The first ever Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 Pro/Am title will go down in the history of the series. After a tight, season long battle, the title was decided after the final chequered flag. However, not by one of the two leading contenders receiving a post-race penalty.
2023 MLMC LMP3 Champion Gillian Henrion joined Eric De Doncker’s Motorsport98 team for the 2025 season, the young French driver immediately revelling in the small team atmosphere.After a difficult start to the season, the Franco-Belgian pairing got into their stride and were in the mix for the title at the season finale in Portugal.
The season didn’t start too well for the Belgian team in Barcelona with Eric Dedoncker qualifying in 10th place on the 16 strong class grid.A difficult race for the two drivers saw Gillian Henrion take the chequered flag outside of the points in 12th place, while the two Rinaldi Racing Ligiers took a 1-2 in the class standings, with Steve Parrow and Griffin Peebles taking the win in the no66 car, 6.1 seconds ahead of the no71 Ligier of Stefan Aust and Felipe Fernandez-Laser.
The next race at Le Castellet saw the Motorsport98 Ligier move up two places to 8th on the grid for the 2-hour race.
In the race Gillian Henrion had worked his way up the field and was soon challenging the no84 ANS Motorsport Ligier of Paul Trojani. Henrion took the lead but had two-time penalties of 5 and 10 seconds for Full Course Yellow infringements incurred earlier in the race, which would be added to his final race time.
At the chequered flag Henrion wasn’t 15 seconds ahead of Trojani and this promoted the no84 Ligier into first place ahead of the no98 Ligier, with no71 Rinaldi Racing Ligier-Toyota in third.
The next event was the annual trip to Le Mans with the two 60-minute Road To Le Mans races. Due to interruptions, and no one setting a time, the grid for the two races were set using the best times from FP1 for race 1 and FP2 for race 2.
For the opening race on Thursday the no98 Motorsport98 Ligier would start in P5 on the LMP3 Pro/Am grid.After a solid start by Eric De Doncker, Gillian Henrion started to challenge for the podium. The no28 23Events Racing Ligier of Terrence Woodward was lying in third but in the final corner the car left the track, which allowed Henrion to take the final podium position.
The no71 Rinaldi Racing Ligier took the LMP3 Pro/Am victory with the no2 DKR Engineering Ginetta in second, but with the Ginetta being a race-by-race entry, the Motorsport98 team received 9-points for being the second MLMC entry to finish.
On Saturday the Motorsport98 Ligier started two places higher than the early race in third.The race was interrupted by several Safety Car periods, but Eric De Doncker was able to keep in touch with the leading pack, and he handed over the car to Gillian Henrion in a good position. Henrion was challenging the no88 R-ace GP Duqueine for the final podium position but couldn’t manage to pass and took the chequered flag in 4th, 0.7 seconds off the podium.
The no2 DKR Engineering Ginetta of Thomas Laurent was still leading, with Felipe Fernandez-Laser in the championship leading no71 Rinaldi Racing Ligier keeping the French driver under pressure. However, Laurent was able to keep the German driver at bay, and he took the chequered flag to record his second RTLM victory.
Again, the no2 Ginetta wasn’t eligible for points, so the no71 Rinaldi Racing Ligier took 15 points for being the first MLMC entry, the R-ace GP took 9 for second and Motorsport98 7-points for third.
At the halfway point of the 2025 season, the no71 Rinaldi Racing was holding a commanding lead on 63-points, 28-points ahead of the no84 ANS Motorsport on 35-points, with Motorsport98 in third on 34-points.
A long summer break followed before the Michelin Le Mans Cup headed to Belgium for Motorsport98s and Eric De Doncker’s home race at Spa-Francorchamps.
Qualifying on Saturday morning was interrupted by a red flag midway through the session, with Eric De Doncker finishing in the midfield in 7th place for the race later the same day.
Another strong stint by De Doncker put his teammate in a good position for the second half of the two-hour race.
The LMP3 Pro/Am battle was led by the no77 Reiter Engineering Ligier driven by Horst Felix Felbermayr, four seconds ahead of the no88 R-ace GP Duqueine of Fabien Lavergne, with the no31 CD Sport Duqueine in third. However, Gillian Henrion in the no98 Motorsport98 Ligier was on a charge. The French driver caught and passed Kevin Rabin in the no31 Duqueine and then closed the gap to Lavergne.
With 23 minutes left on the clock the no98 Ligier moved into second place but a 5 second penalty added to the next pitstop for a Full Course Yellow infringement meant Henrion not only had to pass Felbermayr’s leading car, but he had to be at least 5 seconds ahead at the chequered flag. Henrion accepted the challenge and was soon pushing the leader. Felbermayr held off Henrion for several corners but the inevitable happened at the end of the Kemmel Straight with 15-minutes left on the clock.
Gillian Henrion continued to pull away as Griffin Peebles had moved up to second place in the no66 Rinaldi Racing Ligier. At the flag the Australian was over 10 seconds behind Henrion, with the French driver crossing the line to win in Belgium despite the 5-second penalty being added post-race.
With the no71 Rinaldi Racing Ligier not being classified, the Motorsport98 crew left Belgium in second place in the championship, with the gap now standing at just 4-points with two races remaining.
The penultimate round of the 2025 season was the first ever Michelin Le Mans Cup at Silverstone.A red flag brought qualifying to a close 3-minutes early with Eric De Doncker qualifying the no98 Ligier in 10th for the 110-minute race later the same day.
The race didn’t start well for the Motorsport98 crew when Eric De Doncker went off at Vale and ended up beached in the gravel. This brought out a Full Course Yellow to allow the no98 Ligier to be recovered back onto the track.
The race continued and Gillian Henrion managed to bring the car home in 9th place but one lap down. This became 8thplace when the winning car stopped on its way to Parc Ferme and with it four valuable championship points going into the final round in Portugal.
The Motorsport98 team had dropped back to third in the standings. The no71 Rinaldi Racing was till leading with 75-points, with the sister car, the no66 Ligier moving up to second on 67-points, with Motorsport98 in third on 63-points, 12 behind the leaders.
Qualifying in Portugal saw Eric De Doncker finish in 11th place on the grid, two places ahead of the no66 Ligier but, crucially, the no71 Ligier was on the front row in second place.
Early in the race a Safety Car period was declared, which then became a red flag, when the no71 Rinaldi Racing, no88 R-ace GP, no49 High Class Racing and no62 Bretton Racing cars were involved in an unseen incident that saw debris spread across the track at T1 and the four cars stranded at various points on the corner. This meant the fight for the title was now between the no66 Rinaldi Racing and the no98 Motorsport98 when the race resumed.
After the pitstops Rashid Shawn was leading overall in the no34 Liger from Leo Sami Robinson in the no44 Team Virage Ligier. Gillian Henrion, who was now behind the wheel of the no98 Motorsport98, was on the move, passing the no99 More Motorsport Ligier of Max Van Der Snel for fourth in class, putting the team in the championship lead.
However, Griffin Peebles was also on the move in the no66 Rinaldi Racing Ligier, the Australian getting past the no99 Ligier to be one point ahead of Motorsport98 in the standings with 20 minutes to go. This spurred on Henrion, who knew he had to win the race to take the title and set off in pursuit of the no34 Inter Europol Competition.
However, it wasn’t to be and the no34 IEC Ligier took the chequered flag 1.2 seconds ahead of Henrion, with Peebles taking third. This secured the title for Rinaldi Racing, and the drivers title for Steve Parrow, by just one point.
But the drama wasn’t yet over.
The winning Inter Europol Competition Ligier received a post-race penalty of 65 seconds after bronze driver Jose Cautela was judged to have not completed his mandatory driving time by 24.89 seconds.The no34 Ligier dropped back to 4th place and promoted the no98 Motorsport98 crew into the winning position, with the no66 Rinaldi Racing in second.
With Motorsport98 receiving 25-points instead of 18, Eric De Doncker and Gillian Henrion overtook Steve Parrow in the championship standings, finishing the season on 88-points compared to 85-points for Rinaldi Racing.
CLICK HERE for the final 2025 MLMC LMP3 Pro/Am Championship standings.
