Blue skies and warm weather brought out a large crowd to witness the 4 Hours of Barcelona, a race that saw drama and excitement throughout the field with the no37 COOL Racing Oreca – Gibson take the chequered flag. This is the first overall LMP2 victory in the ELMS for the Swiss team to add to their wins in LMP2 Pro/Am and LMP3.
Malthe Jakobsen brought the car home 16 seconds ahead of the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of reigning champion Alex Lynn, with Ben Hanley pushing hard in the no22 United Autosports Oreca to secure the final podium position.
Reigning LMP2 Pro/Am champions AF Corse got their title defence off to a great start with Matthieu Vaxiviere crossing the line to finish in 6th overall in the no83 Oreca and 18 seconds ahead of the no29 Richard Mille by TDS of Mathias Beche.
The LMP3 victory went to the no8 Team Virage Ligier, the reigning Michelin Le Mans Cup champions Julien Gerbi and Gillian Henrion, along with their Portuguese teammate Bernado Pinheiro making the perfect ELMS debut. Henrion took the chequered flag 8 seconds ahead of ELMS champions COOL Racing, with Manuel Espirito Santo adding another 18 points to the single point he secured in qualifying.
The Formula Racing crew of Johnny Laursen, Conrad Laursen and Nicklas Nielsen made ELMS history by becoming the first team to win in LMGT3. It was also the first win for the team since Paul Ricard in 2015 in their LMGTE championship winning season. The no50 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 crossed the line 12 seconds ahead of the no86 GR Racing Ferrari, with the no63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini in third.
The no85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 had been leading from pole position for the first three hours of the race, with Rahel Frey handing over a 25 second lead to Michelle Gatting for the final stint. But fate played a cruel trick when the Porsche ground to a halt at pit exit, putting the team out of the race.
2024 SEASON BEGINS
The 4 Hours of Barcelona got underway with the 43 cars racing towards turn one led by Filip Ugran in the no22 United Autosports Oreca. All bar one of the cars made it through the first set of corners, with only the no5 RLR MSport Ligier of James Dayson being tapped into a spin by another car, with Canadian quickly recovering to rejoin the race.
The no37 COOL Racing Oreca had made up three places at the start with Lorenzo Fluxa moving up to challenge Ugran for the lead. Giorgio Roda led the LMP2 Pro/Am class, ahead of John Falb in the no24 Nielsen Racing and François Perrodo in the no83 AF Corse.
Julien Gerbi got ahead of Miguel Cristóvão in the pole sitting no17 COOL Racing Ligier to head LMP3 in the no8 Team Virage. Cristóvão dropped back to third after Matthew Bell went ahead on lap 5 in the no11 Eurointernational.
In LMGT3 Sarah Bovy made the most of her pole in the no85 Iron Dames Porsche to lead the class with Johnny Laursen in second.
After the first corner spin, James Dayson’s day didn’t get any better, with the Canadian clashing with the faster no65 Panis Racing Oreca on Lap 9, leaving his Ligier beached on the curb and bringing out the first Full Course Yellow of the race. Dayson couldn’t restart his car and was forced to retire.
As the Full Course Yellow was withdrawn, the two leading cars were side by side into the first corner after Fluxa got a better start than Ugran. The no37 COOL Racing Oreca took the lead from the no22 United Autosports, but Ugran was able to keep pace with the new leader, putting the Spanish driver under pressure. However, the race was neutralised a lap later when the no10 Vector Sport and the no47 COOL Racing Orecas collided, with both cars ending up in the gravel, with Ryan Cullen in the no10 Oreca judged to be at fault.
The first ever Virtual Safety Car was used in the ELMS in order for the two cars to be recovered. The procedure became a Safety Car eight minutes later as the extrication took a little longer than planned. The cars circulated for another 10 minutes before the race went green again.
The no83 AF Corse Oreca was judged to have overtaken under yellow flags and was given a drive through as a result, dropping Perrodo back to 4th in class.
In LMGT3 Sarah Bovy had built up a healthy 20 second in the no85 Iron Dames Porsche over the no63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini driven by Hiroshi Hamaguchi, the Japanese driver 3 seconds head of Johnny Laursen in the no50 Ferrari. There was a scare for Bovy when lapping the no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Takeshi Kimura when the Ferrari moved across and there was contact as both cars braked for Turn 1. There didn’t appear to be any damage a both cars continued.
The lead in LMP2 Pro/Am had passed to the no29 Richard Mille by TDS Racing with Grégoire Saucy behind the wheel, after the no77 Proton Competition Oreca dropped back to 4th after a long pit stop. Alessio Rovera was making up lost ground in the no83 AF Corse, the Italian passing Colin Noble in the no24 Nielsen Racing for second place at Turn 6.
The no37 COOL Racing Oreca was now driven by Ritomo Miyata, the Japanese driver holding off a determined challenge by Olli Caldwell in the no25 Algarve Pro Racing and Marino Sato in the no22 United Autosports.
In LMGT3 Conrad Laursen in the no50 Ferrari was moving back up the field, passing Axcil Jefferies in the Iron Lynx Lamborghini for second on the inside at Turn 1, with just the flying no85 Iron Dames Porsche ahead but Rahel Frey was 30 seconds up the road and lapping faster than the rest of the LMGT3 field.
Miyata lost the lead when Caldwell put the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca down the inside of the no37 COOL Racing at T3. However, at the next set of pitstops the cars changed places again with Malthe Jakobsen ahead of Alex Lynn.
The next pitstops saw the lead change in LMP2 Pro/Am with Matthieu Vaxiviere getting the no83 AF Corse ahead of the no29 Richard Mille by TDS now driven by Mathias Beche.
Another Full Course Yellow period was declared with just over an hour to go when the no19 Team Virage Oreca of Nelson Piquet Jr was clipped by the no3 DKR Engineering Oreca of Laurents Hörr, the Brazilian’s car ending up in the gravel. The recovery only took two minutes and racing resumed.
Rahel Frey headed to the pits to hand over the no85 Iron Dames Porsche to Michelle Gatting. Gatting emerged from the pitlane only for the car to grind to a halt on the pit exit road. The Dane pulled off onto the grass and tried to restart the car, but her race was done. Another FCY was declared to recover the Porsche back to the pits.
With 30 minutes of the race remaining another FCY had to be used to recover the no35 Ultimate Ligier from the gravel.
The restart saw the no37 COOL Racing holding a 10 second lead over the no25 Algarve Pro Racing, with Ben Hanley in the no22 United Autosports in third and rapidly closing on Alex Lynn. In the other categories, Vaxiviere held a 19 second lead over Beche in LMP2 Pro/Am, Gillian Henrion was 21 seconds ahead of Manuel Espirito Santo (no17 COOL Racing) for the lead of LMP3 and Nicklas Nielsen (no50 Formula Racing) was 17 seconds ahead of Davide Rigon in the no86 GR Racing Ferrari.
However, there was still more drama to come when a part from the rear of the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Ligier was left in the middle of the track at T10. Oscar Tunjo had to pit to repair the car after a final FCY period was declared to recover the debris from the circuit.
Racing resumed for the final 10 minutes with Ben Hanley closing right up on Alex Lynn to challenge for second place. However, Lynn held on to the place to cross the line 0.7s ahead of Hanley and 16.1 seconds behind Malthe Jakobsen.
Matthieu Vaxiviere and Mathias Beche finished 18 seconds apart, with the no24 Nielsen Racing Oreca of Albert Costa completed the LMP2 Pro/Am podium.
Gillian Henrion took the LMP3 win by over 50 seconds ahead of Manuel Espirito Santo, with the no11 Eurointernational of Adam Ali claiming the third place on the class podium.
Nicklas Nielsen took the first win for Formula Racing for 9 years, the Dane finishing 22 seconds ahead of Davide Rigon in the no86 GR Racing Ferrari, with Andrea Caldarelli in the Iron Lynx Lamborghini completing the top three finishers.
Round 2 of the 2024 European Le Mans Series, the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, will take place on Sunday 5 May at the Circuit Paul Ricard in the South of France.