Historic First ELMS Win for Corvette as VDS Panis Racing First Across the Line in Imola
The overall victory went to the no48 VDS Panis Racing Oreca-Gibson with Charles Milesi bringing the car home to record the French team’s first win of the year, finishing 8.8 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Charlie Eastwood, Hiroshi Koizumi and Rui Andrade were not the only TF Sport drivers to win in Imola. 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 Pro/Am winners PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron and Louis Deletraz also stood on the top step of the podium after taking the class win in the no99 AO by TF Oreca-Gibson.
The crew of the no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier-Toyota kept up their 100% record, winning the LMP3 class from pole position for the third time this season. Theodor Jensen brought the car home a lap ahead of their nearest rivals, the no31 Racing Spirit of Leman.
The race started under cloudy skies but with the thermometer sitting at 32 degrees.Rain was in the forecast, but the track was dry for the start of the 4 Hours of Imola.
At the start the 44-car grid was led into the first corner by the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Mathias Kaiser, with Jonas Ried in the no9 Iron Lynx-Proton moving ahead of Jakub Smiechowski in the no43 Inter Europol Competition.
The no50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari had started at the back of the LMGT3 field due to causing a red flag in qualifying and Riccardo Agostini was behind the wheel.The gold rated driver was making up places, finishing the opening lap in 4th, with the pole sitting no59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin in the lead with Clement Mateu driving.
Celia Martin in the no85 Iron Dames Porsche was up to second in LMGT3 but was tapped into a spin by the no50 Ferrari at Turn 2 when Agostini tried to overtake. This dropped Martin back to 4th and began a good fight back up the order by the French driver.
Paul Lanchere in the no17 CLX Motorsport was leading LMP3 from Fabian Michel in the no11 Eurointernational but the no17 Ligier was under investigation for causing a collision with the no68 M Racing Ligier at the start.This later came through as a driver through penalty for the championship leader.
Giorgio Roda was leading the LMP2 Pro/Am class from Georgios Kolovos in the no3 DKR Engineering, but both were soon passed by the no27 Nielsen Racing of Sergio Sette Camara, the Brazilian on a charge from the back of the grid.
The first Full Course Yellow period was declared on Lap 10 to recover the no23 United Autosports McLaren that had ended up in the gravel.
At the restart Jakub Smiechowski leapt to the front of the field in the no43 Inter Europol Competition, moving ahead of Kaiser in the no25 Oreca, with the Swiss driver losing another place to Filipe Albuquerque in the no24 Nielsen Racing.
The Safety Car was deployed for the first time when the no86 GR Racing Ferrari was tapped into a spin by the no63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG, with Takeshi Kimura in the no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari and Paul Lafargue in the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca getting caught up in the accident.
All the drivers emerged unharmed but with four stranded cars and debris across the track the race was red flagged after two laps behind the Safety Car to allow the marshals to clear everything quickly and safely.
The race resumed behind the Safety Car before going green.After the first round of pitstops the no18 IDEC Sport Oreca driven by Jamie Chadwick was leading after an ultra quick stop, with Oliver Gray in the no48 VDS Panis Racing and Smiechowski in the Inter Europol Competition Oreca in second and third respectively.Gray soon caught and passed Chadwick to take the lead.
In LMGT3 the no85 Iron Dames Porsche was leading after the first stops, with Celia Martin ahead of the no82 TF Sport Corvette driven by Hiroshi Koizumi.The no35 Ultimate Ligier of Louis Stern was leading LMP3 from Lanchere’s CLX Motorsport Ligier and Georgio Kolovos was leading LMP2 Pro/Am.
Giorgio Roda in the no77 Proton Competition was ahead of the no99 AO by TF of PJ Hyett but was passed by Hyett for second place.Paul Lanchere retook the LMP3 lead after 1h45m of racing, passing the no35 Ultimate on the inside at T2.
Rain started to fall on parts of the Imola circuit and several cars slipped off onto the grass, including the third placed no43 Oreca.
Dane Cameron and Thomas Laurent were fighting for the lead in LMP2 Pro/Am, with the no99 AO by TF holding off Laurent’s determined challenge in the no3 DKR Engineering for several laps.
Celia Martin’s lead in LMGT3 vanished when the no85 Porsche slid off the track at T2 into the gravel and had to be pulled out under a Full Course Yellow, dropping the French driver down the order.With more rain falling the no29 TDS Racing Oreca slid off the track at T14 into the barriers, with Clement Novalak recovering the car back to the pits for repairs.
At the two hour mark the rain came down a lot heavier and the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine and the no24 Nielsen Racing Oreca both span off the track bringing out another FCY period.
In LMGT3 the no82 TF Sport Corvette was leading with Rui Andrade at the wheel but being challenged by the no60 Proton Competition Porsche of Matteo Cressoni.For several laps this battle raged with Andrade holding onto the lead.
The no18 IDEC Sport went off into the barriers at T14, bringing out another FCY, with Daniel Juncadella bringing the car back to the pits to repair the heavily damaged front of the car.
At the restart Cressoni got ahead of Andrade to take the LMGT3 lead at T2. This was the state of affairs until the no60 Porsche was given a 10 second penalty for a FCY infringement, putting the no82 Corvette back in front.
At the front of the field the no48 VDS Panis Racing of Esteban Masson was 10 seconds ahead of the no43 Inter Europol Competition of Nick Yelloly.Dane Cameron was leading LMP2 Pro/Am in the no99 AO by TF and Adrien Closmenil in the no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier was over 50 seconds ahead of the no31 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier.
The no68 M Racing Ligier suffered a rear puncture at the start of the lap and as Quentin Antonel tried to get the car back to the pits, the flaying rubber destroyed the cars bodywork, dropping carbon fibre all over the track.Race Control decided the safest way to clear the track was to deploy the Virtual Safety Car followed by a Safety Car.
After 20 minutes the track was clear, and racing resumed with 50 minutes remaining.
Charles Milesi was now in the leading VDS Panis Racing Oreca, with Tom Dillmann in the no43 Inter Europol Competition 7 seconds behind.The no9 Iron Lynx-Proton was third with Theo Pourchaire in the no25 Algarve Pro Racing in 4th.Another FCY period was declared when the no27 Nielsen Racing Oreca went off at T11 with Pourchaire pitting before the FCY was declared.
The race went green and then immediately went back under FCY when Laurents Horr spun off into the gravel in the no3 DKR Engineering at T2.The car was quickly recovered and the race resumed with 18 minutes left.
The no9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca was given a Driver Through Penalty for a Virtual Safety Car infringement, which dropped Matteo Capietto out of the podium places.
In LMGT3 Charlie Eastwood in the no82 Corvette was holding off a determined challenge from Miguel Molina in the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, but a late penalty for the no74 car saw the pressure relieved before the chequered flag was waved.
A final FCY was declared when Dillmann in the no43 Oreca tapped the no10 Vector Sport of Pietro Fittipaldi into a spin a T18, the Brazilian ending up beached in the gravel. With the pitlane closed all eyes were on Charles Milesi in the leading car who had to take fuel before the end of the race.
When the race went green Milesi dived into the pits for a splash of fuel. The French driver emerged 5.7 seconds ahead of Dillmann and a further 21 seconds ahead of Pourchaire.This is the order when the chequered flag was shown.
In LMP2 Pro/Am Louis Deletraz in the no99 AO by TF finished ahead of Bent Viscaal in the no77 Proton Competition, with Alex Quinn taking third place in the no20 Algarve Pro Racing.
The no17 CLX Motorsport was over a lap ahead of the rest of the LMP3 field, with Theodor Jensen taking the chequered flag for the third time in three races.Marius Fossard took second for Racing Spirit of Leman, with the no11 Eurointernational Ligier in third.
The story of the day was the first ever ELMS victory for Corvette when Charlie Eastwood took the chequered flag in the no82 TF Sport Corvette, the first GTE / GT3 win for TF Sport since 2022, which was also at Imola.
The no51 AF Corse Ferrari of Conrad Laursen was second, 4.7 seconds behind, with the no74 Kessel Racing taking the final podium position.
Round 4 of the 2025 European Le Mans Series will be the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on the 22-24 August.
Provisional results are HERE
Comments
Log in to comment the article