IDEC Sport takes dramatic win at Silverstone with CLX Motorsport claiming LMP3 title in style
With over 110,000 people attending the three day event, the race was incident packed, with heavy rain that brought the race to an end 10-minutes early.
The no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier-Toyota crew of Paul Lanchère, Adrien Closmenil and Theodor Jensen secured their fourth win of the season in the tricky conditions to claim the 2025 ELMS LMP3 Team and Driver titles with one race to go next month.
The LMP2 Pro/Am win was claimed by the no20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, with Kriton Lentoudis, Olli Caldwell and Alex Quinn standing on the top step of the podium for the second time in a row to extend their championship lead after a great battle in the difficult conditions with the no99 AO by TF and the no83 AF Corse Orecas.
The LMGT3 winners were the no50 Richard Mille by AF Corse Ferrari crew of Custodio Toledo, Riccardo Agostini and Lilou Wadoux. The 4 Hours of Le Castellet winners battled through from tenth place on the LMGT3 grid, with Wadoux facing a determined challenge from the no86 GR Racing Ferrari of Riccardo Pera. Pera had managed to get ahead of the no50 Ferrari when the race was red flagged due to track conditions and the no50 Ferrari was declared the winners due to the fact they were leading the lap before the race was stopped.
The no48 VDS Panis Racing Oreca led the field into the first corner with Oliver Gray pulling away from the rest of the field led by Jakub Smiechowski in the no43 Inter Europol Competition, the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 champion getting ahead of Jonas Ried in the no9 Iron Lynx-Proton at the start.
In LMP2 Pro/Am there was contact between the no3 DKR Engineering of Georgios Kolovos and no29 TDS Racing of Rodrigo Sales, with the no21 United Autosports Oreca of Daniel Schneider colliding with the spinning DKR Oreca. There was a further incident between the no99 AO by TF of PJ Hyett and the no37 CLX Pure Rxcing of Aliaksandr Malykhin, with both cars suffering body damage.
A Virtual Safety Car was declared when the no31 Ligier went off into the gravel after a collision between the no85 Iron Dames Porsche and the no8 Team Virage Ligier. The marshals worked hard to clear the stranded car and the debris on the track from the earlier incidents.
After 20 minutes of VSC and Safety Car the race resumed with Oliver Gray pulling out a 5 second lead in the no48 VDS Panis Racing. The no27 Nielsen Racing Oreca of John Falb was leading LMP2 Pro/Am, Antti Rammo was leading LMP3 in the DKR Engineering Ginetta having elected to stay our while the rest of the LMP3 field pitted under the VSC. Célia Martin was leading in LMGT3 from the no57 Ferrari of Takeshi Kimura, the French driver pulling away from the rest of the class.
With just over 30 minutes of the race completed the no37 CLX Pure Rxcing Oreca went to pass a backmarker on the start finish straight and collided with the back of no63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG. Martin Berry’s car speared across the grass, hitting the tyre wall hard and spreading debris across the track. The Australian climbed out of the badly damaged car unaided but with the barriers badly damaged the race was red flagged to allow repairs to be carried out. Malykhin was later given a penalty for causing the collision.
Once repairs were complete the race resumed behind the Safety Car, with the race clock reset to the time the race was stopped.
The green flag was waved and racing resumed, with the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine, which had started on pole and was running at the front of the LMP3 order, pulled off at the end of the Hamilton Straight, Torsten Kratz parking the car in a relatively safe position.
Another high speed accident brought proceedings to a halt once again, this time involving the no83 AF Corse of François Perrodo, the no77 Proton Competition of Giorgio Roda and the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Nick Adcock resulted in Roda’s car hitting the barriers and spinning across the track, coming to rest on the racing line. The Safety Car was immediately deployed, and Roda emerged from the car unaided. Adcock managed to get his Ligier back to the pits, with Perrodo later receiving a penalty for causing the accident.
The race was Red Flagged for the second time to allow the marshals to clear the track and also remove the no12 WTM Duqueine from the Hamilton Straight.
Once again the time lost during the red flag period was given back as the race clock was reset and racing resumed.
There was a change at the head of the field when Esteban Masson in the no48 VDS Panis Racing Oreca was given a 17 second Stop and Go penalty for ignoring the pit exit red light.
Filipe Albuquerque in the no24 Nielsen Racing was now leading from the no47 CLX Motorsport Oreca of Manuel Espirito Santo and the no43 Inter Europol Competition, with Nick Yelloly now behind the wheel. Dane Cameron was now in the lead of the LMP2 Pro/Am category in the no99 Ao by TF, with the no27 Nielsen Racing and no83 AF Corse close behind.
The no68 M Racing Ligier of Stephane Tribaudini was holding off a challenge by Paul Lanchère in the no17 CLX Motorsport and the no11 Eurointernational Ligier of Fabien Michal.
The no85 Iron Dames Porsche lost the lead after Célia Martin’s car hit the rear of the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari, the French driver being given a Drive Through Penalty as a result. The no82 TF Sport Corvette of Hiroshi Koizumi was now in the LMGT3 lead, with Custodio Toledo in the no50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 13 seconds behind.
Rain started to fall on parts of the circuit at the 2-hour mark with the race being declared wet. Rain started to fall harder in the next 10-minutes and cars started to head to the pits to fit wet tyres to their cars as the slippery conditions started to catch out some of the drivers.
Nick Yelloly had built up a solid lead at the head of the field as his rivals pitted for wets, but the British driver had to work hard to keep the car on the track and after a couple of spins he also headed to the pits for wets. This put the no43 Oreca behind the no18 IDEC Sport Oreca of Daniel Juncadella, the French team timing the change from slicks to wets perfectly to get the Spaniard back out into the lead.
The CLX Motorsport pit crew had also done the same for the LMP3 Ligier, with Adrien Closmenil leading the category well ahead of the no35 Ultimate of Jean-Baptiste Lahaye.
Lilou Wadoux was now leading LMGT3 in the no50 Ferrari and the LMP2 Pro/Am class was led by the no29 TDS Racing of Clément Novalak but the French driver was being caught by the no99 AO by TF of Louis Delétraz and the no20 APR Oreca of Alex Quinn. Quinn got ahead of Deletraz and then caught and passed Novalak, who was now being challenged by Delétraz. Novalak’s race went from bad to worse when he was given a drive through penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag.
The rain continued to fall as Juncadella led from Tom Dillmann in the no43 Inter Europol Competition and Pietro Fittipaldi in the no10 Vector Sport. Ferdinand Habsburg was also closing up in the no24 Nielsen Racing and was keen to join the battle for the lead.
Louis Delétraz in the no99 AO by TF also got back onto terms with Alex Quinns no20 APR Oreca and took the LMP Pro/Am lead into Brooklands as the last 30-minutes of the race approached. Theodor Jensen held a 17 second lead at the head of the LMP3 field with the no68 M Racing Ligier of Quentin Antonel leading the chase.
In LMGT3 Lilou Wadoux was still leading but the gap was coming down as the no86 GR Racing Ferrari of Riccardo Pera was on a charge, the Italian reducing the gap from 11 seconds to around 2 seconds in 10 minutes.
Another FCY period was called when the left rear tyre of the no47 CLX Motorsport Oreca let go, dropping several bits of debris on the track at Copse. The marshals too less than four minutes to clear the track, leaving a 13-minute sprint to the flag.
In LMP2 Pro/Am Matthieu Vaxivière in the no83 AF Corse was challenging Alex Quinn for second, with the French driver getting ahead briefing before sliding off the track a few moments later as the rain came down even heavier. The no99 AO by TF was leading by two seconds but was issued a +5 second penalty for an earlier infringement, with Delétraz knowing he had to pull out the gap to Quinn to take the victory.
The battle for the LMGT3 lead saw the no86 Ferrari get alongside the no50 296 and Pera swept into the lead in the very tricky track conditions. However the Race Director decided the conditions were getting too dangerous to race and, with 10-minutes left on the clock, he declared another Red Flag to bring to race to an end.
The no18 IDEC Sport Oreca was declared the winner, with the no43 Inter Europol Competition in second and the no10 Vector Sport claiming the second podium finish of the season for the British team.
The no99 AO by TF Oreca was leading in LMP2 Pro/Am but the 5 second penalty dropped the American team to second place behind the no20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, with the no83 AF Corse Oreca in third.
The no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier was 63 seconds ahead when the race was stopped, which meant the 4th win from five races for the Swiss team and enough points to be declared 2025 ELMS Champions.
The no86 GR Racing Ferrari had moved into the lead on the lap the Red Flag had been shown. The race result was declared on the previous lap, which gave the no50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari the win, ahead of the GR Racing Ferrari, with the no82 TF Sport Corvette in third.
The season finale in Portugal will see the teams go head-to-head to decide who will lift the titles in LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am and LMGT3. Just seven points split the no48 VDS Panis Racing (81 pts), the no18 IDEC Sport (75pts) and no43 Inter Europol Competition (74pts) for the ELMS LMP2 title in next month’s 4 Hours of Portimao.
The no20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca holds a nine-point advantage on 91 points, with the no99 AO by TF Oreca on 82 points.
The no50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari leaves Silverstone with a 12 points advantage in the LMGT3 championship standings on 66 points, with the no59 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin on 54 points, the no82 TF Sport Corvette on 52 points, the no85 Iron Dames Porsche and no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari on 47 points.
The 4 Hours of Portimão will take place next month on Saturday 18 October.
Results are HERE
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