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Imola ELMS: Thiriet by TDS Racing takes win in rain-hit race

Thiriet by TDS Racing emerged victorious in the 4 Hours of Imola on Sunday, beating Silverstone-winners G-Drive in a race hit by torrential rain.

#46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05 - Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche, Ryo Hirakama

#46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05 - Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche, Ryo Hirakama

Vision Sport Agency

#38 G-Drive Racing Gibson 015S-Nissan: Simon Dolan, Giedo van der Garde, Harry Tincknell
#21 Dragonspeed Oreca 05 - Nissan: Henrik Hedman, Nicolas Lapierre, Ben Hanley
#66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari F458 Italia: Rory Butcher, Robert Smith, Andrea Bertolini
#18 M.Racing - YMR Ligier JSP3 - Nissan: Thomas Laurent, Yann Ehrlacher, Alexandre Cougnaud
#29 Pegasus Racing Morgan - Nissan: Inès Taittinger, Remy Striebig, Leo Roussel
#9 Graff Racing Ligier JS P3 - Nissan: Eric Trouillet, Paul Petit, Enzo Guibbert
#28 IDEC Sport Racing Ligier JSP2 Judd: Patrice Lafargue, Paul Lafargue, Dimitri Enjalbert
#55 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia: Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin, Aaron Scott
#3 United Autosports Ligier JSP3 - Nissan: Matt Bell, Mark Patterson, Wayne Boyd
Track action
#21 Dragonspeed Oreca 05 - Nissan: Henrik Hedman, Nicolas Lapierre, Ben Hanley

At the start of the race, Nicolas Lapierre led from pole position in the #21 DragonSpeed car, with Panis Barthez Competiton’s Paul Loup Chatin passing Pierre Thiriet to jump to second place.

Lapierre continued to lead at the front, extending his advantage to eight seconds before handing the car to Henrik Hedman at the first round of pitstops.

Panis Barthez Competition and Thiriet by TDS, in contrast, decided to double-stint their drivers, passing the DragonSpeed car in quick succession to take the top two spots.

The status quo remained at the front until the second round of pitstops when Ryo Hirakawa passed Fabien Barthez for the lead of the race, having taken over the driving seat of the #46 Oreca-Nissan.

Thereon, the Thiriet by TDS squad was unthreatened despite a scare at Acque Minerali when it spun, taking home a comfortable win.

However, the order behind was far from settled as G-Drive and DragonSpeed began a period of resurgence to finish second and third, with Ben Hanley made some particularly impressive moves during the second part of the race.

The team could have finished as runner-up, had it initially fitted its car with a set of full wets when rain hit the track with just over an hour to go.

The drizzle turned into a full downpour, forcing the race director to deploy a Full Course Yellow, followed by a safety car period.

With conditions showing little signs of improving, the race finished under the safety car with SMP Racing taking fourth place, ahead of the #33 Eurasia Motorsport entry.

Krohn Racing had to settle for sixth position, having ran much higher during the early part of the race.

The #23 Panis Barthez Competition entry finished a disappointing seventh, after going off in wet conditions on a set of intermediate tyres.

Race Performance and Murphy Prototypes were classified ninth and 10th.

United Autosports takes second consecutive LMP3 win

In the LMP3 class, United Autosports lodged its second successive win of the season, with the #2 car of Alex Brundle, Mike Guasch and Christian England taking the top spot.

Eurointernatinational’s #11 entry of Marco Jacoboni, Giorgio Mondini and Andrea Roda took second while the Panis Barthez Competition machine of Eric Debard, Simon Gachet and Valentin Moineault completed the rostrum.

The polesitting car of #3 United Autosports lost its lead on Lap 6 when Matt Bell ran wide at Tamburello, allowing its sister car to inherit the top spot.

Proton Racing dominates GTE class

In the GTE Class, the Porsche 911 of Proton Racing was on a class of its own, beating all of LMP3 cars to finish 13th overall in the timesheets.

Driving the #77 car, Mike Hedlund, Wolf Henzler and Robert Renauer were impressive throughout the 116 laps they ran, with sister #88 car finishing fourth in class.

JMW Motorsport’s Ferrari 458 Italia of Andrea Bertolini, Rory Butcher and Robert Smith finished a lap down in second place, with the #56 AT Racing of Alexander Talkanista (Senior & Junior) and Davide Rigon classified in third position.

Race results - Top 10:

 Pos #Driver Car/Engine  Laps Time 
46  Pierre Thiriet
 Mathias Beche
 Ryo Hirakawa
ORECA/Nissan 121 4:01'13.223
38  Simon Dolan
 Harry Tincknell
 Giedo van der Garde
Gibson/Nissan 121 4:01'32.480
21  Henrik Hedman
 Nicolas Lapierre
 Benjamin Hanley
ORECA/Nissan 121 4:01'44.033
32  Stefano Coletti
 Julián Leal
 Andreas Wirth
BR Engineering/Nissan 121 4:01'47.214
33  Pu Jun Jin
 Nick de Bruijn
 Tristan Gommendy
ORECA/Nissan 121 4:01'58.695
40  Björn Wirdheim
 Nic Jönsson
 Olivier Pla
Ligier/Nissan 120 4:01'15.185
23  Fabien Barthez
 Timothé Buret
 Paul-Loup Chatin
Ligier/Nissan 120 4:01'56.279
41  Memo Rojas
 Julien Canal
 Kuba Giermaziak
Ligier/Nissan 118 4:01'24.497
34  Niki Leutwiler
 James Winslow
 Shinji Nakano
ORECA/Nissan 118 4:01'48.053
10  48  Sean Doyle
 PatrickMcClughan
 Gary Findlay
ORECA/Nissan 118 4:01'49.532

 

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