Lafargue-Chatin-Pilet recover from ninth place and beat both Panis Racing and Prema. Iron Lynx with Schiavoni-Cressoni-Rigon brings the Italian flag to the first step of the LMGTE podium.
The third round of the European Le Mans Series does not fail to meet expectations and offers emotions and great surprises at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. The ELMS 4 Hours of Monza inaugurates two weekends of endurance races in the Temple of Speed which will culminate next weekend with the WEC 6 Hours of Monza.
Today, after four unpredictable hours full of reversals and changes at the top of the standings, the French Paul Lafargue, Paul Loup Chatin and Patrick Pilet prove to be superior to their rivals on their Oreca 07 – Gibson # 28 and deservedly triumph in Monza.
Starting from ninth position, the three drivers of the IDEC Sport team set an unsustainable pace for all competitors, overtaking on the track also the # 9 Prema Racing prototype driven by Louis Deletraz, Ferdinand Habsburg and Lorenzo Colombo, who arrived at the Brianza circuit with the underdogs after having monopolized the first two races of the season.
Stronger than a 20-second penalty for not slowing down sufficiently under Full Course Yellow, the three winners get behind not only the Prema trio, who eventually crosses the finish line in third position, but also the Panis team. Racing, close to repeating the victory obtained in the 4 Hours of Monza in 2021 thanks to a solid performance by Julien Canal, Job Van Uitert and Nicolas Jamin. The latter, however, must be satisfied with the second final place, despite having commanded the race in flashes.
A very similar fate also touches the fastest on Saturday among the LMP3s. Cool Racing’s Malthe Jakobsen, Michael Benham and Maurice Smith all trim 8 tenths of a second on the fastest lap but are forced to retire due to an accident in the race. Nicolas Pino, Charles Crews and Guilherme Oliveira (Inter Europol Competition), who started from second place, finish first in the class, winning respectively on Terrence Woodward, Ross Kaiser and Mark Richards (360 Racing) and on the duo Max Koebolt and Matthew R. Bell ( Eurointernational). All podium crews raced on Ligier JS P320 – Nissan.
The victory between LMGTE is all Italian. The Ferrari F488 GTE EVO with Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni and Davide Rigon at the wheel adopts an aggressive strategy. With one stop less than their rivals in the category, the Iron Lynx team surprised the Porsche 911 RSR – 19 of Christian Ried, Lorenzo Ferrari and Gianmaria Bruni (Proton Competition), second in the waving of the checkered flag after a race managed in the lead for the first three hours. The lowest step of the podium goes to another Ferrari F488 GTE EVO, the # 57 of the Kessel Racing team driven by the Japanese Takeshi Kimura and the Danes Frederik Schandorff and Mikkel Jensen.
The Monza appointment with the Michelin Le Mans Cup has given several twists between tight fights on the track, safety car and Full Course Yellow, which made the final result unpredictable. At the end of the 110 minutes of racing, Alexander Mattschull and Tom Dillman of the Racing Spirit of Leman team rejoiced, who managed the top moments of the race in the best possible way and climbed to the top step of the podium after having recovered from the initial sixth place. With this result, the Franco-German duo has increased their gap over their opponents in the championship standings. The position of prototype n. 29 driven by Louis Rousset and Jérome de Sadeleer (MV2S Forestier Racing), started and finished in second place. Racing Spirit of Leman completed the podium of the LMP3, concluding a profitable weekend for the team with the third place obtained by Josh Skelton and Jacques Wolff.
Surprising result also among the GT3s, with the Honda NSX # 88 (GMB Motorsport) driven by Lars and Mikkel Pedersen who recovered from the last spot of the grid to win the class race, making a real feat. The Danish couple even managed to outpace all their rivals by more than a minute, ahead of teammates Kristian Poulsen and Kasper Jensen in the Honda NSX n ° 55 and the Bullitt Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with Stephen Pattrick and Valentin. Hasse-Clot.
Gillian Henrion confirmed her leadership in the overall standings of the Ligier European Series by obtaining a double victory in the races held in Monza. After starting from pole position in both appointments, the Frenchman of Virage team beat the competition by putting behind in race-1 Natan Bihel (M Racing), second, and Andrei Vajda (Smart Driving), third. In race-2, behind Henrion, Alexandru Mirea and Bihel finished.
Mitjet Italia drivers battled four times in the Temple of Speed, with two 20-minute races on Saturday and two on Sunday. Triplet for the Scionti Racing team in race-1, which saw Pier Andrea Demarco cross the finish line before his team mates Federico Scionti and Matteo Desideri.
In the second competition Demarco instead saw the victory blow by just over a tenth from Povilas Jankavicius (Arctic Energy), finishing second ahead of Kevin Caprasse (DNS Racing). The latter won instead by only 11 thousandths in race-3, held on Sunday morning, after a strenuous duel with Jankavicius. Third place for Desideri, as well as in race-4, which put an end to the battles on the track of the Brianza weekend and determined another victory for Demarco, this time over Jankavicius.
Great participation on Sunday for the drivers’ autograph session and the opening of the starting grid to the public. The show was enriched by the performance of the trial motorcycle biker Julien Perret, known for his participation in Italia’s Got Talent, and by the Italian anthem sung by Carola Campagna, a young artist from All Together Now. The youtuber Davide Cironi waved the green flag at the start and the final checkered flag.
In the Temple of Speed we are already back on track in a few days with the 6 hours of Monza of the World Endurance Championship. Another prestigious appointment with an endurance race therefore for the Brianza circuit. The world series, between Friday 8 and Sunday 10 July, will see 38 cars on the starting grid, with the long-awaited debut of the Peugeot 9×8, which will join the other Hypercars at the start. The presence at the street of Diletta Leotta and the animation of Radio 105 will contribute to making the event unforgettable for the public on Sunday. (fm)