Road to Le Mans 1 – Nielsen Racing Takes Dramatic Victory at Le Mans

A Safety Car period three laps into the race shook up the order as many of the cars pitted, including Tony Wells in the no7 Nielsen Racing Ligier. When racing restarted the no7 Ligier was at the front of the field, with Noble building up a gap to keep the lead to the chequered flag.

In GT3 the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Rory Pentinnen and Logan Sargeant came through to take the lead of the class after the Safety Car period, with Sargeant getting ahead of the no95 Oman Racing Aston Martin Vantage of Ahmed Al Harthy and then open up a gap to win the race by over six seconds.

1. At the start the no21 Muehlner Motorsport Duqueine of Ugo de Wilde got a better start, moving ahead of pole sitter Jean Glorieux in the no3 DKR Engineering Duqueine on the run into Dunlop.
2. Nicolas Leutwiler got a good start in the no2 Porsche from pole position but the Swiss driver was under pressure from the no72 Team WRT Audi of Charles Weerts.Weerts got ahead at the end of the 1^st lap of the 13.6km circuit to take the lead in GT3.
3. At the end of Lap 2 the no51 AF Corse Ferrari of Ken Abe hit the barriers at pit entry, bringing out the Safety Car. The no83 Mercedes also heads to the pits with front right damage to the car.
4. On Lap 4 most of the field head to the pits.
5. The Safety Car comes in at the end of Lap 5 to allow the race to resume.
6. No7 Nielsen Racing Ligier of Colin Noble leading 1 second ahead of Josh Skelton in the no37 Cool Racing Ligier.
7. No95 Oman Racing Aston Martin of Ahmad Al Harthy into the lead of GT3, with no72 Team WRT Audi of Jean-Denis Deletraz in second.
8. No83 given a stop-go penalty for causing contact at MP50 (with no51).
9. Lap 6 – no7 leading no37 by 3.4s. no95 leading no8 by 2.5s
10. No9 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Doriane Pin is up to third in GT3, just 1.6s behind her teammate Logan Sargeant in the no8 Ferrari.

1. Colin Noble extending his lead to 5 seconds on Lap 7 over Josh Skelton, with the no66 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine of Nicolas Varrone in third 0.3s behind the no37 Cool Racing Ligier.
2. Lap 9 – no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari takes the GT3 lead, Logan Sergeant moving ahead of Ahmed Al Harty in the no95 Oman Racing Aston Martin.
3. No1 DKR Engineering slow on track with puncture.
4. Lap 10 – no7 Nielsen Racing leading by 5.512s ahead of no66 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine, Varrone moving ahead of Skelton.
5. No69 Cool Racing of Matt Bell closing on no37 Cool Racing for third.Bell passes his teammate for the final podium position.
6. No8 Iron Lynx Ferrari (Logan Sargeant) now 4.2 seconds ahead of no95 Aston Martin (Ahmed Al Harthy) in GT3 lead.No9 Iron Lynx Ferrari (Doriane Pin) in third 4.4 seconds behind no95 Aston Martin.
7. No73 TS Corse and no74 MV2S Racing in barriers at Mulsanne Corner.
8. Slow Zone 5 to be activated as leader begins last lap.

No11 WTM Powered by Phoenix spins in front of no26 United Autosports at last corner, the was a contact and both cars ended in the barriers.

1. At the Chequered Flag, Colin Noble wins the first RTLM race in the no7 Nielsen Racing Ligier-Nissan. The no66 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine is second, 7.2 seconds behind, with the no69 Cool Racing Ligier in third.

Logan Sargeant wins the GT3 class in the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari, with the no95 Oman Racing Aston Martin in second and the no9 Iron Lynx Ferrari in third.

The second Road to Le Mans race will be held on Saturday 21 August at 12h15

CLICK HERE for the result from Race 1 at the Road to Le Mans

CLICK HERE for the winners reactions