Team Virage Wins Messy Le Mans Cup Opener

Team Virage’s #16 Ligier JS P320 of Julien Gerbi and Gillian Henrion emerged victorious in an incident-packed opening round of the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup at Barcelona. The 110-minute sprint race was heavily impacted by on-track accidents. There were five safety car periods, which totalled 53 minutes, meaning almost half of the race was […]

Team Virage’s #16 Ligier JS P320 of Julien Gerbi and Gillian Henrion emerged victorious in an incident-packed opening round of the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup at Barcelona.

The 110-minute sprint race was heavily impacted by on-track accidents. There were five safety car periods, which totalled 53 minutes, meaning almost half of the race was held under caution. As a result, this was an underwhelming curtain raiser, spoiled by the standard of driving.

The chaos began at Turn 1 at the start. Jonathan Brossard in the #6 ANS Motorsport Ligier ran wide and onto the marbles, sending him into a spin and back across the track and into the mid-pack on the entry to Turn 2.

The incident, which caused a 20-minute safety car period, involved seven cars. The damage from the collisions eliminated the #15 and #13 Inter Europol Ligiers, and the #4 Nielsen Racing and #66 Rinaldi Racing examples, which were all left with nowhere to go. It also forced the #9 Racing Spirit of Leman and #17 IDEC Sport cars into the pits for repairs.

After almost 20 minutes of safety car, the race restarted, only to be halted once again almost immediately due to a puncture for Tony Wells in the #7 Nielsen Racing Ligier which saw him end up stranded in the gravel at Turn 10.

A third safety car was then called by race control after the restart for the Wells clean-up, when the #14 Inter Europol Ligier of Andres Latorre Canon became stranded on a kerb between Turns 8 and 9.

Safety car four came as the halfway mark approached, after yet another messy restart, when Luis Sanjuan had a spin into the gravel in the #97 COOL Racing Ligier.

This one added to the general confusion of the race, as half the field had pitted as the safety car emerged, meaning the order was shaken up by a flurry of stops from the leading LMP3 pack while the safety car was out. Multiple drivers also exited the pit lane while it was closed and were penalised. Another missed his pit box entirely and had to pit a second time!

With the second drivers all aboard their cars, the second half of the race didn’t run completely green either, as an incident at Turn 1 between the #11 CD Sport Ligier of Franck Chappard and Brendon Leitch’s Liepert Motorsport Lamborghini caused the fifth and final safety car period. Chappard’s contact with the rear of the Huracan sent Leitch head-on into the barriers.

Thankfully, once the race went green for a sixth time with 32 minutes remaining the race came alive somewhat and ran without any more major incidents until the finish.

For Team Virage it was a near-perfect outing. Gerbi was strong at the start and managed to fight his way to the lead in between the safety car periods, giving his teammate Henrion a strong position for the second half.

Henrion didn’t lead the race after the set of stops though, as he emerged second behind the #87 COOL Racing Ligier of Cedric Oltramare, who fell to sixth by the end of the race.

The Frenchman quickly made a move to retake the lead at the restart though and managed the race from the front for the final 30 minutes. Behind, Oltramare was on course to hold on for a podium, but after dropping to second struggled for grip late in the race and suffered two costly spins which dropped him down the order in the closing minutes.

Second went the way of the #68 M Racing Ligier of Hugo Delacour and Guilherme Moura De Oliveira, who were in and around the top three for the duration of the race. It was a strong performance, with Moura De Oliveira finishing up just 3.3 seconds behind Henrion.

“That was amazing, an amazing race. This week it was not our week. We had a lot of problems. We didn’t think we could win it. To win it was unbelievable,” said an emotional Gillian Henrion after the race.

CD Sport’s #2 Ligier completed the podium and crossed the line just five seconds off the lead after Kirill Smal inherited third when Oltramare dropped back.

Off the podium was the #77 Team Thor Ligier, Colin Noble finishing 19 seconds back from the winning car, and the #26 360 Racing JS P320, which had a quiet but impactful outing, scoring valuable points.

Further down the order, the pole-sitting #39 GRAFF Ligier finished 10th. James Sweetnam started the race well and looked on course to hand the car over in second after Gerbi made a daring move to take the lead early in the race round the outside at Turn 12. However, the team was handed a 10-second pit time penalty for a safety car infringement which dropped the car down the order.

In GT3, Racing Spirit of Lemans’ brand new Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 saw its pole position converted into a race win. It was a remarkable achievement for the team, which took delivery of the car just three days before the race.

For Arnold Robin and Valentin Hasse-Clot, this was by no means a lights-to-flag affair though, as the car dropped as low as sixth in the melee at Turn 1 at the start. Instead, this was a spirited comeback drive started by Robin and finished by his teammate.

“The safety car was a good thing for us. I am really glad for the team, they received the car three days ago so it was a challenge for them to run the car this weekend,” Hasse-Clot said before the podium celebrations.

Team Parker’s #18 992-spec Porsche 911 GT3 R ended up second, ahead of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 which made it three manufacturers in the top three.

HCR With Caffeinesix’s Porsche, which led the race in the first half, ended up fourth after a spirited drive from Anders Fjordbach, who was involved in multiple on-track battles as the race came alive towards the end.

The two GMB Motorsport Honda NSX GT3s would finish fifth and sixth, after the pair methodically moved up the order in the closing laps with Jan Magnussen in the #88 and Simon Birch in the #55.

Iron Lynx’s #63 Lamborghini crossed the line seventh after Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Vincent Abril both struggled for race pace.

Next up on the calendar for the Le Mans Cup is the Road To Le Mans on June 8th and 9th.

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