Another packed 43 car grid will be in the South of France for the second race of the 2024 European Le Mans Series at the Circuit Paul Ricard near Marseille. The 4 Hours of Le Castellet will take place on Sunday 5th May and it will be the final race for the ELMS competitors taking part in the ‘Big One’, the 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
Once again, the grid will consist of 22 LMP2 cars, 14 in LMP2 and 8 in LMP2 Pro/Am, 10 LMP3s and 11 LMGT3s.There will be 128 drivers and 28 teams representing 30 different nations.
The home nation will be well represented on the grid for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet with 5 teams and 23 drivers racing under the blue, white and red tricolour of France. All of the LMP2 cars that will race on the 5th May are built a short distance from the main gate to the circuit at the Oreca factory.
LMP2: Championship Leaders COOL Racing Head to France
After scoring their debut LMP2 win in the European Le Mans Series in Barcelona, COOL Racing head to Le Castellet as championship leaders with an unchanged driver line up of Lorenzo Fluxa, Malthe Jakobsen and Ritomo Miyata.
The Swiss team have two cars on the grid, with the no47 Oreca-Gibson once again featuring three-time ELMS champion Paul Loup Chatin in place of the injured Ferdinand Habsburg.
Three French teams will be racing for overall honours with former champions IDEC Sport fielding two French drivers, Paul Lafargue and Reshad De Gerus alongside Job Van Uitert.
Duqueine Team will have Jean Baptiste Simmenhauer alongside Dutch driver Niels Koolen and Australian James Allen.
2021 FIA WEC LMP2 Champion Charles Milesi will once again be racing for Panis Racing, alongside Arthur Leclerc and Manuel Maldonado.
French drivers Clement Novalak and Tom Dillmann will be racing for Inter Europol Competition, Novalak in the no34 Oreca and Dillmann in the no43 car.Maceo Capietto will line up alongside Jonas Ried and Matteo Cairoli in the no9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca-Gibson.
Reigning champions Algarve Pro Racing won the 4 Hours of Le Castellet last year with Alex Lynn and the Portuguese flagged team will be hoping to go one better in Le Castellet than the second place in Round 1.
United Autosports took a podium finish in Barcelona last month and will be looking to build on that momentum in Round 2.Vector Sport, AO by TF and Nielsen Racing make up the impressive 14 car grid.
LMP2 Pro/Am: Eight Cars for Round 2
Reigning LMP2 Pro/Am champions Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere travel to their home race on the back of a win in the 4 Hours of Barcelona alongside Italian teammate Alessio Rovera in the no83 AF Corse Oreca-Gibson.
The only French team on the LMP2 Pro/Am grid, Richard Mille by TDS, got their title challenge off to a good start with a second-place finish in Spain. They will have an unchanged line up of Mathias Beche, Gregoire Saucy and Rodrigo Sales.
Nielsen Racing took the final podium position in Round 1 and the eight-car grid is filled by single car entries by DKR Engineering, Team Virage, Algarve Pro Racing, United Autosports and Proton Competition.
#8 Team Virage Ligier-Nissan
LMP3: Henrion Looking for Two in a Row at Home Race
Reigning Michelin Le Mans Cup Champion Gillian Henrion made an almost perfect ELMS debut in Barcelona by winning in Spain for Team Virage alongside his fellow champion Julien Gerbi and Portugal’s Bernado Pinheiro. They travel to France as championship leaders, six points ahead of reigning ELMS champions COOL Racing.
French driver Gael Julien will line up alongside South African drivers Nick Adcock and Michael Jensen in the no15 RLR MSport Ligier after the trio finished just off the podium in Barcelona.
French team Ultimate is one of two cars that will feature an all-French driver line up, with the no35 Ligier being driven by brothers Jean-Baptiste and Matthieu Lahaye, alongside Eric Trouillet.
The no20 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier also features an all-French driver line-up of Jacques Wolff, Jean-Ludovic Foubert and Antoine Doquin.
The only two driver line up on the 4 Hours of Le Castellet grid is the no11 Eurointernational duo of Matthew Bell and Adam Ali, the Anglo-Canadian duo finishing third in Spain. The LMP3 grid is completed by DKR Engineering, WTM by Rinaldi Racing and Inter Europol Competition.
LMGT3: Ferrari v Aston Martin v Porsche v Lamborghini
There are five French drivers on the 11 strong LMGT3 grid for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet.
Charles-Henri Samani and Emmanuel Collard will race the no51 AF Corse Ferrari 296.Esteban Masson will compete in the no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari, while Valentin Hasse Clot will race the no59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage.
Julien Andlauer is the fifth French driver on the LMGT3 grid, racing for reigning LMGTE Champions Proton Competition.
The all-Danish crew in the no50 Formula Racing Ferrari travel to Le Castellet at the head of the points table after Father and Son duo Johnny and Conrad Laursen, alongside Nicklas Nielsen took victory in Barcelona.
GR Racing took second in Spain last month, with the striking black and orange liveried Ferrari due to shine again in France. The British team finished ahead of the no63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, which completed the first ever LMGT3 ELMS podium.
The no85 Iron Dames Porsche will undoubtably be a contender in round 2 after Sarah Bovy took pole in Barcelona and the car led the race for the first three hours. A technical issue after the final pitstop forced Michelle Gatting to retire from the LMGT3 lead.
The LMGT3 grid will be completed by Spirit of Race and Grid Motorsport by TF.
The 4 Hours of Le Castellet is Round 2 of the 2024 European Le Mans Series, with Free Practice and Qualifying on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th May and the race on Sunday 5th May.