Round 2 of the 2024 Michelin Le Mans Cup saw the no97 COOL Racing Ligier of Adrien Chila and David Droux take the win from third on the grid. Chila kept his car in a good condition to hand over to Droux, the Swiss driver powering past the no44 Team Virage Ligier early in his stint to take the lead and bring the car home.
Mihnea Stefan brought the no44 Team Virage Ligier home in second, with the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine taking the final podium position after fighting back up the order from an earlier spin into the barrier.
After starting behind the no83 Iron Dames Lamborghini, the no51 AF Corse of Matt Kurzejewski kept pace with Celia Martin for his stint but a 10 second penalty at the pitstop for the lead car allowed Alessandro Balzan to take the GT3 lead and pull away from the rest of the field to take the chequered flag for the second time in two starts.
Karen Gaillard brought the Iron Dames Huracan in second place 19 seconds behind the no51 Ferrari.
The start of the race was pretty uneventful for the front runners but there were several spinners at T5, dropping the three cars involved to the back of the grid.
At the front of the field Fabien Michal had made the best use of his pole position to lead the 39-car field round the opening lap in the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine but he had the no44 Team Virage Ligier driven by Jamie Falvey close behind. Falvey in turn had the no97 COOL Racing Ligier of Adrien Chila directly behind with the no59 Team Virage of Oscar Bittar and the no2 CD Sport of Shahan Sarkissian keeping pace with the leaders as well.
In GT3 Celia Martin got a good start from pole in the no83 Iron Dames Lamborghini, pulling a gap to the no51 AF Corse Ferrari of Matt Kurzejewski, with the no18 High Class Racing Porsche further back in 3rd and falling away from the lead pair.
There was trouble for the no59 Team Virage Ligier of Oscar Bittar after taking to the escape road with damage and the no23 Biogas Motorsport Ferrari stopped at T7. A Full Course Yellow was declared for two minutes to recover the cars.
At the start the no44 Team Virage Ligier had closed the small gap to the leading no85 R-ace GP Ligier. Falvey got a run-on Michal as they were lapping traffic with Falvey going to the inside of a backmarker and moving into the lead.The British driver then quickly opened a 4 second gap to his rival.
Michal’s day took another turn for the worse when the Ligier got onto the kerbs at T14 and spun across the track hitting the tyre wall on the inside. The no85 Ligier got going again but had dropped back to 4th place. Another Full Course Yellow was declared to remove the advertising hoarding that had broken away from the tyre wall in the impact.
In the meantime, Celia Martin was 10 seconds ahead in the GT3 battle with Matt Kurzejewski but the French driver was given a 10 second penalty that had to be served at the pitstop, effectively nullifying her advantage.
The mandatory pitstops were served at the halfway point of the race, with the no51 AF Corse Ferrari, now with Alessandro Balzan at the wheel, ahead of Karen Gaillard in the no83 Iron Dames Lamborghini.
Mihnea Stefan had taken over the driving duties in the no44 Team Virage and held a 4 second lead over David Droux in the no97 COOL Racing Ligier. However, the Swiss driver was rapidly closing the gap and swept into the lead with 40-minutes of the race remaining.
While the leaders in each class were battling amongst themselves the battle for the minor podium positions were hotting up. The no85 R-ace GP Duqueine of Hadrien David was in 4th place after passing Colin Noble in the no77 Team Thor Ligier and closing the gap to the no13 M Racing Ligier of Alexandre Cougnaud. In racing, catching is one thing, passing is a lot more difficult and Cougnaud was not going to make it easy for David to pass. David final got his chance with 20 minutes left on the clock, making his move on the inside at the final corner to move into third place.
In GT3 the no18 High Class Racing Porsche of Scott Malvern was being caught by the no88 AF Corse Ferrari of Riccardo Agostini. The two cars ran nose to tail for several laps and swapped places, and paint, on at least three occasions. However, Malvern always ended back in third place. It wasn’t until the final few minutes of the race that Agostini finally bullied his way past Malvern.
At the chequered flag the no97 COOL Racing Ligier of David Droux crossed the line 6.7 seconds ahead of the no44 Team Virage Ligier of Mihnea Stefan, with the no85 R-ace GP 5.7 seconds further back in 3rd.
In the GT3 class Alessandro Balzan crossed the line in the no51 AF Corse Ferrari to score the second win in a row. Balzan was 19.5 seconds ahead of the no83 Iron Dames Lamborghini of Karen Gaillard, with the no88 AF Corse Ferrari crossing the line in 3rd place. However, a 45 second post-race penalty for the no88 car for multiple contacts with the no18 Porsche (Stewards Decision no37) promoted the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Fran Rueda into the final podium position.
The next race in the 2024 Michelin Le Mans Cup is the Road To Le Mans with race 1 on Thursday 13 June and race 2 on Saturday 15 June.
CLICK HERE for the result for the Le Castellet Round
