The Russians finished just ahead of the no88 Mentos Racing Porsche of Egidio Perfetti and Ben Barker, with the hard charging Euan Hankey taking the final podium position for himself and Salih Yoluc in the no34 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage.
At the start the no34 TF Sport Aston Martin got ahead of the SMP Ferrari 488 at the first corner but Yoluc only held the lead for a short time as Basov got back ahead before the cars headed down the Mistral Straight for the first time. Another good start was made by the no7 BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 458 of Matteo Cressoni with the Italian getting into the first corner in third place ahead of the no55 McLaren of Hiroshi Hamaguchi and the no88 Porsche of Egidio Perfetti.
Cressoni then got on terms with Yoluc’s Aston Martin and swept past the Turk on the inside at Signes Corner to take second place. The no34 Aston Martin was then handed a drive through penalty as Yoluc’s start was judged to have been too good and was penalised for a jump start. The Turkish driver rejoined in 8th place and then began his fight back up the field, but an ambitious attempt to pass the no66 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini of Mark Poole caused a collision that forced the Lamborghini to spin off, rejoining after a few moments.
The no55 FFF Racing Team by ACM McLaren became the first casualty of the race when the engine problem that had been caused the team to miss Free Practice 2 returned and after a couple of abortive attempts to rejoin the race, the team finally retired the car.
The no7 Ferrari then suffered a rear puncture as Cressoni entered the Mistral Straight, the Italian forced to slow and return to the pits. This promoted the no88 Porsche into second place as the Safety Car was deployed to allow the marshals to recover the debris caused by the Ferrari’s bodywork broken off by the flailing tyre.
The race resumed but the no34 TF Sport Aston Martin, which had worked its way back up to third, was handed another drive through penalty for the collision with the no66 Lamborghini, undoing all the hard work done by Salih Yoluc. The Turk rejoined the race in 10th place and immediately started the process of fighting his way to the front before the pitstops.
At the halfway point of the race the cars started to peel off into the pits to complete their mandatory pitstops, with the no88 Mentos Racing Porsche of Edigio Perfetti being the first to hand over to Ben Barker.
After the pitstops had been completed Victor Shaitar held the lead in the no72 SMP Racing Ferrari, with the no88 Porsche in 2nd and the no34 TF Sport Aston Martin, with Euan Hankey at the wheel, in third but over 20 seconds behind the leading pair of cars.
Further back the no8 Scuderia Villorba Corse Ferrari of Steeve Hiesse and the no51 AF Corse F488 of Francesco Castellacci were have a big scrap for 4th place. Castellacci made an ambitious move to pass the French driver but the resulting collision caused damage to the front left of his Ferrari, forcing the Italian into the pits and into retirement. The no8 Ferrari continued with its race.
At the front the no72 Ferrari and no88 Porsche were running within two seconds of each other as Hankey in the no34 Aston Martin was setting three fastest laps on the bounce as he closed the gap by 10 seconds to the two leaders.
The no7 Ferrari, this time with Luigi Lucchini at the wheel, suffered an identical puncture that his teammate had suffered earlier in the race and the BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari had to limp back to the pits for the second time. Johnny Mowlem in the no25 FF Corse Ferrari was pushing hard but then suffered a puncture to the front left tyre, which he returned to the pits to replace. The British driver didn't switch off his engine while the tyre was changed and was given a stop go penalty for the infringement.
As the race drew to a close the no75 Optimum Motorsport Audi R8 of Joe Osborne was making progress up the field, passing the no8 Ferrari of Steeve Hiesse for 4th on the last but one lap of the race.
As the chequered flag was displayed it was the no72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Victor Shaitar that crossed the line just 1.5 seconds ahead of Ben Barker in the no88 Mentos Racing Porsche, with the no34 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Euan Hankey 8.2 seconds behind the lead car after two hours of racing.
After four races Victor Shaitar and Alexsey Basov are on 77 points in the Drivers Championship, 10 points ahead of Euan Hankey and Salih Yoluc with two races in Belgium and Portugal remaining. In the team championship TF Sport are on 67 points, 15 ahead of Mentos Racing and SMP Racing on 52 points.
The next round is at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on Saturday 24 September.
CLICK HERE for the result from Round 4 of the 2016 Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup
CLICK HERE for the championship positions
Le Castellet Round - Press conference par GT3LMC
