The opening 13 lap race of the Road to Le Mans weekend saw a thrilling last lap battle for the LMP3 victory when championship leader Laurents Hörr in the no3 DKR Engineering Duqueine catch and pass the no37 Cool Racing Ligier of Edouard Cauhaupe to secure the victory at Le Mans.
The no63 FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3 dominated the GT3 category with Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Andrea Calderelli taking victory from pole position.
Under blue skies the first Road to Le Mans race of 2020 got underway with the no23 United Autosports Ligier of Wayne Boyd leading the way, with the no37 Cool Racing Ligier of Nicolas Maulini leaping up 4thto 2ndby the end of the opening lap.
Three cars had to start from the pitlane one lap down.The no14 Eurointernational Ligier of Niko Kari was found to not be in conformity with the Ligier homologation after qualifying and all qualifying times were disallowed.The no2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche and no55 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine didn’t take part in qualifying.
In the GT3 class the no63 Lamborghini Huracan of Hiroshi Hamaguchi led from pole position, the Japanese driver putting three LMP3 cars between his car and the no77 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Andrea Piccini, the no67 Kessel Racing Ferrari and the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari of championship leader Rino Mastronardi.Mastronardi, who had dropped from 2ndto 4thon the opening regained a place on lap three by passing Nicola Cadei in the no67 Ferrari.
At the front Wayne Boyd continued to hold a small lead as the no37 Cool Racing Ligier and the no4 Realteam Racing Ligier battled for second with David Droux getting ahead of Nicolas Maulini in the no37 car.
The pit window opened at the end of the 5thlap with half the grid pitting to change drivers.The leading LMP3s stayed out for one extra lap.
After the pitstops the no4 Realteam Racing Ligier was in the lead with Esteban Garcia at the wheel with John Schauerman in second in the no23 United Autosports Ligier.The no37 Cool Racing Ligier of Edouard Cauhaupe was third and closing on Schauerman. On lap 9 Cauhaupe passed both cars and took the lead, while Laurents Hörr in the no3 DKR Engineering also passed both Schauerman and Garcia to move into second six seconds behind Cauhaupe.Colin Noble in the no7 Nielsen Racing Duqueine also moved up the order to take 3rdplace but was under pressure from the no69 Cool Racing Ligier of Matt Bell.
In GT3 the no63 Lamborghini was now driven by Andrea Caldarelli and was 15 seconds ahead of David Perel’s no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari and Giacomo Piccini in the no8 Iron Lynx 488, with Piccini challenging Perel for second place.
As the race entered the final two laps Bell moved ahead of Noble and started to close the gap to the leading pair.Piccini also moved ahead of Perel to take second place in GT3.The last lap was declared and Hörr was right behind Cauhaupe’s Ligier and with just a few corners remaining the German made his move and swept into the lead to take his second Road to Le Mans victory in two years.Andrea Caldarelli took the chequered flag in the no63 FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini, over 16 seconds ahead of Giacomo Piccini in the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari.
CLICK HERE for the result from Race 1 of the Road to Le Mans and HERE for the winners reactions
