ELMS @ 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 2021: The LMP2 in the race
Team WRT drivers Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Louis Deletraz won the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 2021. With G-Drive’s retirement, WRT #41 team clinched the 2021 European Le Mans Series title ahead of Portimao’s season finale. A new success of the Belgian WRT squad in its first season with prototype cars, after its FIA World Endurance Championship #31 driven by Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi claimed the LMP2 class win at Le Mans.
Tristan Gommendy, Memo Rojas and Rene Binder finished second at Spa in the #30 Duqueine.
#65 Panis Racing’s Will Stevens, James Allen and Julien Canal completed the podium.
Kubica started from third on the grid but moved quickly up to second after Phil Hanson’s #22 United Autosports car fell back due to contact. He took the lead just before the 45-minute mark, when bronze-rated pilot Alexandre Coigny took over from pole-sitter Charles Milesi, who was leading the race.
Pilet with his IDEC Sports #28 then challenged Kubica who remained ahead through to the next set of pit stops.
Manuel Maldonado’s #32 United Autosports Oreca took the lead but Ye managed to close the gap to the Venezuelan and pass him with a neat move into Les Combes using GTE traffic. Ye extended his lead to more than 30 sec. but Maldonado came back to 10 sec. as United Autosports gave its # 32 car fuel without tires during an FCY just after Ye had made his pit stop under the green flag. Allen’s Panis Racing #65 and Gommendy’s Duqueine Team #30 were chasing them.
Deletraz took over with 49 minutes to go and was able to pull out the margin on his new set of tires to cross the checkered flag first.
Tristan Gommendy, Memo Rojas and Rene Binder finished second at Spa in the #30 Duqueine entry after Gommendy passed both Job van Uitert in the #32 United entry and James Allen’s #65 Panis Racing Oreca during his stint.
#65 Panis Racing’s Will Stevens, James Allen and Julien Canal completed the podium after Stevens made a late overtake on United Autosports’ Job van Uitert out of Bruxelles.
Cool Racing #37 crew A. Coigny, N. Lapierre and C. Milesi ended fourth and won the PRO AM class after Milesi took over respectively Van Uitert’s #32 and IDEC Sort #28.
United Autosports #32 was first to go out of the pit lane. 👏👏👏to the mechanics for repairing the car during the night after Nico Jamin crashed it in Raidillon. After leading the race thanks to a car fuel without tires during a FCY just after WRT had made a full pit stop under the green flag, United Autopsort #32 ended 5th overall with J. Van Uitert, N. Jamin and M. Maldonado.
Patrick Pilet, Paul-Loup Chatin and Paul Lafargue were second at H+1, dropped to third at H+2 and ended sixth with their IDEC Sport #28.
G-Drive Racing #25 with J. Falb, R. Andrade and newly appointed G. Menezes ended seventh overall and second PRO AM.
Wrong way at La Source for Phil Hanson’s #22 United Autosports car, which suffered a puncture in the opening-lap chaos and lost one lap in the 5 first minutes of the race. Together with J. Aberdein and T. Gamble they finished eighth overall.
PRO AM
Only two teams on the podium as Ultimate #29 moved to LMP2 and #34 Racing Team Turkey abandoned. #17 IDEC Sport, #39 Graff and #21 Dragonspeed USA were not in Spa.
The LMP2 Pro-Am battle is yet to be decided after Coigny, Milesi and Nicolas Lapierre finished fourth overall, three spots ahead of the class-leading #25 G-Drive Aurus, piloted at Spa by Rui Andrade, John Falb and Gustavo Menezes.
