Le Mans 2018 – Aston Martin Racing Lemans Festival & Road to Le Mans


# 73, Vantage GT3, M. Brown_P. Cripps

# 73, Vantage GT3, M. Brown_P. Cripps

 

Aston Martin Racing Lemans Festival

Aston Martin had a large presence at Le Mans, with 2 cars in each of the main race GT categories, an Aston Martin Paddock, an impressive hospitality suite, and the Lemans Festival race on the Saturday morning. This featured an entry of 37 cars, ranging from GT3 and GT4 examples through a pair of Vulcans, a DBR9, a DBRS9, to the new yet to be homologated Vantage GT3, which was running without restrictors by invitation, thus not eligible to compete for a position in the race. This # 3 example driven by Ross Gunn “won” the race on the road by nearly 20secs. Also in the race were Martin Brundle and British cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy, who were sharing an Aston Martin Performance Centre entered GT4 model.

The drivers in this race were much “better behaved” than their Road to Le Mans counterparts, with very few retirements through indiscretions. The field provided a great multicoloured hue together with some close racing through the classes, but when the chequered flag fell it was the Aston Martin Performance Centre entered # 14 Vulcan of P. Dumbreck/C. Harris that took the race win.

 

Overall Race Podium

1st # 14, Aston Martin Performance Centre, Vulcan of P. Dumbreck / C. Harris
2nd - # 95, Young Driver AMR, Vantage GTE, S. Simonsen / L. Sorensen
3rd = # 17, Sporting & Historic Cars, DBR9, D. Roschmann

 

Road to Le Mans

The pair of “Road to Le Mans” races were part of the Michelin Le Mans Cup series, with the first race on the Thursday evening prior to the main race final qualifying sessions, and the second on the Saturday morning preceding the main race. There was a large field of 49 cars, 41 in the LMP3 class and 8 in the GT3 class, of which 7 were Ferraris, 6 488 GT3 examples plus one 458 GT3, together with a lone Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Both races produced some close, sometimes too close, action through the field, and there were a number of “altercations”, some of which necessitated the deployment of the safety car. The net result was a switch in the front runners between the two races, with the LMP3 pole sitting Graff Norma M30-Nissan dropping down the order, whilst the race 1 winning Ligier JS P3-Nissan of Jensen / Van Berlo was involved in a race 2 incident which dropped it out of contention for repeating its performance. In the GT3 class the pair of Ferraris, # 71 and # 8, that had finished 1-2 in race 1, were both eliminated on the first lap in race 2.

 

Race Podiums

Race 1 Overall & LMP3

1st - # 11, Eurointernational, Ligier JS P3-Nissan, M. Jensen / K. Van Berlo
2nd - # 33, United Autosports, Ligier JS P3-Nissan, J. Falb / S. Rayhall
3rd - # 3, DKR Engineering, Norma M30-Nissan, L. Hoogenboom / J. Petersen

Race 1 GT3 Class

1si - #71, AF Corse, Ferrari 488 GT3, P. Perazzini / M. Cioci
2nd - # 8, Kessel Racing, Ferrari 488 GT3, S. Pianezzola / G. Piccini
3rd - # 77, Kessel Racing, Ferrari 488 GT3, C. Schiavoni / A. Piccini

Race 2 Overall & LMP3.

1st - # 25, Lanan Racing, Norma M30-Nissan, M. Benham / D. Tappy
2nd - # 33, United Autosports, Ligier JS P3-Nissan, J. Falb / S. Rayhall
3rd - # 21, DB Autosport,Norma M30-Nissan, J. Wolff / H. Schatz

Race 2 GT3 Class

1st - # 51, Spirit of Race, Ferrari 488 GT3, C. Ulrich / M. Mediani
2nd - # 77, Kessel Racing, Ferrari 488 GT3, C. Schiavoni / A. Piccini
3rd - # 50 Kessel Racing, Ferrari 488 GT3, J. Hartshorne / O. Hancock



Ferrari Entry

 

 

Race #

Model

Chassis #

Team

Colour

Drivers

Position

Class GT3

R1

R2

OA Cl.

OA  Cl.

71

Ferrari 488 GT3

4222

AF Corse

Red-RWG St’s

P. Perazzini /
M. Cioci

20th  1st

DNF

8

Ferrari 488 GT3

4444

Kessel Racing

Blue Met’/Mauve

S. Pianezzolo / G. Piccini

24th  2nd

DNF

77

Ferrari 488 GT3

4420

Kessel Racing

Blue Met’-Black-Orange

C. Schiavoni / A. Piccini

25th  3rd

27th  2nd

54

Ferrari 488 GT3

4296

Spirit of Race

White-Green

L. Soenen /
P. Vervisch

26th  4th

34th  4th

51

Ferrari 488 GT3

4274

Spirit of Race

Orange-White

C. Ulrich /
M. Mediani

28th  5th

13th  1st

50

Ferrari 488 GT3

4212

Kessel Racing

Red-Black

J. Hartshorne /
O. Hancock

29th  6th

32nd  3rd

69

Ferrari 458 GT3

3240

Stile F Squadra Corse

Black

M. Grab /
G. Forgione

36th  8th

36th  6th



Keith Bluemel         
06/2018