Stunning Double Victory For United Autosports In Dramatic ELMS Race At Spa

The no26 G Drive Racing Oreca finished well down the order in the difficult conditions but with only half championship points awarded for the race the three time race winning team was declared 2018 champions, with Roman Rusinov and Andrea Pizzitola lifting in the ELMS drivers crown.

It was also success in the LMP3 category for the United Autosports team with the no2 Ligier-Nissan final making it to the podium with 2017 drivers champion John Falb celebrating with ‘super sub’ Scott Andrews who was filling in for Sean Rayhall who couldn’t travel due to illness.

It was also a first for the 2017 Michelin Le Mans Cup GT3 Championship winning team Ebimotors as the Italians took victory in the LMGTE category with Riccardo Pera, Fabio Babini and Bret Curtis celebrating the debut ELMS win.

Rain and More Rain

The rain was just too heavy

With heavy rain forecasted for the Ardennes area the decision was taken to start the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 75 minutes earlier than planned with the 40 car grid getting underway behind the Safety Car at 10h45. For the first 15-minutes the cars circulated behind the safety car before the Race Director showed the green flag to begin racing on the very wet track.

The no26 G Drive Racing Oreca of Andrea Pizzitola led the race from pole position as the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca of Paul Loup Chatin came into the pits to change tyres. The no26 Oreca then had the no29 Duqueine Engineering Oreca of Nicolas Jamin snapping at its rear wing and after several laps the no29 Oreca swept into the lead at Fagnes.

In LMP3 Jean-Baptiste Lahaye led in the no17 Ultimate Norma, while the no15 RLR MSport and no11 Eurointernational Ligiers of Job Van Uitert and Mattia Drudi fought for second place. Van Uitert kept his second place and then caught and passed the no17 car to take the lead.

Riccardo Pera got a good start in the no80 Ebimotors Porsche to get ahead of the no88 Proton Competition 911 of Gianluca Roda to take the lead in the LMGTE class.

With the track extremely wet the drivers were being very cautious but the conditions still caught out several drivers with Jean-Baptiste’s Ultimate Norma snapping left in the wet conditions and hitting the barriers at the exit of Pouhon.

This brought out the Safety Car for 20 minutes while the marshals removed the stricken car from the track. The Safety Car was about to come in when the no9 AT Racing Ligier stopped on the Kemmel Straight which meant there was a couple more laps behind the Safety Car before racing went green. Several teams took advantage of the SafetyCar period to come into the pits, including the no22 United Autosports Ligier with Phil Hanson handing over to Filipe Albuquerque.

When the race went to green again the no26 G-Drive Oreca was being challenged by the no31 APR-Rebellion Oreca of Gustavo Menezes, the American pushing Pizzitola hard. The French driver ran wide at Turn 14, running through the gravel trap and then did the same on the following lap as he avoided the stricken no12 Eurointernational Ligier that was stopped in the middle of the track, dropping the championship leading car to 9th. Pizzitola headed to the pitlane to hand over the car to Jean-Eric Vergne.

The no83 Krohn Racing Ferrari of Nic Jonsson was running 4th in the LMGTE category when he laws overtaken by the no5 Nefis by Speed Factory Ligier of Alexey Chuklin. The Ukrainian driver then cut back in front of the Ferrari to take Turn 1 but Jonsson was not given enough room to brake and he ran into the back of the Ligier. The Ferrari returned to the pits to retire and Chuklin was given a drive through penalty for causing the incident.

The no80 Ebimotors Porsche had opened a big gap at the front of the field, well ahead of the no88 Proton Competition Porsche of Gianluca Roda and the no77 Proton 911 of Christian Ried.

The no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Job Van Uitert was still leading the LMP3 class but the no4 Cool Racing Ligier of Antonin Borga was closing the gap to the Dutch driver with a mighty battle ensuing for the lead of the class which lasted several laps before Borga got past when Van Uitert ran wide at T14.

Meanwhile back at the front of the field the no22 United Autosports Ligier of Filipe Albuquerque had fought its way to the front, with the Portuguese driver leading Julien Canal in the no23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier by five seconds, with the no24 Racing Engineering Oreca of Norman Nato just 1.4 seconds behind Canal.

The troubles for the no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca were not over when Jean-Eric Vergne was challenging Ryan Cullen in the no31 APR Rebellion Oreca for track position. The no77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried was trying to stay out of the way of the two protagonists but Vergne ran into the side of the Porsche on the run into the final corner, spearing the Porsche across the wet grass into the side of Cullen’s APR-Rebellion Oreca, badly damaging both cars.

Jean-Eric Vergne was judged to have caused the accident and was given a two minute stop and go penalty. However the no31 Oreca parked at the side of the track on the Kemmel Straight due to the damage from the accident and this, plus the no7 Ecurie Ecosse/ Nielsen Ligier of Colin Noble went off at Turn 4, bringing out the Safety Car for the third time.

The rain started to come down even stronger and the Race Director decided to put out a Red Flag to stop the race due to the very treacherous track conditions. The cars parked on the grid for 20 minutes before the race result was declared with half championship points awarded due to the fact that the race had not reach 75% of the time.

The no22 United Autosports Ligier was first, with the no21 Dragonspeed Oreca and no23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier finishing in the top three places. The no26 G-Drive Racing was classified 12th in class when the two minute stop and go penalty was converted to two minutes thirty seconds that was added to their race time. However the Russian flagged team have an unassailable lead ahead of the final round in Portugal and Roman Rusinov and Andrea Pizzitola were declared 2018 ELMS Driver Champions.

The no2 United Autosports Ligier was first, with the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Job Van Uitert, John Farano and Rob Garofall extending their championship lead to 14 points over 360 Racing after the British team finished third.

The LMGTE class was won by the no80 Ebimotors Porsche, with the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari finishing second ahead of the no88 Proton Competition Porsche. The no88 crew have extended their championship lead to 11.5 points with one race in Portugal remaining.