Pole position, fastest lap in the race and victory for the Ligier JS P3 in the 4 Hours of Barcelona
19-20 July 2019, third round of the European Le Mans Series in Barcelona. The return of the series to Catalonia was marked by an action-packed race run in both daylight and night-time conditions from 6:30 to 10:30 pm. The championship leader #11 Eurointernational Ligier JS P3 clinched pole position and set fastest lap in the race, but was forced to retire due to an incident after 1h 30m. Victory went to the #13 Ligier JS P3 entered by Inter Europol Competition putting it in the overall lead in the championship. The #2 United Autosports Ligier JS P3 finished third clinching its second LM P3 podium of the weekend after the Michelin Le Mans Cup. The LM P2 race proved to be a more difficult challenge with four Ligier JS P217s at the finish and two retirements due to an accident and electronics failure.
The #11 Ligier JS P3 run by Eurointernational, winner of the last round of the ELMS at Monza and championship leader in LM P3, set its first pole position of the season thanks to Mikkel Jensen with a lap in 1m 40.187s.
Green light. The #11 Ligier JS P3 of Mikkel Jensen and Jens Petersen shot into the lead and set the fastest lap of the race in 1m 42.279s in the third lap. It led the field for the first 20 laps in front of the #10 Norma. The #19 Norma then managed to get in front before it was overtaken by the Ligiers.
The #2 and #3 Ligier JS P3s entered by United Autosports and driven by the trio Tommy Erdos-Garett Grist-Wayne Boyd and the duo Mike Guash-Christian England battled for first place with the #11 Eurointernational Ligier JS P3. At half distance just when the #11 Ligier JS P3 had retaken the lead it crashed after a spin caused by contact with another car. Smoke began to escape from the engine compartment forcing the team to retire. This incident put the #3 United Autosports Ligier JS P3 back in the lead.
The #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier JS P3 driven by Nigel Moore and Martin Hippe, which started in eighth place, continued to fight its way up the time sheets. It was held up by GTs early on in the race, but Moore propelled the Ligier from 10th to third place and began to put pressure on the leader before overtaking him. Following a Drive Through penalty for causing a collision Moore rejoined in third position. But he went pedal to the metal and retook the lead in LM P3 scoring the first victory of the season for the Polish team after two podiums on the bounce.
Into third came the #2 United Autosports Ligier JS P3. It was the second podium of the weekend for the Anglo-American squad, which finished third in the Michelin Le Mans Cup a little earlier on in the day. The #3 United Autosports Ligier JS P3 saw the flag in fifth spot in front of the #15 Ligier JS P3 run by RLR Msport.
Inter Europol Competition's victory has put the team in the lead in the LM P3 Championship from the #11 Eurointernational Ligier JS P3 by 14 points.
The LM P2 race proved challenging and hopes of a podium finish were shattered right at the start. On the first lap the #22 United Autosports Ligier JS P217 driven by Phil Hanson-Felipe Albuquerque was hit by another competitor. It had to pit to have a damaged nose repaired. It finished seventh in front of its sister car #32 in the hands of Alex Brundle-Ryan Cullen-Will Owen who had bad luck with the safety car deployments and Full Course Yellows.
Also in the opening laps, the #23 Ligier JS P217 run by Panis-Barthez Compétition of Julien Canal-Will Stevens-René Binder hit a rival damaging the car's nose. It lost several places, pitted for repairs and was handed a Drive-Through penalty for having caused the collision. At half distance its sister car the #24 Ligier JS P217 of Timothé Buret-Konstantin Tereschenko-Léonard Hoogenboom clouted a tyre wall and had to retire.
In the #14 Ligier JS P217 run by Inter Europol Competition, Adrien Tambay joined up with Kuba Smiechowski and Dani Clos. Smiechowski started in 14th place, did a very good stint and after the first hour he had battled his way up into seventh place. Unfortunately, when Tambay was at the wheel the car was forced to stop with electronics failure.
William Cavailhes and Stéphane Adler, the gentlemen drivers accompanied by Nicolas Minassian in the Ligier JS P217 entered by Idec Sport, had a good consistent fault-free race and took the chequered flag in 14th place.
There will now be a short summer break before the fourth round of the ELMS at Silverstone on 30-31 August.
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Credit photo: DPPI Images