ELMS @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022: LMP3 race
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
At Variante Rettifilio, Charles Crews had moved into the lead of LMP3 in the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier. Maurice Smith with #17 Cool Racing Ligier followed with the two United Autosport behind.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
At the end of lap 1, the order was #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier, #17 Cool Racing Ligier, Josh Caygill in #2 United Autosport and Tony Wells in the #7 Nielsen Racing Ligier. Those four would run in that order until the 20th lap when Antoine Duqueine with #27 Cool Racing Ligier (starting at the back of the LMGTE grid) passed #7 for P4 and up to 2nd, 3 laps later.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
During lap 31, #11 which was running fifth since lap 23, moved up to P2.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
Thanks to an asynchronous refuelling pit stop with other competitors in the class, #4 Duqueine, which was running last until then, took leadership for 10 laps from lap 34 onwards.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
At the beginning of lap 44, #7 Nielsen Racing Ligier of Tony Wells and #17 Cool Racing Ligier collided causing the only Full Course Yellow of the race. That was the end of the race for #17, and #7 could just end the race before the last of class.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
3 laps later, at the end of the second hour, #13 took the lead again, followed by #6 who eventually took the lead for 17 laps before dropping down the rankings.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
During the third hour, the LMP3 class was being led by the #2 United Autosports Ligier of Finn Gehrsitz between lap 65 and 80 until Nico Pino took the lead back again with #13 Inter Europol Ligier from lap 81 till lap 93 at the beginning of the last hour of racing.
With 42 minutes to go, Nico Pino handed over the wheel of #13 Inter Europol to Guilherme Oliveira.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
From then on, the last 40’ were dramatic in the LMP3 class with several leader changes.
Max Koebolt in #11 Eurointernational Ligier took the lead first for 5 rounds but dropped down ending 3rd in class.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
Finn Gehrsitz with #2 United Autosports took the lead during 8 laps but, with 18 minutes of the race remaining, went off track and dropped back down the order ending 6th of class.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
Then it was the turn of #10 Eurointernational Ligier of Glenn Van Berlo to take the lead for 5 laps. He was handed a drive-through penalty in the final five minutes of the race, ending 4th in class.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 4 Hours of Monza 2022.
The LMP3 victory went to the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier when Guilherme Oliveira (teamed with Charles Crews and Nico Pino) crossed the line 9.023s ahead of the #6 360 Racing Ligier, which was 2nd.
