COOL Racing first overall win at Barcelona

ELMS

Apr 14

Overall win for COOL Racing

New lineup for #37 COOL Racing ORECA 07 Gibson since Lorenzo Fluxa, Ritomo Miyata and Malthe Jakobsen were sharing the car for the first time together and first victory in the 2024 season-opening European Le Mans Series race at Barcelona, after an intense duel with the 2023 title-winning Algarve Pro Racing ORECA.

📷 Luc Warnotte at Barcelona. Start of the 4 Hours of Barcelona. Fluxa with #37 COOL Racing already in P3!

Lorenzo Fluxa made a tremendous start, jumping from P5 on the grid to P2 before the first corner. At the re-start after the first FCY after 15’ racing, he took the lead from Filip Ugran’s #22 United Autosports.

📷 Luc Warnotte at Barcelona. #37 COOL Racing leading the pack behind first safety car after 1 hour racing.

📷 Luc Warnotte at Barcelona. Malthe Jakobsen takes over from Ritomo Miyata at 14:02; 1,5 hours remaining

From then on, it became a Mano a Mano with #25 Algarve Pro Racing during Ritomo Miyata’s stint eventually losing P1. Malthe Jakobsen took over at 14:02. With a quicker stops from COOL Racing team thanks to fuel saving the #37 was back in the lead. Jakobsen kept P1 until the end crossing checkered flag first.

Lynn, Kaiser and Caldwell with Algarve Pro Racing #25 ended second. Ollie Caldwell took the lead from Ritomo Miyata during the second stint. COOL Racing faster pit stop dit put Alex Lynn in P2. Lynn was not able to reduce the gap with Jakobsen with several cautions to end 16.161’’ behind the #37 COOL Racing.

Benjamin Hanley, Filip Ugran and Marino Sato in #22 United Autosports Oreca complete the overall podium despite pressure from Ben Hanley on Alex Lynn (with #25 Oreca) in the final minutes to end short by 0.744 seconds.

AF Corse defending champion win LMP2 Pro/Am

Defending Team Champion #83 AF Corse with Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxivière clinch LMP2 Pro-Am class victory also ending in sixth place overall thanks to Rovera and Vaxivière’s strong stints.

Team Virage wins LMP3

Gillian Henrion, Julien Gerbi and Bernardo Pinheiro in Team Virage #8 Ligier JS P320 Nissan celebrated the team’s first ELMS victory after leading 114 laps of the 131 covered.

Heartbreaking end for Iron Dames in LMGT3

Sarah Bovy and Rahel Frey have dominated the LMGT3 class, building an advance of more than half a minute until Frey handed over the #85 Porsche 911 GT3 R to Michelle Gatting who had to stop at the pit exit (DNF) which left Formula Racing clear to claim its first ELMS win since the 2015 4 Hours of Le Castellet.