After the thrills and spills of two 55-minute races at Le Mans last month, the Michelin Le Mans Cup will return to the 110-minute race format for Round 3 at Le Castellet on Saturday 15 July. Another huge 42 car grid will be lining up to entertain the fans, with 27 teams and 84 drivers from 25 different nations across the globe taking part.
LMP3
Reigning Ligier European Series Champion Gillian Henrion heads to Le Castellet as the championship leader alongside his Team Virage teammate Julien Gerbi thanks to the victory to pairing secured in Round 1 in Barcelona.
The young French driver and his Spanish teammate didn’t enjoy the same success at Le Mans, securing just 4 points from the two races, but they still hold a 4-point advantage at the top of the championship standings over Fabien Michal and Kirill Smal in the no2 CD Sport Ligier.
After two rounds the top of the table is very tight with the top 7 cars covered by just 11 points, with 26 points on offer in Le Castellet.
Swiss duo David Droux and Luis Sanjuan took the win in Race 2 after finishing third in the first encounter at Le Mans, which propelled the no97 COOL Racing Ligier into third place in the championship standings on 22 points, seven behind the leaders.
A second-place finish for the no77 Team Thor Ligier of Audunn Gudmundsson and Colin Noble puts the Icelandic team 4thin the standings on 21 points, just 1 point ahead of John Melsom and Matt Bell in the no4 Nielsen Racing Duqueine.
In addition to Gillian Henrion and Fabien Michal, there are another nine French drivers and five French teams on the LMP3 grid, including ANS Motorsport, GRAFF Racing, IDEC Sport, MV2S Racing and M Racing.
GT3
Another mouth-watering array of GT machinery awaits the fans, with the 12 car GT3 grid featuring Aston Martin, Audi, Ferrari, Honda, Lamborghini and Porsche.
After taking maximum points in both Road to Le Mans races last month, the no86 HCR CaffeineSix Porsche of Tim Creswick and Anders Fjordbach heads to Le Castellet with a six point advantage over their nearest rivals in the no10 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin Vantage of French duo and Round 1 winners Arnold Robin and Valentin Hasse Clot.
As well as Robin and Hasse Clot, local interest will also be focused on the no83 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Emmanuel Collard and Charles-Henri Samani.
Twenty points splits the top five cars in the GT3 championship standings with Nick Jones and Scott Malvern in no18 Team Parker Racing Porsche in third on 27 points, 15 behind the leaders, with Japanese duo Hiroshi Koizumi and Kei Cozzolino (no51 AF Corse Ferrari) and Jan Magnussen and Lars Engelbreckt Pedersen (no88 GMB Motorsport Honda NSX) tied on 22 points.
CLICK HERE for the provisional entry list for Round 3 of the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup at Le Castellet.
