24h Le Mans
The second round of the European Le Mans Series, set to take place this Sunday starting at 1:30 p.m. local time at the Autodromo di Monza in Italy, serves as the last Automobile Club de l’Ouest-sanctioned race before the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 17th and 18th.
- The first free practice took place today from 3:55 p.m. to 5:25 p.m. The best time was clocked by Ryo Hirakawa in G-Drive Racing's #22 Oreca 07-Gibson in 1'36.963. The Japanese driver came in ahead of Cetilar Villorba Corse's #47 Dallara P217 and another Oreca, DragonSpeed's #21. No incident disrupted the proceedings, only a downpour managed to compromise certain teams' plans.
- Though Matthieu Vaxivière was confirmed to take the wheel of Panis-Barthez Compétition's Ligier JS P217 as the replacement for Natanaël Berthon, recruited for a Blancpain Endurance Series race at Silverstone, the French driver injured himself and will be unable to fulfill the obligation (read article). As a result, the Panis-Barthez Compétition team has decided not to call upon a third driver at Monza, so the #23 will be driven by Fabien Barthez and Timothé Buret.
- At Monza, we are in the land of Ferrari and its legion of "tifosi" (fans)! Two Ferrari 488 GTEs are entered for the Spirit of Race team and one F458 Italia for JMW Motorsport. All three cars will also participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 17th and 18th.
- Larbre Compétition's Corvette C7-Z06 is present at Monza despite its absence at Silverstone, and will run its first laps this year in Italy with the same driver line-up confirmed for the 24 Hours: Fernando Rees, Romain Brandela and Christian Philippon. At Le Mans, the car will boast a completely new livery designed to give a nod to the famous Art Cars.
- Seven drivers who participated in the WEC Spa-Francorchamps round last Saturday will be competing in the ELMS Monza race this weekend: Nicolas Lapierre, Ben Hanley, Olivier Pla, Matt Griffin, Christian Ried, Nicki Thiim and Darren Turner.
- In addition to the ELMS at Monza, the Michelin Le Mans Cup is also on the track for the first round of its season. In all, 20 cars are present (15 LMP3s and five GT3s), only Gulf Racing's #20 Porsche 911 GT3 R for Andrew and Benjamin Barker will miss out. The competitors are here to prepare for Road To Le Mans as well where two one-hour races will take place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit on Thursday, June 15th at 5:30 p.m. and on Saturday, June 17th at 11:30 a.m. local time.
Photo (Copyright - VSA/Laurent Cartalade): Larbre Compétition's Corvette C7-Z06 is at Monza for the second round of the season.
