UPDATE: Bretton Racing and AF Corse Win at Spa-Francorchamps in Drama Filled Race

The 7km circuit at Spa-Francorchamps invariably produces a drama filled race and it didn’t fail to disappoint for the entire of the 110-minute encounter. With three Safety Car periods and a 3-minute dash to the chequered flag that saw the winning margin measured in tenths of a second in both LMP3 and GT3, it was anything but boring.

M Racing celebrated as Alexandre Cougnaud took the chequered flag.The no67 Haegeli by T2 Racing Duqueine led after the pitstops but was 37 seconds short on the timed pitstop and were issued a drive through penalty towards the end of the race. However, a post-race penalty (Decision no43) for the no13 Ligier dropped them to 7th and promoted the no26 Bretton Racing Ligier of Ben Stone and Theodor Jensen into first place.

The GT3 class was won by AF Corse, with the Italian team taking a 1-2 finish, the no51 Ferrari of Alessandro Balzan finishing 0.145s ahead of the no88 296 GT3 of Riccardo Agostini on the road. However, a 30-second post-race penalty for the no51 car for exceeding track limits (DECISION No39) meant the two cars swapped places in the final classification, giving a first win of the season to Agostini and his teammate Custodio Toledo.

Incidents From the Start
Before the race even started there was an issue as one of the cars had dropped fluid on the starting grid and at Turn 1, with the marshals having to treat the race track before the race could begin. The Race Director put in an extra formation lap to ensure the track was ready.

The dash to the first corner resulted in a collision at La Source. The pole sitting no85 R-ace GP Duqueine of Fabien Michal was tapped into a spin by the no2 CD Sport Ligier and the several cars went off in avoidance. The no7 Nielsen Racing Ligier of Tony Wells was stranded in the centre of the corner and the no88 AF Corse Ferrari of Custodio Toledo clipped the front of the LMP3 car. The first Safety Car was deployed to recover the cars, with both Michal and Wells being forced to retire.

After 20-minutes racing resumed with the no13 M Racing Ligier of Romano Ricci in the lead after moving up from seventh on the grid thanks to the French driver’s skilful negotiation of the T1 chaos. The no84 ANS Motorsport Ligier of Julien Lemoine was second and the no10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier of Christophe Lapierre in third.

The no24 Steller Motorsport Audi R8 driven by Andrew Bentley had managed to stay out of trouble at the start, holding his pole position ahead of the no83 Iron Dames Lamborghini driven by Celia Martin, who was up from third and the no51 AF Corse Ferrari of Matt Kurzejewski.

It didn’t take long for Kurzejewski to get ahead of the Lamborghini, only for Martin to follow the Ferrari closely as the pair closed on the leading Audi.For several laps the three cars circulated, split by less than 1.5 seconds. This allowed the recovering no88 Ferrari to close up and join the GT3 battle for the lead.

As the pitstops approached Ricci still held the overall lead in the no13 Ligier but had Christophe Lapierre closing the gap in the no10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier, the French driver passing the no84 ANS Motorsport Ligier a few laps earlier.

After the pitstops, the no67 Haegeli by T2 Racing Duqueine of Samir Ben emerged in the lead, to the surprise of many in the pitlane. It turned out the team had a pitstop time of 2 minutes and 3 seconds, when the reference time was 2 minutes and 40 seconds. This meant the team would have to pit again or be given a penalty.

The no13 M Racing Ligier was in second place with Alexandre Cougnaud at the wheel, with the no10 Ligier of Marius Fossard in third.

The GT3 pitstops saw the no51 AF Corse Ferrari in the lead, with the no88 AF Corse 296 in second and the no83 Iron Dames Lamborghini in third. The no24 Steller Motorsport Audi with James Walker now driving was fourth but losing ground to the leaders.

The no10 Ligier was given a Drive Through penalty for a starting grid infringement, with Fossard moving up to second ahead of the no13 Ligier just before the second Safety Car was deployed. The no20 High Class Racing Ligier of Tommy Foster had gone off into the barriers at Les Combes and the race had to neutralised to recover the stricken car.

The result of this intervention meant the standings in the GT3 class were affected.The no83 Iron Dames Lamborghini had been lapped by the LMP3 leaders and it meant that Safety Car put Karen Gaillard a lap down to the two AF Corse Ferraris.

The race went green again with 20 minutes left on the clock. The no10 Ligier served its Drive Through penalty after the Safety Car period, dropping it down to 12thplace.

Another Safety Car was deployed went the no28 MV2S Racing Ligier ended up in the gravel in a cloud of smoke, as did the no83 Iron Dames Lamborghini, which span off into the gravel at Blancimont with a punctured tyre.

The no67 Ligier was given a 37 second Stop and Go penalty for the pitstop time issue but Samir Ben continued to lead behind the Safety Car as the pitlane was closed.

The race restarted with 3 minutes left on the clock. The no13 M Racing Ligier tried to pass the no67 Ligier but Cougnaud had to back out as Ben defended the position, the French driver knowing he didn’t want to end up in the barriers when his opponent was going to have a penalty.

The downside was the cars behind him were able to close the gap and were challenging for the position, forcing Cougnaud to defend.The no99 More Motorsport was the nearest challenger with Max Van Der Snel Jnr at the wheel, the no62 Bretton Racing Ligier and the no87 COOL Racing were also looking to move up the standings should something happen ahead of them.

On the last lap at the final two corners Marius Fossard hadn’t served his penalty. At the last corner Alexandre Cougnaud pounced, colliding with the no67 car and moving ahead to take the chequered flag. However, behind them Van Der Snel dropped back after being hit by another car, allowing the no62 Bretton Racing Ligier of Theodor Jensen to take second and Adrien Closmenil in the no87 COOL Racing Ligier the final podium position. Van Der Snel was able to get across the line in 4th.

However, the no13 M Racing Ligier was given a post race 5 second penalty (DECISION No43) for the collision with the no67 Haegeli by T2 Racing, which dropped them to 7th and promoted the rest of the cars up one place. Bretton Racing were classified in first place, the no87 COOL Racing in second and the no99 More Motorsport in third. M Racing has lodged an appeal and the result is provisional until the appeal has been heard.

In GT3 the two AF Corse Ferraris were nose to tail to the finish line, with the no51 296 finishing ahead of the no88 Ferrari. However, the Stewards judged that Alessandro Balzan had exceeded track limits and the 30 second time penalty (DECISION No39) meant the no88 Ferrari was classified in first place, with Balzan demoted to second. The no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari was classified in third place, giving Ferrari a 1-2-3 finish at Spa-Francorchamps.