Round 2 of the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup was the two Road to Le Mans races held on the 8th and 9th June on the full 13.6km La Sarthe circuit. With a different points structure, 15-points instead of 25-points for a win, and non-championship cars taking part in the blue riband event, which of the regular MLMC teams and drivers are at the top of the points table ahead of the next round in Le Castellet next month?
LMP3
Round 1 winners Gillian Henrion and Julien Gerbi are still the championship leaders after the two races in Le Mans, despite a disappointing event for the Team Virage duo, with an 8thin the first race and a DNF in the second. Their overall lead is now just 4-points ahead of Fabien Michal and Kirill Smal in the no2 CD Sport Ligier after the Spanish team finished third from pole in race 2 but received the points for second place as the second placed car was a non-points scoring entry.
Race 1 winners John Melsom and Matt Bell also finished 7th in the second race to collect 20 valuable championship points in the no 4 Nielsen Racing Duqueine, putting them in 5th overall but only 9-points behind the leaders and just 1-point behind the 4th placed pairing, Colin Noble and Audunn Gudmundsson in the no77 Team Thor Ligier after they finished second in Race 1.
Race 2 winners David Droux and Luis Sanjuan head to Le Castellet on 22 points in third overall in the no97 Cool Racing Ligier, the Swiss duo just 7 points behind the leaders.
GT3
The HCR by CaffeineSix Porsche had a very successful Le Mans, with Anders Fjordbach and Tim Creswick taking 30-points from the two races to lead the championship and head towards Round 3 with a total of 42-points.
The Anglo-Danish teammates finished second on the road in in the opening race in the no86 Porsche 911 GT3R, beaten to the chequered flag by the no31 Team WRT BMW M4, however they secured the full 15-points as the top MLMC finishers. In Race 2 they finished 4th on the road but the three cars ahead of them were all non-championship cars and so, once again, secured the 15-points as the top MLMC car.
Round 1 winners Arnold Robin and Valentin Hasse-Clot picked up 9-points from race 1 after finished third on the road in the no10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage. They only managed to add a single point from race 2 and are now in second place in the championship standings, just 6-points behind Fjordbach and Creswick.
Nick Jones and Scott Malvern are in third place on 27 points in the no18 Team Parker Racing Porsche, while Hiroshi Koizumi and Kei Cozzolino in the no51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 and Lars Pedersen and Jan Magnussen in the no88 GMB Motorsport Honda NSX are tied on 22-points, with the Japanese pairing being classified as 4th overall due to their third place finish in Barcelona.
CLICK HERE for the full championship table following Round 2 Road to Le Mans.
Round 3 of the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup will take place on Saturday 15 July.
