Another 1-2 Finish for CLX Motorsport in Round 2 at Le Castellet
In Le Castellet it was the no87 Ligier-Toyota of Pierre-Alexandre Provost and Alvise Rodella which finished ahead of Round 1 winners David Droux and Cédric Oltramare in the no97 Ligier JS P325 at the end of the two-hour race.It was a lights to flag victory and maximum points for the no87 crew. The no25 Reiter Engineering Ligier secured the final podium position in LMP3.
Victory in the LMP3 Pro/Am category was secured by the no84 ANS Motorsport Ligier of Julien Lemoine and Paul Trojani.Trojani took the chequered flag in second place on the road behind the no98 Motorsport Ligier of Gillian Henrion, but the no98 Ligier was given two time penalties of 5 and 10 seconds for Full Course Yellow infringements incurred earlier in the race. This promoted the no84 Ligier into first place ahead of the no98 Ligier, with no71 Rinaldi Racing Ligier-Toyota in third.
The GT3 class saw several changes of lead throughout the race but in the end the no11 Code Racing Development Aston Martin Vantage came through to secure the victory in Le Castellet, with Rory Van Der Steur passing the no17 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Andrea Belicchi in the final few laps of the race. Belicchi was also passed by Eliseo Donno in the no51 AF Corse Ferrari, with the top three cars covered by just 3.5 seconds after two hours of racing.
The race started with the 42 cars charging into the first corner of the Circuit Paul Ricard.There were several contacts with the biggest loser being the no28 23Events Racing Ligier driven by Terrence Woodward who had started on the LMP3 Pro/Am pole position.There was contact between two cars and Woodward dropped down the order, retiring from the race a few laps later.
There was also contact between the no83 Iron Dames Porsche of Vanina Ickx, the no58 GG Classics Ligier and the no27 P4 Racing Ligier, with damage resulting to the Porsche and to the LMP3 cars. Ickx was given a penalty for causing the collision which dropped the car out of the battle for the GT3 lead later in the race.
There were two Safety Car periods and four Full Course Yellows to collect debris and remove damaged cars during the race.
After the pitstops to change drivers, the battles continued throughout the field.The no87 CLX Motorsport had led for almost the entire race and Alvise Rodella continued to control the race from the front.The battle for second was raging between the no92 Forestier Racing by VPS of Luciano Morano, the no25 Reiter Engineering of Miklas Born and the charging no97 CLX Motorsport of David Droux.
Droux was biding his time while Born was challenging Morano.At the chicane the two cars washed wide, with Born taking second place but Droux had got a better run into Signes corner and swept past both cars to take second place.Rodella in the no87 Ligier was 11 seconds up the road and was not going to be caught before the chequered flag.
Gillian Henrion in the no98 Motorsport98 Ligier had worked his way up the field and was soon challenging the no84 ANS Motorsport Ligier of Paul Trojani.Henrion took the lead but had two-time penalties hanging over him which would be added to his final race time.The former MLMC Champion couldn’t pull out a 15 second gap to Trojani before the chequered flag was shown and had to settle for second place even though he had crossed the line first.
Rory Van Der Steur was challenging for the GT3 lead in the no11 Aston Martin but also had the no65 Team Motopark Mercedes AMG of Lukas Dunner and the no33 Kessel Racing Ferrari right behind him.In fact, the top four cars were covered by less than 1.5 seconds.The no33 Ferrari and no65 Mercedes AMG dropped out of contention due to drive through penalties late in the race and this left Van Der Steur making his move at Turn 1 to take the lead from the no17 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Andrea Belicchi.
Results are HERE
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