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Photography

European Le Mans Series Le Castellet 2022 © Yann SEITE - 17 April 2022

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ello,

At Le Castellet, the curtain opened on a new season of the European Le Mans Series. The ELMS will visit 6 prestigious tracks in 2022 : Paul Ricard, Imola, Monza, Barcelona, Spa and Portimão.
Compared to 2021, the total number of cars is stable (42), within which 17 cars belong to the top class, the LMP2 prototypes. The GT class is in progress, with 13 contenders, whereas the LMP3 is decreasing a bit (12 cars). At Le Castellet, the weekend races were preceeded by 3 days of trials, for the main series (ELMS), as well as for the Michelin Le Mans Cup and for the Ligier European Series.

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rema is a much experienced team in single seaters, but a new comer in the category; nevertheless, it won this 1st round, thanks to Louis Delétraz, Ferdinand Habsburg and Lorenzo Colombo, who replaced Juan Manuel Correa, injured.

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laced on pole by Mathias Beche, the #31 Oreca of TDS Racing x Vaillante took advantage of its position and stayed ahead for a long time. Tijmen van der Helm made a strong impression, preceeding Lorenzo Colombo. Five times, the race would be interrupted by the safety car or by a FCY, to withdraw cars stopped on the trackside.
But after the 3rd driver switch, the Oreca #31 quickly lost the lead, its Bronze driver Philippe Cimadomo not matching the level of his more experienced competitors.

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new hierarchy then emerged, and the battle for victory began between Prema, Panis Racing, Cool Racing and Algarve Pro Racing, which benefited from Sophia Flörsch's excellent start. Due to a puncture, Nielsen Racing lost all chances of doing well.

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inally, according to refueling, racing events and driver changes, the #9 Prema Racing Oreca slightly consolidated its lead, Ferdinand Habsburg and Louis Delétraz completing the work of their Italian team mate without any issue.

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he Prema Oreca went under the checkered flag with a lead of 10''936 over an astonishing Algarve Pro Racing team, which performances have not been impacted by the firing of its russian sponsor, G-Drive. Bent Viscaal signs his debut in LMP2 with a podium, while Sophia Flörsch sets a second podium in a row, as she already finished third in the last race of 2021, at Portimao.

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n the third step, the Panis Racing team confirms its 2022 ambitions.

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hat a spectacular 'mirror' livery for the AF Corse Oreca, with François Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera behind the wheel... Let's remind that this talented trio won the FIA WEC Pro-Am title in 2021.
Their LMP2 proudly shows the emblem of Britany, which is also... The one of Perrodo's oil company.

AF Corse Oreca 07 - Gibson

AF Corse Oreca 07 - Gibson

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th overall, salih Yoluc, Jack Aitken and Charlie Eastwood took the victory in the Pro/Am category.

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e are on the grid, just before the race starts, and we pay a visit to the Mexican driver Memo Rojas (Duqueine Engineering). He scored not less than 3 victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona (2008, 2011 and 2013) and 2 ELMS titles (2017 and 2019) !

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n GTE, what a great performance of the Iron Dames at the beginning of the race ! At the lead, Sarah Bovy was well consolidating the gap with her competitors. But these efforts were ruined several times, due to the safety car episodes...

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t Iron Lynx, they also do the 'for men version', for Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni, and Davide Rigon !

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ith 7 units (in 5 different teams), Ferrari is by far the most represented brand in the LMGTE pack.

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t the end, Proton Competition's #77 Porsche 911 RSR-19 lost the victory by 0''120 to the benefit of Rinaldi Racing's #32 Ferrari 488 GTE, which started from pole position, both cars being side by side at the last corner ! The Memo Gidley - Nicolas Varrone - Pierre Ehret trio therefore won ahead of Gianmaria Bruni - Christian Ried - Lorenzo Ferrari.

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he #93 Porsche finished 3rd in GTE, allowing Michael Fassbender – actor who starred in X-Men and Twelve Years a Slave, among others – to climb on the podium for the 2nd time in a row, after his third place took at Portimao in 2021.

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n addition to the ELMS, it was also the 1st round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup, featuring GT3 and LMP3 categories.

Although it is quite a successful model in the North American and Japanese GT3 championships, the Honda NSX GT3 remains confidential in Europe. Indeed, none of these US-made chassis (assembled in Italy) is currently present in the main European series, like SRO championship or International GT Open. This commercial failure is more linked to financial criteria (price of the chassis and of the spare parts), than to its level of performance or reliability...
As a demonstration, the 2 NSX of the Danese team GMB Motorsport finished 1st and 2nd at Le Castellet (the #55 preceeding the #44).

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ould you mind a few helmets shots (LMP3 category) ?

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ee you soon for a next event !