ELMS @ 4 Hours of Le Castellet 2021
Despite starting from pole thanks to the fastest qualification by Nyck De Vries, Rusinov (#26 G-Drive Racing Aurus-Gibson) lost the lead very soon to Yifei Ye (#41 Orlen Team WRT Oreca). The team lost some time and places in the first pit stop during an FCY. A strong relay by Franco Colapinto and a brilliant race by Mercedes Formula E Nyck De Vries passing part-time leaders #32 United Autosports Oreca of Job Van Uitert and Gamble in the #22 United Autosports Oreca (helped by a successful pit stop), enabled De Vries to cross the line with a 6.3 seconds lead.
This victory in the 4 Hours of Le Castellet of Roman Rusinov, Franco Colapinto and Nyck De Vries means a first win for the G-Drive Racing Aurus-Gibson in ELMS this season.
After leading the race during several laps, the no22 United Autosports Oreca shared by Phil Hanson, Jonathan Aberdein and Tom Gamble took the checkered flag second with 6.3 second’s delay.
The trio Job Van Uitert, Nicolas Jamin, M. Maldonado ended 3rd after getting also the lead in the #32 United Autosports Oreca.
The Duqueine Team Oreca #30, Gommendy/Binder/Rojas ended 4th.
Yifei Ye took a strong lead in the #41 Orlen Team WRT Oreca, relayed by Robert Kubica. Louis Deletraz had to serve an extra 5 second’s penalty (Ye in breach of the rolling start procedure) on the last pitstop and was unfortunate to pit when a last FCY caused by #20 Team Virage Ligier of R. Hodes on fire wiped out the championship-leading team’s advantage and pushed them back to the 5th place.
Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Louis Deltraz still head to Monza as championship leaders with 60 points in the #41 Orlen Team WRT Oreca, but are just 3 points ahead of the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus of Roman Rusinov, Franco Colapinto and Nyck De Vries.
The LMP2 Pro-Am win went to #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca with Harry Tincknell Charlie Eastwood and S. Yoluc crossing the line in 6th overall ahead of the #37 Cool Racing.
#83 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Manuela Gostner and #93 Proton Competition Porsche of Michael Fassbender were battling for the 6th position. An audacious move of Michael Fassbender down the inside of the Ferrari resulted in heavier contact as the Gostner’s 488 spun into the path of the Porsche 911. Manuela Gostner had to retire with suspension damage.
Miguel Molina (#80 Iron Lynx Ferrari shared with M. Cressoni and R. Mastronardi) made his second win crossing the line 14.6 seconds ahead of the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Matt Griffin/D. Perel/D. Cameron in the LMGTE class.
Sorry for the poor quality of the photo’s. Due to pandemic we had to follow the race on YouTube and get those instants on an iPad.
