ELMS – The Newblood by Morand Racing wins at Paul Ricard

The 4 Hours of Paul Ricard (Alpes-Provence-Côte d’Azur) offered a smooth race which did not experience the slightest interruption. The Oreca 03R-Nissan of Murphy Prototypes started from pole thanks to Nathanaël Berthon and retained the lead of the race until Rodolfo Gonzalez took a penalty for refueling without switching off the engine. It was the Morgan-Judd of Newblood by Morand Racing driven by Pierre Ragues, Gary Hirsh and Christian Klien which emerged in first position. The Austrian had to resist the return ofAlpine A450b of Paul-Loup Chatin who finished only five seconds behind. The Frenchman and his teammates Nelson Panciatici and Oliver Webb thus increase their lead in the Championship before the final played on October 19 in Estoril (Portugal).

The #03 Oreca 48R which started from pole saved a place on the podium ahead of the Jota Sport Zytek Z11SN-Nissan of Filipe Albuquerque, Harry Tincknell and Simon Dolan which found itself in the forefront during the first laps. Greaves Motorsport completes the top five with the Zytek of Luciano Bacheta and Mark Shulzhitskiy who was overtaken at the very end of the race by Dolan but still finished in the winner's lap. The Sebastian Loeb Racing finished in sixth place with the Oreca 03R-Nissan in which Vincent Capillaire, Andrea Roda and Arthur Pic were racing, who was making his first outing with Dominique Heintz's team. On the other hand, the Thiriet by TDS Racing was less successful since the Ligier JS P2 of Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey and Tristan Gommendy retired following a broken suspension.

AF Corse wins in GTE where the Ferrari ont encore éclipsé les autres voitures engagées. La F458 Italia de Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin et Michele Rugolo devance la n°56 d’AT Racing de Talkanitsa-Kaffer-Venturi et la n°66 du JMW Motorsport pilotée par McKenzie-Richardson-Walker. Le Gulf Racing UK hisse la première Porsche en sixième place avec la 911 RSR de Wainwright-Carroll-Barker. SMP Racing décroche la victoire en GTC avec la Ferrari d’Olivier Beretta, David Markozov et Anton Ladygin.

Discover the report of the 4 Hours of Paul Ricard in issue 1978 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.