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Edition

Australia

Red Bull Ring ELMS: G-Drive scores second straight win

G-Drive Racing scored a second successive European Le Mans Series victory at the Red Bull Ring after a race-long strategic battle with Duqueine Engineeering in wet/dry conditions.

Race winners Roman Rusinov, Andrea Pizzitola, Jean-Eric Vergne, G-Drive Racing

Race winners Roman Rusinov, Andrea Pizzitola, Jean-Eric Vergne, G-Drive Racing

ELMS

The #26 G-Drive Oreca had to work its way through the field after it switched to an alternative strategy, as Roman Rusinov jumped the start and was given a drive-through penalty.

Once Andrea Pizzitola took the wheel, he worked his way through the pack, helped by pitting under full course yellow periods, before handing over to newly-crowned Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne.

The Duqueine Engineering Oreca driven by Nelson Panciatici, Nico Jamin and Pierre Ragues, took the lead at the start of the race as Ragues overtook the polesitting IDEC Sport Oreca of Paul Lafargue.

From there, Ragues built a gap to the rest of the pack before handing over to Jamin. By the halfway mark, the gap had built up to almost half a minute to the #24 Racing Engineering Oreca.

Rain arrived at the halfway mark, and although it was not significant enough to tempt teams to switch to wet tyres, the more slippery track allowed the Dunlop-fitted cars to close the gap on the Michelin-shod Duqueine entry.

Vergne had to pit for one final time in the final 15 minutes of the race but the former Formula 1 driver was able to retain his lead as he had built a lead of almost a minute by that stage.

Panciatici brought the Duqueine car home second, 19s behind, narrowly fending off the advances of Olivier Pla in the Racing Engineering Oreca he shared with Paul Petit and Norman Nato.

United Autosports' #22 Ligier was the best of the non-Oreca runners in fourth, followed by the #28 IDEC Sport car which was delayed by contact with the #30 AVF Dallara and a subsequent penalty.

UPDATE: The second-placed Duqueine Engineering Oreca was later disqualified from second "because the fuel did not conform to the one indicated by the organiser".

It promotes the Racing Engineering Oreca to second and the United Autosports Ligier to third.

RLR takes LMP3 honours

John Farano, Job van Uitert and Rob Garofall won the LMP3 class in the #15 RLR Msport Ligier JS P3.

Van Uitert had battled hard for the lead with the #9 AT Racing Ligier of Mikkel Jensen hard in the opening hour but was able to build a gap when Jensen handed over to Alexander Talkanitsa Sr.

But as driver changes, rain, and strategy played out, the #15 car lost a lap of almost a lead in the closing stages, with Garofall coming home five seconds ahead of Alex Kapadia in the #7 Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen Ligier at the end.

The #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier finished third after a frantic race-long scrap involving the #7 car, the #17 Ultimate Norma and the #11 Eurointernational Ligier.

Porsche edges Ferrari in GTE

GTE class honours went to Gianluca Roda, Giorgio Roda and Matteo Cairoli in the #88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR which led for most of the race.

The polesitting Ferrari 488 GTE driven by Alex MacDowall was the first retirement of the race, but the #55 Spirit of Race car upheld Ferrari honour by finishing second, 8s down on the #88 Proton car.

There was late drama as the #83 Krohn Racing Ferrari had to pit late on after contact, and a drive-through penalty for the #77 Proton Porsche gifted a class podium for the #80 Ebimotors Porsche.

Report by Craig Woollard

Race results:

Pos.#DriversCarLapsTime/Gap
1 26 france Jean-Eric Vergne 
russia Roman Rusinov 
france Andrea Pizzitola 
Oreca 07 160 4:00'14.242
2 24 france Olivier Pla 
france Paul Petit 
france Norman Nato 
Oreca 07 160 20.126
3 22 portugal Filipe Albuquerque 
united_kingdom Philip Hanson 
Ligier JSP217 160 54.166
4 28 france Paul-Loup Chatin 
mexico Memo Rojas 
france Paul Lafargue 
Oreca 07 160 56.087
5 21 france Nicolas Lapierre 
sweden Henrik Hedman 
united_kingdom Ben Hanley 
Oreca 07 159 1 lap
6 31 united_states Gustavo Menezes 
united_kingdom Harrison Newey 
ireland Ryan Cullen 
Oreca 07 159 1 lap
7 35 russia Viktor Shaytar 
russia Matevos Isaakyan 
russia Egor Orudzhev 
Dallara P217 159 1 lap
8 39 france Tristan Gommendy 
switzerland Jonathan Hirschi 
france Alexandre Cougnaud 
Oreca 07 159 1 lap
9 33 france Loic Duval 
france François Perrodo 
france Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Oreca 07 159 1 lap
10 23 united_kingdom Will Stevens 
france Julien Canal 
france Timothé Buret 
Ligier JSP217 158 2 laps
11 47 italy Roberto Lacorte 
italy Giorgio Sernagiotto 
brazil Felipe Nasr 
Dallara P217 158 2 laps
12 49 denmark Anders Fjordbach 
denmark Dennis Andersen 
Dallara P217 158 2 laps
13 40 mexico Jose Gutierrez 
australia James Allen 
Oreca 07 158 2 laps
14 30 russia Konstantin Tereshchenko
portugal  Henrique Chaves 
Dallara P217 158 2 laps
15 32 united_kingdom Wayne Boyd 
united_states  Will Owen 
switzerland Hugo De Sadeleer 
Ligier JSP217 157 3 laps
16 27 france Erik Maris 
france Nicolas Minassian 
france Patrice Lafargue 
Ligier JSP217 154 6 laps
17 25 united_states Mark Patterson 
korea_republic_of Tacksung Kim 
netherlands Ate de Jong 
Ligier JSP217 152 8 laps
18 15 canada John Farano 
united_kingdom  Rob Garofall 
netherlands  Job Van Uitert 
Ligier JS P3 148 12 laps
19 7 united_kingdom Alex Kapadia 
united_kingdom  Colin Noble 
denmark  Christian Stubbe Olsen 
Ligier JS P3 148 12 laps
20 13 poland Jakub Smiechowski 
germany Martin Hippe 
Ligier JS P3 148 12 laps
21 17 france Jean Baptiste Lahaye 
france Matthieu Lahaye 
france François Heriau 
Norma M 30 148 12 laps
22 9 belarus Alexander Talkanitsa Sr. 
belarus Alexander Talkanitsa Jr. 
denmark Mikkel Jensen 
Ligier JS P3 147 13 laps
23 5 russia Timur Boguslavskiy 
ukraine  Alexey Chuklin 
russia  Daniil Pronenko 
Ligier JS P3 147 13 laps
24 88 italy Gianluca Roda 
italy Matteo Cairoli 
italy Giorgio Roda 
Porsche 911 RSR 147 13 laps
25 11 italy Giorgio Mondini 
netherlands Kay van Berlo 
Ligier JS P3 147 13 laps
26 6 united_kingdom Terrence Woodward 
united_kingdom Ross Kaiser 
Ligier JS P3 146 14 laps
27 55 united_kingdom Duncan Cameron 
ireland Matthew Griffin 
united_kingdom Aaron Scott 
Ferrari F488 GTE 146 14 laps
28 18 france Laurent Millara 
france  Natan Bihel 
Ligier JS P3 146 14 laps
29 4 france Antonin Borga 
france Alexandre Coigny 
switzerland Iradj Alexander-David 
Ligier JS P3 146 14 laps
30 80 united_states Bret Curtis 
italy Fabio Babini 
italy  Riccardo Pera 
Porsche 911 RSR 146 14 laps
31 77 germany Christian Ried 
germany Marvin Dienst 
norway Dennis Olsen 
Porsche 911 RSR 145 15 laps
32 14 italy Guglielmo Belotti 
germany Paul Scheuschner 
italy  Luca Demarchi 
Ligier JS P3 145 15 laps
33 3 united_kingdom  Matthew Bell 
united_kingdom Tony Wells 
canada  Garret Grist
Ligier JS P3 145 15 laps
34 12 italy Andrea Dromedari 
united_states Max Hanratty 
canada James Dayson 
Ligier JS P3 144 16 laps
35 83 italy Andrea Bertolini 
united_states Tracy Krohn 
sweden Nic Jönsson 
Ferrari F488 GTE 143 17 laps
36 8 mexico Ricardo Sanchez 
sweden Henning Enqvist 
  Fabien Lavergne 
Norma M 30 142 18 laps
37 16 italy Francesco Dracone 
italy  Jacopo Baratto 
Ligier JS P3 141 19 laps
38 10 france Clément Mateu 
colombia Andres Mendez 
italy  Riccardo Ponzio 
Norma M 30 132 28 laps
Ret 19 switzerland David Droux 
switzerland Lucas Legeret 
france Alain Ferté 
Norma M 30 112 48 laps
Ret  2 united_states Sean Rayhall 
united_states John Falb 
Ligier JS P3 70 90 laps
Ret  66 united_kingdom Alex MacDowall 
united_kingdom Liam Griffin 
spain Miguel Molina 
Ferrari F488 GTE 43 117 laps
DQ 29 france Nelson Panciatici 
france Pierre Ragues 
france Nico Jamin 
Oreca 07 160 --

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