RLR MSport Are Victorious in Drama filled Season Opener in Spain

Foster took the chequered flag after Garett Grist, in the no71 Team Virage Ligier, didn’t come in for the last mandatory pitstop as a Full Course Yellow was called, and had to go all the way around to pit just as a FCY period was ending. Grist emerged from the pitlane behind the no15 Ligier and ahead of the third placed no22 United Autosports Ligier.

The GT3 victory went to the no2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche 911 GT3 R of Niki Leutwiler and Julien Andlauer after a race long battle with the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 of Rino Mastronardi and Paolo Ruberti.

LMP3 Facts

1. 26 cars started the race led by the no37 Cool Racing Ligier of 17-year-old Antoine Doquin.
2. The no11 WTM Powered by Phoenix Duqueine of Thorsten Kratz spun in the middle of the pack at T1 at the start of the race forcing several cars to take to the escape road in avoidance, but there were no collisions.
3. While the no37 Cool Racing Ligier of Doquin and the no5 Phoenix Racing Ligier of 16-year-old Finn Gehrsitz were ahead of the chaos and out in front, the beneficiaries were the no69 Cool Racing Ligier of Maurice Smith, up from 7^th to 3^rd, the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Michael Benham, up to 4^th from 11^th, and the no71 Team Virage Ligier of Rob Hodes, up from 9^th to 5^th.
4. ·The no12 Black Falcon Ligier of Donar Munding was making rapid progress through the field from 18^th, challenging for 7^th by lap 12 and setting the fastest lap of the race at that point.
5. The no32 United Autosports Ligier of Daniel Schneider hit the wall at T8, damaging the rear of the car. The Brazilian recovered the car to the pits.
6. The no3 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Jon Brownson spun off into the gravel at T11/T12 and the first of three Safety Car periods was declared. The period lasted 8 minutes.
7. Lap 21 saw the no12 Black Falcon Ligier of Donar Munding overtake the no69 Cool Racing Ligier of Maurice Smith for 3^rd.
8. The no37 Cool Racing Ligier of Antoine Doquin was still leading, with the no5 Phoenix Racing Ligier of Finn Gehrsitz still in contention.
9. After 44 minutes of racing the second Safety Car was deployed after the no21 Mühlner Motorsport Duqueine of Erwin Creed spun on the kerbs and speared across the track into the wall, spreading debris across the track. Creed emerged from the wrecked car and walked away unaided.
10. All of the top 11 cars made mandatory pitstops during the Safety Car period, which lasted 11 minutes.
11. This shuffled the pack once again and the no16 Team Virage Ligier of Julien Gerbi was out in front ahead of the no55 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine of Dominik Schwager, with both cars out of sequence due to stopping under the first SC period.

1. Several of the leading cars which had stopped emerged from the pitlane passing a red light, something that would be penalised later in the race.
2. After 64 minutes of racing the third Safety Car was deployed when the former leading no37 Cool Racing Ligier, now with Josh Skelton at the wheel, ended up in the gravel at T10 and had to be rescued. This Safety Car period lasted 13 minutes.
3. At the restart the no25 Racing Spirit of LeMan Ligier of Theo Chalal was the lead car with the no71 Team Virage Ligier of Garett Grist bearing down on the French driver.
4. The no69 Cool Racing Ligier of Matt Bell was lying third but was trying to pass the no16 Team Virage Ligier of Sacha Lehmann. Lehmann was shown the blue flag but chose to ignore the signals and kept the no69 Ligier behind him for several laps, building up a train of several cars, all vying for the third place.This allowed Grist to move ahead of the rest of the field.
5. Lehmann was eventually given a drive through penalty and once released Bell caught and passed the no25 Ligier to move up to second place with the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Tommy Foster in third.
6. The no71 Team Virage Ligier had a 22 second lead as the final mandatory pitstops approached and Garett Grist looked to be heading to victory.
7. With 10 minutes left Matt Bell brought the no69 Cool Racing Ligier in from second but then the no33 CD Sport Ligier Adam Eteki spun off into the gravel at T4.
8. This brought out a Full Course Yellow was shown to slow the entire field.
9. Unexpectedly the leading no71 Ligier chose not to pit for the final stop, while the rest of the field headed in for their stops. Grist brought his car in at the end of the next slow lap and he emerged in second place behind Tommy Fosters no15 RLR MSport Ligier.
10. At the chequered flag it was the no15 RLR MSport Ligier in front, ahead of the no71 Team Virage, the no22 United Autosports Ligier of Scott Andrews taking the final podium position.·
11. After the race the no71 Team Virage Ligier was served with a 1 second Stop and Go penalty, which was converted into a time penalty of 36 seconds.The penalty was given for non respect of the minimum reference pitstop time for the second pitstop.
12. ·The penalty dropped the no71 Ligier to 5^th, with the no22 United Autosport Ligier promoted to second and the no23 United Autosports Ligier to third.

GT3 FACTS

1. Only 4 GT3 cars took the start after the no9 Iron Lynx Ferrari didn’t make it to the grid due to a technical issue.
2. The no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Rino Mastronardi started on pole position, with the no2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche of Niki Leutwiler in second. The two cars were nose to tail on the opening two laps, with Leutwiler diving down the inside at T10 to take the class lead.
3. Mastronardi kept pace with the leading Porsche and for several laps the two cars were split by just 2 or 3 tenths.
4. After the first Safety Car period Mastronardi got a better restart and overtook Leutwiler’s Porsche after the two cars raced side by side through T4 and T5.
5. The no93 10Q Racing Team Mercedes AMG of Wim Spinoy and the no51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Ken Abe were having a battle for the final class podium spot, with the Mercedes hanging on.
6. After 56 minutes of racing the leading GT3 cars headed to the pits to complete their mandatory stops and hand the cars over to Julien Andlauer and Paolo Ruberti.Andlauer had a 1.8 second advantage over Ruberti, whose progress was being hampered by LMP3 traffic. This allowed Matteo Cressoni in the no51 Ferrari to catch Ruberti and challenge for second place.
7. In the final 15 minutes of the race Julien Andlauer had opened a small gap to the rest of the GT3 which allowed the French driver to take the chequered flag with relative ease.
8. Paolo Ruberti finished second, one lap ahead of the no51 Ferrari, which had faded away in the final part of the race.

CLICK HERE for the results from Round 1 of the 2021 Michelin Le Mans Cup