And two for Team WRT

Until mid-race, victory seemed to be reaching out to the No. 01 Aurus 26 of G-Drive Racing driven by Roman Rusinov-Nyck de Vries-Franco Colapinto. But that was without counting on the rain, which appeared shortly after 13 p.m. before intensifying around twenty minutes later.

A good number of cars then made mistakes, the two main victims being James Allen – whose No. 07 Panis Racing Oreca 65 ran aground in the gravel trap – and Manuel Maldonado, who went to hit the tire stacks at the same corner, while his No. 07 United Autosports Oreca 32 was fighting for the podium after a very good start to the race by Nico Jamin.

The intervention of the safety car for around thirty minutes, combined with a risky strategy on the part of G-Drive Racing (which fitted the wrong tires and was therefore forced to stop once again), somewhat upset the hierarchy.

The green flag waved, it was Robert Kubica – then at the wheel of the No. 07 Oreca 31 of Team WRT – who found himself in the lead, with around forty seconds ahead of the No. 01 Aurus 26 . Small consolation, a few minutes later, G-Drive Racing will be able to be proud of counting its two cars in the top three after Roberto Merhi (n°25) got the better of Tom Gamble, teammate of Phil Hanson and Jonathan Aberdein on the #07 United Autosports 22. Newly in the lead after Kubica handed over to Louis Delétraz, the Aurus n°26 is however condemned to a final splash.

Franco Calapinto runs 27′ ​​from the goal and emerges just in front of his Swiss rival. If the Argentinian manages to repel his opponent's attacks for a while, he will have to bow 17′ from the goal to Delétraz who will finally pass under the checkerboard with a lead of 21”5, thereby signing a second victory in so many races after the one won in mid-April in Barcelona, ​​scene of the opening round.

Third on the No. 01 Aurus 25, John Falb, Roberto Merhi and Rui Andrade can boast of finishing in first place in the Pro/Am ranking. Behind the two G-Drive Racing cars, we find the No. 34 of Racing Team Turkey and the No. 29 of Ultimate, which offers itself a new top 5.

In LM P3, the fight for victory was undecided until the end between Matt Bell (Cool Racing's No. 320 Ligier JS P19) and David Droux (Graff's No. 320 Ligier JS P8). The latter finally managed to gain the upper hand 8′ from the goal, believing he would pocket his first victory this season… before being penalized for having violated the regulations during a passage through the pit lane.

Enough to allow the trio Nicolas Maulini-Matt Bell-Niklas Kruetten to sign their second victory in as many races by beating on the line the Ligier JS P320 n°11 entered by Eurointernational for Joey Alders-Andrea Dromedari-Cem Bolukbasi and the JS P320 n°8 of Graff led by David Droux-Sébastien Page-Eric Trouillet. In this category, three tenors saw their entry hopes disappear.

Starting from pole, the No. 08 Duqueine D4 of DKR Engineering had to deal with a technical problem on the first lap. Finally, when he had just started his second loop, Rob Hodes (Ligier JS P320 n°20 of Team Virage) made a mistake, taking Alessandro Bressan, who defends the interests of AIM Team Villorba Corse, with him.

Finally, in GTE, François Perrodo and Alessio Rovera won their second victory in two weeks after that won at the 6 Hours of Spa, in WEC. Committed to the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo n°88 from AF Corse with Emmanuel Collard, they won the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring and are somewhat relaunching themselves in the title race in ELMS after missing the first round, in Barcelona, ​​due to Covid-19.

Note the superb performance of Manu Collard on slicks in the rain! The category podium is completed by two other 488 GTE Evos: the #55 of Spirit of Race (Duncan Cameron-Matthew Griffin-David Perel) and the #60 of Iron Lynx (Claudio Schiavoni-Giorgio Sernagiotto-Paolo Ruberti ). The next round of the ELMS, the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, is scheduled for June 6.

Discover the full report of the Red Bull Ring ELMS event, in issue 2312 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.