Motorsport Ferrari, which moved up to secure the 15 points for 3rd place.

Formula Racing have a 19 point advantage over BMW Team MarcVDS, with 22 points covering the top four teams ahead of the last round of the year.

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GTC

The GTC podium saw a BMW, Ferrari and Aston Martin in the top three places with the no59 TDS Racing BMW Z4 scoring their second win of 2015 after Franck Perrera crossed the line for a home win for the all French team at the Circuit Paul Ricard. The victory by the no59 BMW ahead of the no62 AF Corse Ferrari of Francesco Castellacci, Thomas Flohr and Stuart Hall has given Franck Perrera, Dino Lunardi and Eric Dermont a 23 point advantage ahead of the final race in Estoril on the 18 October.