The fifth race of the 2022 Michelin Le Mans Cup saw plenty of drama with two Safety Car and six Full Course Yellow periods during the 110-minute race at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.
After starting in sixth place Alexander Mattschull handed the no10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier to Tom Dillmann, who fought his way up from 4th, overtaking the no29 MV2S Forestier Racing Ligier of Louis Rousset after a great battle to take the lead. This was the Franco-German pairings third win from five starts and extends their lead in the championship standings.
It was a good day for the Racing Spirit of Leman team as Josh Skelton passed Charles Milesi in the no9 AT Racing Ligier in the final minutes to secure the third spot on the podium.
The GT3 battle was eventually won by the no88 GMB Motorsport Honda NSX of Lars Pedersen and Mikkel Pedersen, the Danes starting the race from the back of the grid to eventually make their way to the top step of the podium, finishing nearly a minute ahead of their teammates Kristian Poulsen and Kasper Jensen in the no55 Honda NSX.
The race started with Freddie Hunt in the no76 Reiter Engineering Ligier leading the field into the first chicane ahead of the no29 MV2S Forestier Racing Ligier of Jerome de Sadeleer.
The GT3 field saw the no99 Bullitt Racing Aston Martin also make up ground at the start with Stephen Pattrick up to 2ndin class ahead of the no44 GMB Motorsport Honda of Gustav Birch, as the pole sitter Emanuele Busnelli in the no46 Ebimotors Porsche dropped down to 4th.
The first Safety Car was deployed a lap later after the no3 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Jon Brownson went off into the gravel at Ascari and had to be helped out by the marshals.
At the restart Freddie Hunt was still leading but the British driver had the no29 MV2S Ligier filling his mirrors as they headed into T1. Hunt locked up and went across the corner, emerging still in the lead but the mistake allowed De Sadeleer to take the lead into the chicane.
However, another Safety Car was brought out within one minute of the restart as the no22 United Autosports Ligier of Andres Latorre and the no57 Graff Racing Ligier of Stephan Rupp collided at T1 and were static on the apex of the corner.
After this was cleared the race resumed with the no29 MV2S Ligier ahead of the no76 Reiter Engineering Ligier, just ahead of the no11 WTM Racing Ligier of Torsten Kratz and the no7 Nielsen Racing Ligier of Tony Wells.
The GT3 field was led by the no55 Honda NSX of Kristian Poulsen, who was just ahead of his GMB Motorsport teammate Gustav Birch in the no44 Honda.
It wasn’t long before another car went off in a dangerous position with the no23 United Autosports Ligier in the gravel at Parabolica.
At the restart Hunt was challenging De Sadeleer for the lead but pushed too hard and ran through the gravel at Lesmo 2. Hunt retained his second position but had dropped back as he struggled for grip on his dusty tyres.
Emanuele Busnelli was making up places in the Ebimotors Porsche and was back up to second place as the pitstop window approached.The leading GT3 cars decided to stop as the pit window opened but just as they completed their stops another Full Course Yellow was declared when the no99 Aston Martin went off into the gravel.This allowed the rest of the field to complete their pitstops while the others were limited to 80kph.
After the field had completed their stops the race went green with the no76 Reiter Engineering Ligier back in the lead of the race in the hands of Mads Siljehaug, ahead of the no29 MV2S Ligier of Louis Rousset.However, Reiters joy was short lived when the team were served a drive through penalty for changing the steering wheel on the grid just before the start of the race. Siljehaug served the penalty and rejoined in 8th.
In the GT3 class the order had been shaken up by the FCY, with the no44 Honda of Jen Moller leading, well ahead of the no88 NSX of Mikkel Pedersen and the no55 Honda of Kasper Jensen, who had the no46 Porsche of Fabio Babini closing the gap.
Moller’s race came to an abrupt end when he was hit by an LMP3 car and the Dane ended up in the gravel at T8, bringing out another FCY.
Meanwhile Tome Dillmann had taken over the no10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier and was on a charge towards the front of the field.He was soon on the rear wing of the no29 MV2S Forestier Racing Ligier and for several laps the two French drivers battled for the lead and were still battling when the FCY was brought out to recover the no44 GMB Motorsport Honda.
At the restart Dillmann regained the momentum and made his move at Parabolica to take the lead of the race with 25-minutes left on the clock.
The no46 Ebimotors Porsche was given a 2 second stop and go for not respecting the pitstop time but Babini was trying to get ahead of the second placed Honda of Kasper Jensen.The Italian got ahead of the Dane with 10 minutes remaining but the sixth and final FCY was declared a few minutes later when the no53 RLR MSport Ligier of Simon Butler went into the gravel.
The race resumed with two minutes left and a sprint to the line saw the no10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier take the chequered flag 5 seconds ahead of the no29 MV2S Forestier Racing Ligier, with Josh Skelton passing Leonard Weiss in the no11 WTM Racing Duquesne for the final podium position, with Charles Milesi in the no9 AT Racing Ligier getting ahead of the German for 4th place before the chequered flag.
The no88 GMB Motorsport Honda took the chequered flag to take Lars Pedersen and Mikkel Pedersen’s first MLMC victory.The no55 GMB Motorsport Honda was classified in second place after the no46 Ebimotors Porsche was given a 45 second penalty for not serving the Stop and Go Penalty, dropping the Italian team down to 4thbehind the no99 Bullitt Racing Aston Martin Vantage.
The next round of the 2022 Michelin Le Mans Cup will be at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday 24 September.
CLICK HERE for the provisional result from Monza
LMP3 DRIVER QUOTES
Alexander Mattschull – no10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier JS P320-Nissan: “There was a lot of going on and it was not really a smooth race. I was struggling a little bit but I was able to keep a close distance to the leader. I think after Tom took over the car, he was fourth and then he did an amazing job to be coming to the first position. I'm going say this was Toms win today.
“I think the championship lead is important for us because we are now thinking about it as there are two more races left. So now I think we start talking about it, a little bit.”
Tom Dillmann – no10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier JS P320-Nissan: “That was really good fun, I had really good fun today. I could pass the WTR car quite quickly. And then with Roussel I had a good battle, he was defending well but very fair, so it was enjoyable. The rhythm was always broken by those Full Course Yellows, but in the end I managed to do some chess game and I managed to pass him. From then on I just had to bring the car to the chequered flag.”
GT3 DRIVER QUOTES
Lars E. Pedersen – no88 GMB Motorsport Honda NSX GT3: “There was a lot of crashes and I think I had to stay out of trouble and have no crashes for me. So, I can box without a damaged car. So that was the plan.”
Mikkel O. Pedersen – no88 GMB Motorsport Honda NSX GT3: “We gained a lot of time back in the pitstop under FCY. So everything worked out for us this weekend. I mean, we've been quick all week. And now we are here in the first position this is a great way to end the weekend for sure.”
