Michelin Le Mans Cup – Reiter Engineering prevails in the chaos

Reiter Engineering won the Michelin final Le Mans Cup 2022, played in Portimão (Portugal). A race interrupted for a long time by a red flag and reduced to just twenty laps.

During a Safety Car restart, the #30 WTM Racing Duqueine M08 – D11 – Nissan driven by German Torsten Kratz, then in the lead, slowed down, causing a chain reaction behind him. Freddie Hunt in the #76 of Reiter Engineering actually shifted to avoid the prototype in front of him before also slowing down. Arriving from behind, Jerome de Sadeleer (MV2S Forestier Racing) could not avoid the white Ligier JS P320 and the Swiss was the victim of a spectacular accident, violently hitting the pit wall. “The MV2S Forestier Racing driver is now at the Medical Center and is conscious,” announced the Michelin Le Mans Cup on its Twitter account. 

The end of the race was full of twists and turns. While WTM Racing was still in first position during the final restart of the race, Leonard Weiss fell down the standings in the final moments. In the traffic, it was finally Mads Siljehaug who found the opening to offer victory to Reiter Engineering and his teammate Freddie Hunt. Colin Noble put the #320 Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P7 – Nissan into second position thanks to a magnificent double overtake on Tom Dillmann (Racing Spirit of Léman #10) and Leonard Weiss at the first corner of the final lap. The Frenchman, 2022 Michelin Le Mans Cup champion, completed the podium with his teammate Alexander Mattschull. 

In GT3, the Ferrari 488 n°51 of AF Corse driven by the Japanese Koizumi Hiroshi and Kei Cozzolino knew how to avoid the pitfalls and take advantage of the misfortunes of others to win ahead of the n°88 NSW GMB Motorsport Hondas (Jan Magnussen, Lars Engelberckt Pedersen) and n°55 (Kasper H. Jensen, Kristian Poulsen). 

The H24 hydrogen prototype driven by Stéphane Richelmi finished the race in 31st position, two laps behind the winners. 

ALSO READ > The start of the 4H from Portimão delayed