24h Le Mans
Since 2016, two endurance races have been held every year at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit: the 6 Hours in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the 4 Hours in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS). This weekend, the Ardennes mountains will host the next-to-last round of the 2018 ELMS season. Two teams have already won the race (DragonSpeed in 2016 and Graff in 2017), but G-Drive Racing is looking not only to win this round but also earn the championship title on Sunday!
The Field:
Forty competitors are expected to take the start at this year's 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps where two of the six ELMS titles up for grabs may be claimed Sunday evening.
Sixteen cars are entered in the LMP2 class with the clear favorite G-Drive Racing (#26 ORECA 07) leading the championship by 34 points after winning the last three races thanks to Roman Rusinov, Andrea Pizzitola and Jean-Eric Vergne. Also, back in May the Russian team won the Total 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the opening round of the WEC. Jean-Eric Vergne: "We've already won a race at Spa this year in the WEC. We have the same car but at a higher performance level. I love the circuit and, since the beginning of the year in LMP2, my teammates and I have won almost every race. I hope we continue the momentum at Spa this weekend."
The only round that slipped through G-Drive Racing's fingers was at Le Castellet at the very beginning of the season (the race was won by Racing Engineering's #24 ORECA 07). The Spanish team is in second place in the provisional championship standings. Norman Nato, Paul Petit and Olivier Pla have to reach the top step on the podium and hope G-Drive Racing fails to mark a point!
SMP Racing's #35 Dallara P217 will not be participating in this ELMS round. IDEC Sport Racing's #27 Ligier JS P217 will return after its absence at Silverstone and with a modified driver line-up: Patrice Lafargue and Erik Maris will be joined by Aurélien Panis, a rookie in the championship. G-Drive Racing is fielding a second car run by Graff (#40 ORECA 07), so James Allen will have two new teammates: Henning Enqvist and Julien Falchero (the latter hailing from the GP3 Series, Arden International).
The 18-car LMP3 field has lost a competitor: Team Virage's Ligier JS P3. Seven cars are in the running to win the 2018 ELMS title. Two-time winners Rob Garofall, John Farano and Job van Uitert (RLR MSport's #15 Ligier JS P3-Nissan) are currently leading the class by 12 points, followed by the Ligiers entered by Eurointernational (#11), United Autosports (#3) and 360 Racing (#6). Luxembourg team DKR Engineering has tweaked its driver line-ups: Christian Vaglio-Giors and Marvin Klein will share the wheel of the #8 Norma M30 LMP3. Swiss driver Moritz Müller-Crepon is set to drive Inter Europol Competition's #14 Ligier JS P3, and Mattia Drudi will share Eurointernational's #12 Ligier JS P3 with Kay van Berlo and Giorgio Mondini.
There are no changes to the six-car LMGTE field. Gianluca and Giorgio Roda with Matteo Cairoli (Proton Competition's #88 Porsche 911 RSR) are leading the class by nine points ahead of JMW Motorsport's #66 Ferrari 488 GTE driven by Alex McDowall, Liam Griffin and Miguel Molina. Molina remains optimistic going into this next-to-last round of the season after their victory at Silverstone last month: "Spa is one of the best circuits in the world, it's unique and suits the Ferrari well. We're waiting to see what happens in the race, but we're pretty optimistic." Aaron Scott, Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin (Spirit of Race's #55 Ferrari 488 GTE) are still in the running for the title trailing the leaders by only 14 points.
