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Edition

Australia

Monza ELMS: Panis Racing beats United for maiden win

Panis Racing took its maiden European Le Mans Series victory at Monza as Will Stevens, Julien Canal and James Allen headed United Autosports after four hours of racing.

#65 Panis Racing Oreca 07 - Gibson: Julien Canal, Will Stevens, James Allen

#65 Panis Racing Oreca 07 - Gibson: Julien Canal, Will Stevens, James Allen

Paolo Belletti

The first part of the race was an all-out battle between championship contenders G-Drive Racing, Team WRT and United Autosports with reigning champion Phil Hanson in the sole United car taking the lead from the pole-sitting #26 G-Drive car driven by Roman Rusinov just before the first pitstops.

Rusinov's race was compromised when he ran out of fuel following a safety car brought out to recover the #77 WeatherTech Racing Porsche from the Lesmo gravel trap. The 2018 champion would eventually finish one lap down in eighth together with Mikkel Jensen and Franco Colapinto.

Several race interruptions brought other teams in the fray, including the Panis Racing team that had started eighth but moved into second after the first stops with Canal at the wheel.

The lead changed hands during the second round of pitstops when Allen climbed aboard, and the Australian kept United's Jonathan Aberdein at bay before handing over to Stevens for the final stint, the ex-Formula 1 driver able to fend off United’s Tom Gamble for the win.

Behind the guesting JOTA Oreca of Jazeman Jaafar and Sean Gelael - using the event to prepare for next weekend's FIA World Endurance Championship round at Monza - championship leader WRT continued its consistent points-scoring run with fourth for Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Yi Yifei.

Almost the entire LMP2 Pro-Am field led at some time or another, but a well-executed strategy and a strong final stint from former F1 Roberto Merhi gave the #25 G-Drive machine he shared with Jon Falb and Rui Andrade class honours in sixth overall.

#65 Panis Racing Oreca 07 - Gibson: Julien Canal, Will Stevens, James Allen

#65 Panis Racing Oreca 07 - Gibson: Julien Canal, Will Stevens, James Allen

Photo by: Paolo Belletti

The LMP3 class provided a vast array of strategies, with the difference between a win and a top 10 result often decided by an unlucky full course yellow. The pole-sitting DKR Engineering Duqueine used the final full course yellow of the race, ironically following an incident in which the team itself was involved, to secure a win for Laurens Horr and Matthieu de Barbuat.

The GTE class proved to be an all-Ferrari fight between the Spirit of Race and Iron Lynx teams, who were often only separated by a few tenths of a second.

The battle between Spirit of Race's David Perel and Miguel Molina proved especially riveting, and the South African held firm throughout the final stints to join Duncan Cameron and Alessandro Pier Guidi on the top step of the podium.

Perel dedicated the win to absent teammate Matt Griffin, who withdrew from the event following the sudden passing of his father.

Race results:

Cla # Driver Car Laps Gap
1 65 France Julien Canal
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Australia James Allen
Oreca 07 125
2 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
South Africa Jonathan Aberdein
United Kingdom Tom Gamble
Oreca 07 125 5.131
3 82 Malaysia Jazeman Jaafar
Indonesia Sean Gelael
Oreca 07 125 34.420
4 41 Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
China Ye Yifei
Oreca 07 125 41.783
5 30 France Tristan Gommendy
Austria Rene Binder
Mexico Memo Rojas
Oreca 07 124
6 25 United States John Falb
Portugal Rui Andrade
Spain Roberto Merhi
Aurus 01 124 1 Lap
7 34 Turkey Salih Yoluc
Ireland Charles Eastwood
United States Logan Sargeant
Oreca 07 124 1 Lap
8 26 Russian Federation Roman Rusinov
Argentina Franco Colapinto
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
Aurus 01 124 1 Lap
9 28 France Paul Lafargue
France Paul-Loup Chatin
France Patrick Pilet
Oreca 07 124 1 Lap
10 24 Mexico Diego Menchaca
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
United Kingdom Richard Bradley
Oreca 07 124 1 Lap
11 29 France Matthieu Lahaye
France Jean Baptiste Lahaye
France François Heriau
Oreca 07 124 1 Lap
12 37 Switzerland Alexandre Coigny
France Nicolas Lapierre
Switzerland Antonin Borga
Oreca 07 123
13 92 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Oreca 07 123 2 Laps
14 70 Switzerland Esteban Garcia
France Loic Duval
Oreca 07 123 2 Laps
15 17 United States Dwight Merriman
United Kingdom Kyle Tilley
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
Oreca 07 122
16 39 France Vincent Capillaire
France Maxime Robin
Arnold Robin
Oreca 07 122 3 Laps
17 21 Sweden Henrik Hedman
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
Oreca 07 122 3 Laps
18 35 Italy Francesco Dracone
Italy Sergio Campana
Germany Markus Pommer
Oreca 07 122 3 Laps
19 4 Germany Laurents Hörr
Mathieu de
Duqueine M30 - D08 119
20 2 United Kingdom Wayne Boyd
Robert Wheldon
Edouard Cauhaupe
Ligier JS P320 119 6 Laps
21 13 Germany Martin Hippe
Italy Mattia Pasini
Ugo De
Ligier JS P320 119 6 Laps
22 19 Nicolas Maulini
United Kingdom Matthew Bell
Niklas Kruetten
Ligier JS P320 119 6 Laps
23 20 United States Rob Hodes
Canada Garett Grist
Charles Crews
Ligier JS P320 118
24 5 Cresp Christophe
France Fabien Lavergne
Adrien Chila
Ligier JS P320 118 7 Laps
25 14 France Erwin Creed
Marius Zug
Mateusz Kaprzyk
Ligier JS P320 118 7 Laps
26 18 Alessandro Bressan
Greece Andreas Laskaratos
Italy Damiano Fioravanti
Ligier JS P320 118 7 Laps
27 15 Mike Benham
United Kingdom Alex Kapadia
Malthe Jakobsen
Ligier JS P320 117
28 3 James McGuire
Duncan Tappy
Andrew Bentley
Ligier JS P320 117 8 Laps
29 55 United Kingdom Duncan Cameron
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
South Africa David Perel
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 117 8 Laps
30 80 Italy Matteo Cressoni
Italy Rino Mastronardi
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 117 8 Laps
31 88 France François Perrodo
France Emmanuel Collard
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 117 8 Laps
32 12 David Hauser
Gary Hauser
Tom Cloet
Duqueine M30 - D08 117 8 Laps
33 66 United Kingdom Jody Fannin
Italy Andrea Fontana
United States Rodrigo Sales
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 117 8 Laps
34 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Italy Paolo Ruberti
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 117 8 Laps
35 83 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Italy Manuela Gostner
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 117 8 Laps
36 6 United Kingdom Nick Adcock
United States Austin McCusker
Netherlands Max Koebolt
Ligier JS P320 117 8 Laps
37 93 Germany Michael Fassbender
Germany Felipe Fernández Laser
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 116
38 95 United Kingdom John Hartshorne
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Ollie Hancock
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 115
39 77 Germany Christian Ried
United States Cooper MacNeil
Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 115 10 Laps
40 8 France Eric Trouillet
Sebastien Page
Switzerland David Droux
Ligier JS P320 111
41 9 Switzerland Matthias Kaiser
Finland Rory Penttinen
Ligier JS P320 99
42 7 United Kingdom Tony Wells
United Kingdom Colin Noble Jr.
Ligier JS P320 79

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