Jota inch closer to ELMS title with Paul Ricard win (updated)

Hours after taking their second European Le Mans Series win in succession at Paul Ricard, Jota Sport were hit with a 45-second penalty for exceeding Filipe Albuquerque's allotted driver time by 1m57s. As a result, Albuquerque, Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell drop to third, cutting their initial 18-point advantage over the Greaves Motorsport lineup of Bjorn Wirdheim, Jon Lancaster and Gary Hirsch - promoted to first place - to just a single point ahead of the final round at Estoril. 

Having grown so accustomed to seeing Albuquerque take the start in his tenure with the British team, Jota surprised everybody by deciding to change tact and start silver-rated Dolan, a move which initially looked to have backfired when he was jumped at the rolling start by the fast-starting AF Racing BR01s of Mikhail Aleshin and Nicolas Minassian. However, Jota were playing the long game, and truly came into their own once Dolan handed the Gibson 015S over to Albuquerque in fourth place, despite a quick spin.

Dolan was swamped at the start, but kept his head (Adrenal).

With the two Russian-entered BR01s, still only in their fourth ever meeting, dropping away once the platinum-rated Aleshin and Minassian had completed their stints, Jota’s main challenge came from the charging Greaves of Jon Lancaster, although the Brit had used the best of his tyre life catching and passing Pierre Thiriet and Victor Shaytar, the former with a mesmerising move around the outside of Turn 11 in traffic. With little threat from behind in the final stint, Tincknell was able to pull out a 30-second gap at the flag; although it was not to stand. 

Jota's penalty was small consolation for the TDS by Thiriet Oreca 05, which lost a near-certain podium in the final hour with a brake fluid problem. Coming into the weekend only two points behind Jota, the team were confident of a strong result on home turf, but all went awry from the off. 

Ludovic Badey was ordered to relinquish two places to Dolan and Bjorn Wirdheim having gained an advantage by using the run-off at Turn One, and shortly after picked up a left-rear puncture, which nearly dropped them off the lead lap. Sterling work from Tristan Gommendy and the help of the Safety Car to recover Gaetan Paletou’s stricken LMP3 Ginetta helped get them back to the sharp end, only to be forced into the pits for repairs when Thiriet was in line to collect third.

TDS were out of luck at Paul Ricard (Adrenal).

That promoted the AF Racing no. 21 of Aleshin, Shaytar and Kirill Ladygin to their second consecutive podium finish, ahead of the sister car of Minassian, David Markozov and Maurizio Mediani. A typically brilliant final stint from Olivier Pla helped the Krohn Racing Ligier to beat the disconsolate TDS crew to fifth, while early frontrunners Leo Roussel and David Cheng in the Pegasus Morgan collected seventh after Le Mans winner Richard Bradley retired the Eurasia Motorsport Oreca late on. 

Elsewhere, Murphy Prototypes were out of luck again, although Michael Lyons thankfully emerged unscathed from a heavy shunt at Signes while well-placed. Paul Ricard expert Nathaniel Berthon was due to take over in the final stint, but didn't get to drive; a bitter disappointment for the Frenchman, who to the delight of team owner Greg Murphy had given up a GP2 ride at Monza to be in attendance.  

In GTE, a fortunately-timed Safety Car helped the Formula Racing Ferrari of Johnny Laursen, Mikkel Mac and Andrea Rizzoli to a dominant win which sees them extend their championship advantage to 19 points.

As is now customary, the AF Corse no. 55 of Aaron Scott charged through to the front in the opening stint after an enthralling battle with Alex Talkanitsa Jr. and Laursen, who was the first of the lead group to pit. Rizzoli made excellent use of his fresh rubber to jump into a class lead they would never lose after the Safety Car gifted them almost a full lap’s advantage over the Marc VDS BMW of Henri Hassid, Andy Prialux and Jesse Krohn.

The battle for third was not decided in favour of British GT regular Rory Butcher, Jonny Cocker and Rob Smith until the final minutes, when impressive debutant Butcher caught and passed both the Gulf Racing Porsche Adam Carroll and the Proton Competition Porsche of Marco Mapelli, both struggling for tyre life. After Scott and Duncan Cameron lost time in the middle stint, Matt Griffin could only salvage a sixth place finish, which drops the 2014 runners-up behind Marc VDS to second in the standings.

Butcher impressed on his debut, taking JMW to a well-earned podium (Adrenal).

Paletou’s retirement brought an abrupt end to what had been a fascinating battle for LMP3 honours and confirmed Charlie Robertson and Chris Hoy as the inaugural champions. The Scottish duo have rarely been threatened this season, but GT Academy winner Paletou, sharing with Ginetta regular Mike Simpson, was in the mood for a scrap and running ahead of Robertson when he spun into retirement, leaving the way clear for the champions-elect to pick up their third win from four races.

There was some consolation for TDS however, as Franck Perera, Dino Lunardi and Eric Dermont took their second win of the season in the GTC class. Second for Stuart Hall, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr ensures the AF Corse no. 62 remains in title contention, while the Massive Motorsport Aston Martin of Casper Elgaard, Kristian Poulsen and Simon Moller completed the podium after a titanic scrap with the no. 64 AF Corse Ferrari of Adrien De Leener, Mads Rasmussen and Francisco Guedes.