Spa ELMS: WRT wins to seal LMP2 title with a round to spare
Team WRT wrapped up the 2021 European Le Mans Series title after Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Louis Deletraz clinched their third victory of the season at Spa on Sunday.
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
Arriving into the penultimate round of the season, the #41 WRT crew held an 11-point advantage over their nearest rivals Roman Rusinov, Nyck de Vries and Franco Colapinto in the #26 G-Drive Aurus.
But with Rusinov having to retire the car early after being spun by the #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca driven by Salih Yoluc at the opening turn, victory was sufficient for the WRT trio to put the title mathematically beyond reach for its rivals.
Formula 1 race winner Kubica took the start in the #41 WRT Oreca from third on the grid and was immediately up to second when Phil Hanson’s #22 United Autosports car suffered a puncture in the opening lap chaos.
When Yoluc went off at the gravel at Turn 5 and brought out the first FCY just 35 minutes into the race, the leading LMP2 crews took advantage of the situation to complete their pitstops.
WRT elected to keep Kubica in the car for a second stint, which allowed the Polish driver to leapfrog the polesitting #37 Cool Racing Oreca now driven by Alexandre Coigny.
There was another lead change in the second round of pitstops, with the #32 United Autosports Oreca that had started last following a heavy crash for Nico Jamin in qualifying getting a jump on the erstwhile leading WRT.
But Yifei, now at the wheel of the #41 Oreca, was able to pass Manuel Maldonado going into Les Combes to put his team back in the lead of the race with just over two hours to run.
From there on the WRT crew cruised to the chequered flag, with Deletraz bringing the car home five seconds clear of the #30 Duqueine Oreca after an off for Christophe Cresp in the #5 MV2S Ligier JS P320 brought out a late FCY.
Having bagged 25 points in the race, Kubica, Yifei and Deletraz - who were cruelly robbed off a victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours last month - enjoy an unassailable 36-point lead heading into the final round of the season at Portimao in October.
The result further underlined the credentials of Belgian squad WRT in its first season in prototype machinery, after its full season FIA World Endurance Championship entry driven by Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi claimed the LMP2 class win at Le Mans in the team’s first appearance at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Behind the #41 crew, Tristan Gommendy, Memo Rojas and Rene Binder finished second at Spa in the #30 Duqueine entry after Gommendy passed both Job van Uitert in the #32 United entry and James Allen’s #65 Panis Racing Oreca during his stint.
The final spot on the podium went to Allen, Will Stevens and Julien Canal's Panis entry.
The LMP2 Pro-Am battle is yet to be decided after Coigny, Milesi and Nicolas Lapierre finished fourth overall, three spots ahead of the class-leading #25 G-Drive Aurus, piloted at Spa by Rui Andrade, John Falb and Gustavo Menezes.
LMP3 honours went to Laurents Hoerr and Mathieu de Barbuat, the duo clinching a third consecutive class win for the #4 DKR Engineering squad to close the gap to #19 Cool Racing trio Matt Bell, Niklas Kruetten and Nicolas Maulini to just five points.
AF Corse took victory in the GTE class, with Alessio Rovera, Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard beating the similar Ferrari of points leaders Miguel Molina, Rino Mastronardi and Matteo Cressoni (Iron Lynx).
Race results:
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 41 | Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Ye Yifei |
Oreca 07 | |
2 | 30 | Tristan Gommendy Rene Binder Memo Rojas |
Oreca 07 | 5.318 |
3 | 65 | Julien Canal Will Stevens James Allen |
Oreca 07 | 19.544 |
4 | 37 | Alexandre Coigny Nicolas Lapierre Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | 23.198 |
5 | 32 | Job Van Uitert Nico Jamin Manuel Maldonado |
Oreca 07 | 26.236 |
6 | 28 | Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet |
Oreca 07 | 1'07.468 |
7 | 25 | John Falb Rui Andrade Gustavo Menezes |
Aurus 01 | 1'24.134 |
8 | 22 | Philip Hanson Jonathan Aberdein Tom Gamble |
Oreca 07 | 1'33.014 |
9 | 35 | Francesco Dracone Sergio Campana Markus Pommer |
Oreca 07 | 1 Lap |
10 | 29 | Matthieu Lahaye Jean Baptiste Lahaye |
Oreca 07 | 1 Lap |
11 | 4 | Laurents Hörr Mathieu de |
Duqueine M30 - D08 | 3 Laps |
12 | 19 | Nicolas Maulini Matthew Bell Niklas Krütten |
Ligier JS P320 | 3 Laps |
13 | 2 | Wayne Boyd Robert Wheldon Edouard Cauhaupe |
Ligier JS P320 | 3 Laps |
14 | 8 | Eric Trouillet Sebastien Page David Droux |
Ligier JS P320 | 4 Laps |
15 | 20 | Rob Hodes Garett Grist Charles Crews |
Ligier JS P320 | 4 Laps |
16 | 18 | Bressan Alessandro Andreas Laskaratos Damiano Fioravanti |
Ligier JS P320 | 4 Laps |
17 | 9 | Matthias Kaiser Rory Penttinen |
Ligier JS P320 | 5 Laps |
18 | 3 | Jim McGuire Duncan Tappy Andrew Bentley |
Ligier JS P320 | 5 Laps |
19 | 88 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 6 Laps |
20 | 80 | Matteo Cressoni Rino Mastronardi Miguel Molina |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 6 Laps |
21 | 6 | Nick Adcock Austin McCusker Max Koebolt |
Ligier JS P320 | 6 Laps |
22 | 83 | Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 6 Laps |
23 | 93 | Michael Fassbender Felipe Fernández Laser Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 6 Laps |
24 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Giorgio Sernagiotto Paolo Ruberti |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 6 Laps |
25 | 66 | Jody Fannin Andrea Fontana Rodrigo Sales |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 7 Laps |
26 | 77 | Christian Ried Cooper MacNeil Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 7 Laps |
27 | 95 | John Hartshorne Ross Gunn Ollie Hancock |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | 8 Laps |
28 | 7 | Tony Wells Colin Noble Jr. |
Ligier JS P320 | 8 Laps |
29 | 11 | Andrea Dromedari Jacopo Baratto Joey Alders |
Ligier JS P320 | 9 Laps |
5 | Cresp Christophe Fabien Lavergne Adrien Chila |
Ligier JS P320 | 8 Laps | |
14 | Mattia Pasini Mateusz Kaprzyk Nicolas Pino |
Ligier JS P320 | 21 Laps | |
13 | Martin Hippe Ugo De Aidan Read |
Ligier JS P320 | 52 Laps | |
24 | Diego Menchaca Ferdinand Habsburg Richard Bradley |
Oreca 07 | 80 Laps | |
15 | Mike Benham Alex Kapadia Malthe Jakobsen |
Ligier JS P320 | 80 Laps | |
55 | Duncan Cameron Matthew Griffin David Perel |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | 81 Laps | |
34 | Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood Harry Tincknell |
Oreca 07 | 86 Laps | |
26 | Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries |
Aurus 01 | 98 Laps | |
View full results |
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