United Autosports returns to victory at Spa-Francorchamps

Enamelled by two safety car interventions and two Full Course Yellows, the penultimate round of theELMS, at Spa-Francorchamps, saw a good number of competitors succeed one another at the forefront.

Finally, starting from pole position, the No. 07 United Autosports Oreca 22 was the first to take the checkered flag. Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque were impeccable and finished with a lead of more than 12 seconds over the competition

Second after taking the advantage over Tristan Gommendy after a more than muscular overtaking just a few dozen meters from the finish, Antonin Borga received a ten-second penalty, dropping him one place . Second place therefore goes to the Oreca 07 n°39 of Graff entrusted to Tristan Gommendy, Alexandre Cougnaud and Jonathan Hirschi, while in third place we find the duo of Cool Racing (Oreca 07 n°37) made up of Antonin Borga and Nicolas lapierre. The latter expressed their dissatisfaction by refusing to participate in the traditional champagne shower on the podium.

If the top five is completed by Rusinov-Van Uitert-Vergne (Aurus 01 n°26 from G-Drive Racing) and Jamin-Ragues-Bradley (Oreca 07 n°30 from Duqueine Engineering), the feat of the weekend is certainly to the credit of the IDEC Sport team.

If the No. 07 Oreca 28 was unsuccessful today, the French team had to completely reassemble a car after the violent off-track accident suffered by Paul-Loup Chatin yesterday morning in EL3. With a chassis rented from the German team SPS automotive-performance, the trio Paul Loup Chatin-Paul Lafargue-Memo Rojas finished sixth, not without leading the race, and retained their second place in the general classification.

In the championship, G-Drive Racing now has 93 points compared to 80 for IDEC Sport and 71 for Graff, who also maintains a mathematical chance of winning titles before the final, in Portimao (Portugal), on October 27.

In LM P3 too, the race was full of twists and turns. Dominated by the Norma M30 in qualifying, the Ligier JS P3 scored a double. Victory went to the No. 20 Eurointernational car entrusted to Mikkel Jensen-Jens Petersen, who was ahead of the duo Nigel Moore-Martin Hippe, who defended the interests of Inter Europol Competition. Anthony Wells and Colin Noble took the third step of the podium, entered in the No. 30 Nielsen Racing Norma M7 and who have some regrets to nurse, having received a stop&go for avoidable contact.

Finally, victorious in GTE thanks to the Ferrari 488 GTE n°51 driven by a formidable trio composed of Frenchman Fabien Lavergne, Italian Alessandro Pier Guidi and Dane Nicklas Nielsen, the Swiss team Luzich Racing is already taking the crowns even before the Portuguese final. The podium is completed by the Porsche 911 RSR n°77 of Cairoli-Pera-Ried and the Ferrari 488 GTE n°55 of Cameron-Griffin-Scott.

Next and final round of the 2019 ELMS: the 4 Hours of Portimão, on October 27.