United ORECA Wins 4H Aragon Thriller
United Autosports’ #22 ORECA 07 of Phil Hanson, Marino Sato and Oliver Jarvis combined to take an impressive victory from pole in tonight’s four-hour ELMS into-the-night race at Aragon.
All three drivers ran faultlessly and with a clever fuel strategy, managed to emerge in the lead following the final round of pit stops when the top four LMP2 cars were all within 10 seconds of each other heading into the final hour.
The dash to the flag, as is often the case in the ELMS, was action-packed in every class. Up front, there were four cars all vying for the race lead, on marginally different strategies. At the start of the hour, the #65 Panis Racing ORECA of Job Van Uitert held the lead, rising from third to first after the fourth stops. Behind, the IDEC Sport ORECA held second, with the #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA third. The winning #22 ORECA was fourth at that point, after a slower fourth stop.
From there it looked as if the Panis Racing ORECA would pull away, but it all unravelled for the French team after a full-course yellow called for the LMP3 #13 Inter Europol Ligier stopping on track. Van Uitert had IDEC’s Paul Loup Chatin right behind him and lost the lead at Turn 1 shortly after the restart. To make matters worse, he then dropped to third at Turn 7 later in the lap when Alex Lynn in the recovering #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA made an opportunistic move on the Dutchman before going on to take the lead with 41 minutes remaining.
There was plenty more drama to come though, as the #22 United ORECA emerged from the pits in the lead after the final set of stops, the Anglo-American team’s mechanics servicing the car in just 57 seconds, the quickest of the front runners. It was a perfectly executed strategy, which allowed Jarvis to take control and cruise to the flag.
“It was tough out there, European Le Mans is so close and the level is so high. I had to take risks in traffic to hold the lead. Luckily I had five or six-second lead after the stop, so I kept pushing and was relieved at the end,” said Jarvis after the race.
“We stopped as early as we could to make it to the end with a little bit of fuel saving. Fortunately, the pace even with that was there.”
Hanson and Sato’s performances earlier in the race deserve praise too. Pole-winner Hanson took the start and proved to be untouchable before Sato climbed in and ensured the team was in with a chance when the light faded and the number of incidents on track began to increase.
Second on the road at the flag was the #28 IDEC Sport ORECA, which had an impressive run to a second podium finish of the season. Paul Loup Chatin, who finished the job started by Patrice Lafargue and Laurents Horr, crossed the line 14.9 seconds behind Jarvis, having successfully held Alex Lynn at bay.
By finishing on the podium, Algarve Pro Racing’s Alex Lynn, Kyffin Simpson and James Allen found themselves rewarded handsomely after a disastrous start to the day. The #25 had to start from dead last after failing to set a time in Qualifying due to a mechanical issue with the brakes before setting a flying lap. Allen took the start and fought through the field to eighth in the first hour.
The safety car at the start of the second hour for a collision between the Formula Racing Ferrari and #43 Inter Europol ORECA then closed the gaps and allowed Simpson and eventually Lynn to challenge for the victory. Third place means the Paul Ricard winners head to Spa firmly in the championship fight, just behind the #30 crew in the points.
The gap has closed so significantly in the LMP2 title fight because the points-leading #30 Duqueine ORECA finished a disappointing seventh overall and sixth in LMP2, behind the #64 Panis ORECA that finished fourth, the #83 AF Corse 07 Gibson that won LMP2 Pro Am and #47 COOL Racing ORECA.
Nicolas Pino, Rene Binder and Neel Jani looked like a contender for the win in the opening laps, but Pino would be handed a drive-through after colliding with Michael Fassbender at the final corner in the first hour. Binder would then fall further back later in the race after contact with the Nielsen Racing ORECA of Ben Hanley which sent him into a spin. After the race the misery continued, the team handed a further 20-second time penalty for refuelling while the car was not on its wheels, dropping the car from fifth to sixth in class.
For the #83 AF Corse crew, it was a sweet victory in LMP2 Pro/Am. Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxiviere have now taken the lead in the LMP2 Am championship after the Barcelona and Paul Ricard-winning Racing Team Turkey ORECA hit trouble late in the race.
As the light faded it became a tight contest between the #83 and #34. Vaxiviere was installed for the run to the flag and tasked with getting past Louis Deletraz, which he did at the Corkscrew moments before the final stops with just over 30 minutes remaining.
“I am really happy for the team because we did such an incredible job. Sometimes you need luck but we created some luck today,” said Vaxiviere.
“We take this win, but we will need to work because we have a race at Spa and two races in Portimao to go. We can be even stronger if we continue to work.”
Disaster then struck when Deletraz pitted, as a failure prevented the Team Turkey ORECA from firing up after the stop, forcing the team to push the car into the garage for over 11 minutes of work, dropping them to ninth in class.
While Deletraz, Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood are by no means out of the running, leaving Spain second in the title race after dominant performances in the opening races and setting pole earlier today will be a tough pill to swallow. The TF Sport-run crew will need to move on fast if they want to bounce back in Belgium and reclaim the lead.
Behind the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, the #24 Nielsen Racing ORECA took second in LMP2 Pro/Am, while the #21 United Autosports ORECA snuck onto the podium as a result of the Team Turkey ORECA’s woes.
LMP3 meanwhile was a race of attrition with only three cars finishing on the lead lap. The race was eventually won by the #17 COOL Racing Ligier JS P320 of Marcos Siebert, Alejandro Garcia and Adrien Chila, who extended their LMP3 championship lead to 25.5 points in the process. The #17 crew started sixth but benefitted from a near-faultless run and a number of incidents that cost contending teams dearly.
The podium could have looked remarkably different had the #13 Inter Eurpol (which eventually retired) and #11 Eurointernational Ligiers not been handed huge penalties during the race.
Both teams were found to have gained almost an entire lap by incorrectly serving a pass around during the early safety car. As a result, race control handed both cars a two-minute 40-second stop-go penalty.
At the time, both cars sat first and second, aided in part because of the wave around, but then dropped out of contention after serving their penalties. The #11 was then penalised again with a 20-second stop-go after being found to have used the time spent serving the penalty refuelling the car.
That left the #17 COOL Ligier and WTM by Rinaldi Duqueine to fight for the win. All the way to the flag the #17’s victory was somewhat in doubt though, due to an ongoing investigation into one of its pit stops. After the race the team was handed a 20-second time penalty for not grounding the car before refuelling. The team was fortunate to keep the victory, as due to the leader crossing the line between the two front-runners, the #17 completed an additional lap.
The final place on the podium was taken by the #35 Ultimate Ligier, which crossed the line just 3.7 seconds behind the WTM by Rinaldi M30.
In GTE, Kessel Racing took a commanding victory, rising up the order from fifth on the grid before emerging as the favourite in the second half of the race. Overall, the battle for the podium spots in the class was hotly contested throughout, producing multiple thrilling sequences all the way to the end.
Birthday boy Davide Rigon completed the job for Kessel, after Takeshi Kimura and Scott Huffaker stayed out of trouble and fought to the front during the opening hours.
“Kimura did an amazing job to put us in the fight for the lead,” explained Huffaker. “I saw I had to attack when I got in and I took the lead on my outlap. For me in the middle, it was about managing the gap before giving the car to Davide. It’s not easy here, and Davide had a tough job at the end with the visibility.”
Behind, it became a dogfight for the final two podium places between the #16, #93 and #77 Proton Porsches and the #66 JMW Ferrari. Alessio Picariello secured second in the #16 for himself and teammates Ryan Hardwick and Zacharie Robichon who were in the fight for a top-three finish throughout.
Martin Rump eventually got the better of both Julien Andlauer and Jon Lancaster in a dramatic final act which saw all three drivers go head to head for third. Lancaster began the sequence in third in the JMW Ferrari but was pushed to the limit by Andlauer, who eventually found a way through after multiple attempts before Rump stormed past both of them.
Rump, Fassbender and Richard Lietz will be thrilled with the result tonight, after suffering so much bad luck this season. A podium finish in their #93 Porsche will feel like extra special, especially after Fassbender lost so much time early, stuck in fifth gear facing the pit wall after being hit by Duqueine’s Nicolas Pino.
The #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari completed the top six, behind the #77 Proton Porsche and JMW Ferrari, its challenge blunted by a drive-through penalty handed to David Perel for a track limits violation.
Next on the calendar for the ELMS is the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on September 24th.
Image courtesy of ELMS
The post United ORECA Wins 4H Aragon Thriller first appeared on dailysportscar.com.