MLMC at Spa-Francorchamps – Facts and Figures

Here are some facts and figures from the six races held at Spa-Francorchamps.

1. The first race winners in the Michelin Le Mans Cup were Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaitar in the no72 SMP Racing Ferrari 488.They finished just 0.722 seconds ahead of the no88 Mentos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Egidio Perfetti and Klaus Bachler in one of the closest ever finishes in the MLMC.
2. The first LMP3 MLMC race winners were Alex Toril and Jean Glorieux in the no3 DKR Engineering Norma M30-Nissan.The victory secured the 2017 LMP3 titles for the drivers and the team.
3. Giacomo Piccini has won the most races at Spa, winning in 2018 and 2019 with Sergio Pianezzola in the no8 Kessel Racing Ferrari and in 2020 with Rino Mastronardi in the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari.
4. Kessel Racing took a 1-2-3 finish in GT3 in 2018.
5. Reigning MLMC LMP3 Champions Colin Noble and Tony Wells have both been on the podium three times.Noble and Wells finished 2nd in 2017 and 3rd in 2020, while Noble won in 2018 alongside Alasdair McCaig in the no79 Ecurie Ecosse / Nielsen Ligier.Tony Wells finished second alongside James Littlejohn in the same race giving the British team a 1-2.
6. Ferrari has won five of the six GT3 encounters at Spa-Francorchamps, with Mercedes being the exception in 2017 when the no7 Lee Mowle Mercedes AMG GT3, driven by Lee Mowle and Dominik Baumann won.In fact, there were no Ferraris entered for the race in Spa in 2017.
7. Cool Racing has won the last two races held at Spa-Francorchamps.Nicolas Maulini and Edouard Cauhaupe won for the Swiss team in 2020 and Josh Skelton and Antoine Doquin in 2021.
8. Iron Lynx has won the last two GT3 races held at Spa-Francorchamps. Rino Mastronardi and Giacomo Piccini won in 2020 and Gabriele Lancieri and Paolo Ruberti won in 2021 for the Italian team.
9. Belgian teams and drivers have visited the podium at Spa three times since 2016 with Jean Glorieux taking victory in 2017 and finishing second in 2020.Eric De Doncker finished third in 2017 for Belgian team Motorsport98.
10. The current LMP3 official lap record was set on 18 September 2021

o LMP3 Matt BELL 2m14.633 187.3kph

1. The current GT3 official lap record was set on 21 September 2019

o GT3 Ross GUNN 2m18.672 181.8kph

1. The fastest outright lap recorded in LMP3 in the MLMC was by Finn Gehrsitz in the no5 Phoenix Racing Ligier with a 2m13.704 lap (188.6 kph) set during Qualifying on the 18 September 2021.
2. The fastest outright lap recorded in GT3 in the MLMC was by Fabien Lavergne in the no71 Luzich Racing Ferrari with a 2m17.902 lap (182.8 kph) set during qualifying on 21 September 2019.
3. The longest race distance was 51 laps (357.2km) in 2017 (Jean Glorieux/ Alex Toril) and in 2020 (Nicolas Maulini / Edouard Cauhaupe).This year the race is shortened by 10 minutes, so the race distance will be shorter than previous seasons.

The 110-minute race at Spa-Francorchamps is Round 5, and the sixth race, of the 2022 Michelin Le Mans Cup and it will be held on Saturday 24 September.