DragonSpeed ​​winner, Kessel Racing 2nd in GTE

The spectacle offered by the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, opening round of the European Le Mans Series, was quality…and gave birth to a surprise winner: DragonSpeed. Led by James Allen, Henrik Hedman and Ben Hanley, the #07 Oreca 21 won a race promised to Duqueine Engineering.

Excellently launched by a very good double first stint from Pierre Ragues, the Alès team had built up a comfortable lead reduced to nothing by a slow puncture at the rear left having forced it to go through the pits additional. Finally, the No. 07 Oreca 30 from Duqueine Engineering entrusted to Pierre Ragues-Nico Jamin-Richard Bradley finished third, just behind the No. 07 Oreca 28 from IDEC Sport at the wheel of which took turns Paul-Loup Chatin, Paul Lafargue and Memo Rojas. Very lively, the latter was seen spinning twice.

Starting from pole position, the No. 01 Aurus 26 was curiously behind at the start of the event. Roman Rusinov, Norman Nato and Job van Uitert failed to reach the podium. The top five is completed by Graff's No. 07 Oreca 39 of Jonathan Hirschi-Tirstan Gommendy-Alexandre Cougnaud, long in the top three but who notably suffered a drive through for having cut the white line at the Entrance to the pit lane.

The first Ligier JS P217, the No. 22 of Phil Hanson-Paul di Resta, is sixth.

In LM P3, magnificent performance by the No. 30 Ultimate Norma M17 that the Lahaye brothers share with their friend François Hériau. The French entity began its campaign with a victory, beating two Ligier JS P3s, the No. 11 Eurointernational of Jensen-Petersen and the No. 13 Inter Europol Compétition of Hippe-Moore.

Total domination of Luzich Racing in GTE. There Ferrari 488 GTE n°51 soutenue par AF Corse franchit la ligne d’arrivée en vainqueur, pilotée par Alessandro Pier Guidi-Nicklas Nielsen-Fabien Lavergne. Belle surprise sur la deuxième marche du podium, puisque l’on retrouve la Ferrari 488 GTE n°83 de Rahel Frey, Manuela Gostner et Michelle Gatting, qui prouvent au Kessel Racing avoir eu raison de leur faire confiance. La Porsche 911 RSR n°77 du Dempsey-Proton Racing (Christian Ried-Riccardo Pera-Matteo Cairoli) termine troisième de la catégorie.

The next round, the 4 Hours of Monza (Italy), is scheduled for May 12.

#4HLECASTELLET – Race classification! #ELMS pic.twitter.com/qwnAQLTX3s

— ELMSeries_Official (@EuropeanLMS) April 14, 2019

Find the analysis of theELMS at Paul-Ricard produced by our special correspondent in issue 2211 of AUTOhebdo, available Monday evening digitally and Wednesday on newsstands.