IDEC Sport Secures Home Win to Celebrate Team’s 10th Anniversary

CLX Motorsport have taken maximum points from the first two races of the 2025 ELMS season after Paul Lanchere, Theodor Jensen and Adrien Closmenil secured their second pole to chequered flag victory in a row. Closmenil took the chequered flag nearly 25 seconds ahead of Quentin Antonel in the no68 M Racing Ligier, with Antonel challenging for the win until the final pitstops.

With Jamie Chadwick taking the overall win, the first time a female driver has secured an overall ELMS victory, and Lilou Wadoux the win in LMGT3, female drivers have stood on the top step of the ELMS podium in separate classes for the second race in a row.

RAIN AND SAFETY CARS

Ahead of the race, the track had been declared wet, but rain hadn’t yet started to fall so the teams had to decide if they would start the race on slick or wet tyres.As the cars started the two formation laps rain started to fall on parts of the circuit and three cars spun off due to the lack of grip.

At the green light the no22 United Autosports and the no28 IDEC Sport spun around at Turn 1 and later in the lap there was a collision between the no83 AF Corse and the no8 Team Virage Ligier.There was significant damage to both cars and with debris strewn across the track the first of three Safety Car periods were declared, which also closed the pitlane.

After two laps behind the Safety Car the race went green again and most of the cars that went out on slicks came in for wet tyres as the rain started to fall harder.

The no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Jakob Smiechowski and the no27 Nielsen Racing Oreca of Tony Wells had started the race on wets and were leading the LMP2 and LMP2 Pro/Am classes respectively.Duncan Cameron in the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was also on wets and leading the LMGT3 class.

In LMP3 the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine of Torsten Kratz was being challenged by the no68 M Racing Ligier of Stephane Tribaudini and Tribaudini took the lead at Turn 12 not long after the restart, with Paul Lanchere in the no17 CLX Motorsport in third place.

After everyone had pitted for wets the race settled down with Tony Wells building a 17 second lead over the no21 United Autosports Oreca of Daniel Schneider in LMP2 Pro/Am and Duncan Cameron pulling away from the chasing LMGT3 field by nearly 30 seconds.

The no37 CLX Pure Rxcing Oreca of Aliaksandr Malykhin got onto the wet kerbs on the exit of Signes corner and the car snapped sideways into the safety barrier.This brought out the second Safety Car, which negated all the hard work by the lead cars as the field bunched up behind the Safety Car.

The race went green again after 12 minutes and the no24 Nielsen Racing Oreca of Cem Bolukbasi overtook the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Mathias Kaiser for second place. Bolukbasi took the lead when Smiechowski went into the pits for his stop but a new nose cone was required which dropped the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca down the order.

In LMP3 the no68 M Racing Ligier was leading the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing, while in LMGT3 the no55 Ferrari was pulling away from the chasing pack led by Martin Berry in the no63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG.

The no77 Proton Competition of Rene Binder was on the move and took the lead of the LMP2 Pro/Am category from the no27 Nielsen Racing Oreca, which had Sergio Santos Sette now behind the wheel.

The rain was still coming down and the spray had reduced visibility significantly.Several incidents had meant there was debris around the circuit and a short Full Course Yellow was declared to clear the track.

Ferdinand Habsburg in the no24 Nielsen Racing was leading overall ahead of Vlad Lomko in the no10 Vector Sport Oreca, while the no29 TDS Racing Oreca and no 77 Proton Competition Oreca were fighting for the top spot in LMP2 Pro/Am.

Duncan Cameron came into to hand over the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari to Matt Griffin, with Lorcan Hanafin in the no63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG now in the lead of LMGT3.Riccardo Agostini in the no50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari was on the move up the field and went up to second place.

The rain had stopped and a dry line started to form on the track.The teams were not looking to see when the best time was to change to slicks.Ferdinand Habsburg had pitted earlier and had switched to slicks.For a few laps the Austrian struggled for grip but then the lap times came down significantly with the no24 Oreca lapping over 8 seconds faster than the rest of the field. The time had come to switch to slicks.

The no9 Iron Lynx-Proton of Matteo Cairoli lost its front right wheel after its pitstop and then the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca ended up in the wall at Turn 6 after going side by side with another car.

This brought out the final Safety Car of the race, which bunched up the field with just over an hour of the race remaining.

After the next set of pitstops the no18 IDEC Sport Oreca of Mathys Jaubert emerged in the lead.The battle for the Pro/Am lead and second place overall was raging between the no99 Proton Competition and the no29 TDS Racing with Clement Novalak in the no29 car challenging Rene Binder at every turn.The no77 Oreca had to take to the safety road at Turn 1 and emerged still in the lead however Binder received a Drive Through Penalty for not following the Race Directors instructions for rejoining at T1 and this gave the lead back to Novalak.

This allowed James Allen in the no27 Nielsen Racing Oreca to catch Novalak and with 30 minutes of the race remaining Allen was in the lead and lying second overall.Jaubert built up a big enough lead in the no18 IDEC Sport to get back out after his final pitstop to retain the lead.

Lilou Wadoux was now behind the wheel of the no50 Ferrari and moved into the lead of the race when her rivals pitted for their last stops.The French driver then built up a big enough lead before her final stop to emerge from the pitlane in the class lead, but she had Fabien Schiller in the no63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG right behind.Schiller put the pressure on for the rest of the race and the two cars were neck and neck as they crossed the line, with Wadoux getting there first.

The final spot on the LMGT3 podium went to the no86 GR Racing Ferrari, which was just 1.6 seconds behind the winner, and, in fact, the top five cars were split by just 5.2 seconds at the chequered flag.

Adrien Closmenil in the no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier was leading LMP3 well ahead of Quentin Antonin in the no68 M Racing and the no11 Eurointernational Ligiers. At the chequered flag the winning margin was 24.9 seconds.

The LMP2 Pro/Am battle still on going right to the chequered flag with the no99 AO by TF of Louis Deletraz moving through the field to take 2ndplace in class and third overall and trying to close the gap to the leading no27 Nielsen Racing Oreca of James Allen. However Allen was able to maintain a five second lead until the chequered flag to secure Nielsen Racing’s first ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am victory. Mathias Beche brought the no29 TDS Racing Oreca home to claim the final spot on the class podium and 5thoverall.

The no18 IDEC Sport Oreca crossed the line to take the first ELMS win for the French team at Le Castellet, finishing 1.8 seconds ahead of James Allen.Second place in LMP2 went to the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca, with Tom Dillmann taking the chequered flag 10.2 seconds behind Jaubert in 4thoverall.Third in LMP2 went to the no47 CLX Motorsport Oreca in 8thoverall.

The next round of the 2025 European Le Mans Series will be the 4 Hours of Imola on Sunday 6 July but before that some of the ELMS teams and drivers head back to France next month to take part in the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 14/15 June.

Results are HERE