RACE REPORT
The LMP3 Pro/Am victory went to the only Belgium team on the grid, with reigning champions Eric De Doncker and Gillian Henrion securing their third win in a row in the no98 Motorsport98 Ligier-Toyota and they head to Silverstone with a comfortable 33-point lead in the defence of their title.
The GT3 class saw a 1-2 photo finish for the two Ferrari 296s, with the pole sitting no21 Ferrari of Oscar Lee Ryndziewicz and Lorenzo Ferrari taking the flag just ahead of their teammates in the no17 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.
The two-hour race was interrupted seven times during the 120-minute race, with five Safety Car periods and two Full Course Yellows.
At the start all appeared OK, with all of the cars heading into Les Combes the no9 ANS Motorsport Ligier was leading from pole position, but Louis Iglesias was under pressure from Luciano Morano in the no29 Forestier Racing by VPS. Morano made a move into Les Combes but had to go across the runoff area and had to give the lead back to Iglesias.
Alex Bukhantsov was leading LMP3 in the no34 Inter Europol Competition Ligier from the no48 Allay Racing Ligier of Emil Hellberg.
Further back a spin for the no51 AF Corse Ferrari of reigning champion Alessandro Cozzi saw the car hit the barriers had at T7, spreading debris across the track. The first Safety Car was deployed to allow the marshals to clear the track.
The race went green for less than a minute with the no16 Ajith RedAnt by Virage spun off into the gravel at T11 and with Ajith Kumar stuck in a dangerous location, the Safety Car was deployed for the second time.
A third Safety Car was deployed for a third time after the race had gone green for less than a lap when the no15 Vector Sport RLR forced the no97 CLX Motorsport wide, spinning Romain Boeckler into the path of the no70 Team Virage Ligier of Jude Peters. Both cars were too badly damaged to continue and Enea Frey was given a stop and go penalty for causing the collision.
The race had hardly got started again when another car went off at T7, bringing out a Full Course Yellow to recover. With 50-minutes of the race completed the teams started to come in for their pitstops under the FCY.
A fourth Safety Car was declared within a lap of the race going green when two more LMP3 cars went off on the Kemmel Straight. The race finally went green with 39-minutes left on the clock and the competitors got back to racing speed.
Enzo Peugeot was not at the wheel of the no85 Duqueine and he swept into the lead, passing Maxwell Dodds in the no9 ANS Motorsport Ligier at T1 at the restart. Dodds lost another place to the no12 Brutal Fish by Campos Ligier of Arthur Rogeon.
Gillian Henrion had taken over the Motrosport98 Ligier from Eric De Doncker and was soon on the move up the order, passing the no71 Rinaldi Racing Ligier for the lead into Les Combes.
The no77 SMC Motorsport McLaren was leading the GT3 class, but a drive through penalty for a start infringement dropped them down the order, with Lorenzo Ferrari now leading the class in the no21 Kessel Racing Ferrari.
With 30-minutes of the race still to run, the second Full Course Yellow was declared when Narain Karthikeyan spun on the kerbs at T12, the no36 Ajith RedAnt Racing Ligier ending up beached in the gravel. However, this became a Safety Car when Tom Canning pulled off the track in the no91 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin with smoke pouring out from the front right wheel arch. The Marshals soon had the fire under control, and the track was cleared in quick order.
With just 18 minutes left, the race went green. Arthur Rogeon got a better start in the no12 Ligier and the no12 Brutal Fish by Campos moved ahead of the no85 R-ace GP on the run into Eau Rouge. However, the no12 Ligier had received a 5 second penalty for overtaking off the track with a lasting advantage earlier in the race, and Rogeon knew he had to be at least 5 seconds ahead at the chequered flag.
Enzo Peugeot was able to keep pace with the leader and at the chequered flag he was just 1.5 seconds behind and so the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine was declared the winner, with the no12 Brutal Fish by Campos dropping back to second ahead of the no9 ANS Motorsport Ligier in third.
Gillian Henrion brought the Motorsport98 Ligier home to claim a third victory from four starts in LMP3 Pro/Am, finishing ahead of the no71 Rinaldi Racing and the no34 Inter Europol Competition Ligiers.
The GT3 victory went to the no21 Kessel Racing Ferrari but with Lorenzo Ferrari receiving a warning for track limits in the final 5-minutes, he had to make sure he didn’t exceed track limits again before the chequered flag. This allowed David Fumanelli to close the gap in the no17 Kessel Racing Ferrari and the two cars took the chequered flag one behind the other. The no10 Code Racing Developments Aston Martin Vantage took the final podium position ahead of the championship leaders Racing Spirit of Léman.
The next race will be at Silverstone on Saturday 12 September.
