The 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup certainly provided a lot of drama and excitement with the LMP3 category being decided at the final race in Portugal despite the no16 Team Virage Ligier of Team Manager Julien Gerbi and reigning Ligier European Series Champion Gillian Henrion having a huge points advantage going into the penultimate race in Belgium.
The final two races saw Gerbi and Henrion take a single point for pole position in Portimao through no fault of their own, but their points advantage carefully built up at the start of the season saw the Franco-Spanish driver pairing become 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup Champions by four points.
The season began in Barcelona in April with 30 LMP3 cars on the grid. The bronze driver would take part in qualifying, and Julien Gerbi put his Ligier JS P320 on the front row of the grid alongside the pole sitting no39 Graff Racing Ligier of James Sweetnam.
At the start Gerbi lost a couple of places before the Safety Car was deployed following an accident behind the leaders at Turn 1. At the restart Gerbi made up the lost places to challenge Sweetnam for the lead, which he duly took.
After handing over the car at the pitstop, Gillian Henrion was leading but was under pressure from the no87 Cool Racing Ligier of Cedric Oltramare and the no68 M Racing Ligier of Guilherme Oliveira.However, the reigning Ligier European Series Champion soaked up the pressure and brought the car home to claim victory on his MLMC debut and a home win for his teammate.
Round 2 was the two 55-minute races for the Road To Le Mans on the full 13.6km La Sarthe circuit.
Qualifying for the first race of the weekend would be contested by the silver and gold drivers for the only time during the season, with Gillian Henrion getting his opportunity to take part.The French driver set the tenth fastest time out of the 38 LMP3 entrants, which would leave Julien Gerbi a lot to do at the start of the shorter 55-minute race on Thursday.
Julien Gerbi took the car out for the second qualifying period and managed to go one place better than his young teammate for Friday’s race.
In race 1 the two drivers battled hard, moving up two places to finish 8thon the road but claim four hard won championship points as several cars ahead of them were not full season MLMC entries.
Race 2 ended early for the no16 Team Virage Ligier when Julien Gerbi was hit by another LMP3. He was able to rejoin, but the Team Virage Ligier was damaged and that was the end of the race for Gerbi and Henrion.
With their main rivals also not faring well in the two races, Gillian Henrion and Julien Gerbi left Le Mans still leading the championship by four points ahead of Fabien Michal and Kirill Smal in the no2 CD Sport Ligier.
It was back to France for Round 3 in July, this time heading to the Circuit Paul Ricard.Qualifying saw the no16 Team Virage Ligier in 5thon the grid, one place behind the no2 CD Sport Ligier.
Gerbi had made up one place before a Full Course Yellow to recover debris from the track.At the restart the Spanish driver made up two further places to go into second before handing over to Gillian Henrion.
The no87 COOL Racing Ligier was still leading with Cedric Oltramare at the wheel, with Henrion closing the gap. The French driver duly took the lead and started to pull away from the chasing pack. Gillian Henrion took the chequered flag for the second time in four races to claim another 25 championship points.
It was back to Spain for Round 4 with the first ever visit to Motorland Aragon for the Michelin Le Mans Cup.
Qualifying saw another good performance by Julien Gerbi, claiming fourth place on the grid alongside Mark Richards in the no25 360 Racing Ligier on Row 2 for the race.
Gerbi had an incident packed stint but managed to stay out of trouble before handing over to Henrion.
The no87 COOL Racing Ligier of Cedric Oltramare was leading but was being chased down by Henrion. The no25 360 Racing Ligier of Belen Garcia was third with Matt Bell in the no4 Nielsen Racing Duqueine now up to fourth after a good run by Melsom. Bell’s experience saw the British driver move ahead of the Spanish driver, with Henrion moving ahead of Oltramare for the lead.
A Safety Car period slowed everything down, with Matt Bell up to second place ahead of the no87 COOL Racing Ligier and just behind Gillian Henrion behind the Safety Car. At the restart Bell got the better run into Turn 1 and swept into the lead.The British driver took the chequered flag 5.8 seconds ahead of Gillian Henrion.
However, the third podium of the season extended Julien Gerbi and Gillian Henrion’s championship lead to 21 points with just two races remaining.
Another top five finish in qualifying for Julien Gerbi saw the no16 Team Virage Ligier start the race at Spa-Francorchamps on row 3.
However, the race didn’t start so well.As the field rounded La Source for the first time, several cars in the mid field were spinning, with the no16 and no59 Team Virage Ligiers getting caught up in the melee. The no22 United Autosports Ligier also went off track in a separate incident and the Safety Car was deployed due to the resulting debris on track.
Gerbi was able to recover his damaged Ligier to the pits but rejoined a lap down and despite a valiant effort by both drivers they could only finish 27that the chequered flag.
However, they maintained their 21-point advantage in the championship standings on 72 points as their closest rivals all failed to score well. Only the no2 CD Sport regained lost ground in the standings with a second-place finish in Belgium to head to Portugal tied on 51 points with the no77 Team Thor pairing of Colin Noble and Audunn Gudmundsson.
The season finale in Portugal would see the no16 Team Virage Ligier needing to finish 7thor better to secure the championship. However, that improved to 8thor better after qualifying after Julien Gerbi scored his first MLMC Pole Position.
The extra championship point putting the team 22 points ahead of their nearest rivals, the no77 Team Thor and the no2 CD Sport Ligiers, who needed nothing less than a win in the final race of the season to stand a chance of snatching the title from Team Virage.
Heavy rain in Portimao saw the race start behind the Safety Car but once the race went green Julien Gerbi took advantage of his position at the head of the field to move ahead of the chasing pack.
After a Full Course Yellow Gerbi was still leading from the no11 CD Sport Of Shahan Sarkissian, with no48 Murphy Prototypes Duqueine of Torsten Kratz gaining on the leading pair.Kratz forced his way past Sarkissian but then ran into the back of the leading Team Virage Ligier, punting Gerbi off the track into the gravel trap.Another Full Course Yellow was declared to recover Gerbi’s Ligier, regaining the track one lap down, out of contention for victory and potentially the championship.
Gillian Henrion raced hard but was unable to unlap the car. He finished the race in 21st position.
However, despondency turned to joy in the Team Virage garage when the no2 CD Sport Ligier of Kirill Small finished second, 1.7 seconds behind the race winning no7 Nielsen Racing Ligier of Josh Skelton. This meant that Julien Gerbi and Gillian Henrion were declared 2023 champions by four points.
CLICK HERE for the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup Championship standings.
