AO by TF wins eventful 4H race in Spa – Sportscar365

Jonny Edgar, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz converted pole position into victory by winning the eventful 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, securing AO by TF's first win of the season in the European Le Mans Series.

Deletraz, driving the No. 14 Oreca 07 Gibson, beat a charging Tom Dillmann to take the win by 1.100 seconds after four hours of racing.

The Swiss driver initially had a lead of around five seconds over Dillmann after completing the final lap of pit stops, but the Frenchman was able to quickly reduce his lead as Inter Europol Competition sought its second victory of the season.

Dillmann and his co-drivers Sebastian Alvarez and Vlad Lomko ultimately had to settle for second place, although the No. 43 car had been in the lead in the first half of the race despite several safety car phases.

However, a slower pit stop for Inter Europol during the second virtual safety car period of the race (which eventually became the fourth safety car period) resulted in the team falling back.

AO by TF also briefly fell behind an out-of-order Oreca No. 22 from United Autosports, but Kubica was able to catch and overtake Filip Ugran at Les Combes and then open up a clear lead.

This lead ultimately proved to be a sufficient buffer for the No. 14 car, even when Dillmann caught up with Deletraz towards the end, allowing AO by TF to take its first win of the season.

Deletraz, meanwhile, has secured the notable honour of taking overall victories in each of his four ELMS seasons with four different competitors, in addition to his previous race wins with Team WRT, Prema and Racing Team Turkey.

IDEC Sport completed the first three places in the overall standings with its car No. 28, driven by Marcos Siebert, Reshad de Gerus and Job van Uitert.

In a rapidly developing battle for the last place on the podium, with three different teams pushing their way into that position in the last ten minutes, the French team emerged victorious.

Cool Racing initially seemed to be on course for a podium finish with the No. 37 car in the hands of Malthe Jakobsen, but faltered and fell behind Van Uitert and the No. 65 Panis Racing Oreca of Charles Milesi.

With eight minutes to go, Milesi then overtook Van Uitert and took third place at La Source, but the Frenchman's pace dropped significantly in the final laps.

While IDEC moved back up to third place, Panis dropped to sixth behind Inter Europol Oreca No. 34 and Jakobsen.

The No. 9 Iron Lynx-Proton Oreca finished seventh, ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse LMP2 Pro-Am winning machine driven by Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Giorgio Roda, Rene Binder and Bent Viscaal finished second in the Pro-Am class for Proton Competition and ninth overall, while Vector Sport completed the top ten overall.

Kessel wins LMGT3 attrition race; Eurointernational doubles

Kessel Racing led a Ferrari one-two-three in an eventful LMGT3 class race that saw half of the category's cars retire before the halfway point of the race.

Each of the four safety cars during the first two hours was deployed due to an incident involving or retiring an LMGT3 class car.

First, JMW Motorsport's John Hartsthorne hit the wall on exiting Pouhon after losing control of his No. 66 Ferrari 296 GT3 when Ryan Cullen touched him while overtaking from the outside.

A second Safety Car was deployed when the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R of Sarah Bovy rammed the No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Matt Griffin during a duel at Les Combes, causing both Griffin and Formula Racing's Johnny Laursen to hit the barriers.

Griffin retired with suspension damage, while Bovy and Laursen continued, but both cars retired shortly afterwards due to separate incidents at Eau Rouge and Raidillon.

Bovy's race ended when she came up from behind and rammed the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Hiroshi Hamaguchi, which had apparently been damaged by the collision with Carl Wattana Bennett's No. 47 Cool Racing Oreca shortly before.

Hamaguchi also retired after touching the barriers in the Eau Rouge section, which ultimately triggered the safety car for the third time.

A fourth intervention was required shortly afterwards when Gregoire Saucy’s No. 29 “Richard Mille” from TDS Oreca and the No. 50 from Formula Racing Ferrari both went off the track at the restart.

The race then remained green for the second half, with Kessel taking control after a recovery attempt by silver-rated Esteban Masson put the No. 57 Ferrari in the lead.

Masson, Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra crossed the finish line 37.282 seconds ahead of the GR Racing Ferrari No. 86 of Mike Wainwright, Riccardo Pera and Davide Rigon.

A late-race overtaking manoeuvre by Nico Varrone, which saw him overtake the No. 59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo at La Source, ensured that the ‘Pavallino Rampante’ secured the podium, while the No. 51 AF Corse machine took third place.

In the LMP3 class, Eurointernational secured its second consecutive class win with its No. 11 Ligier JS P320 Nissan driven by Adam Ali and Matthew Richard Bell after the car overcame an early collision that sent the car into the gravel at Les Combes.

Bell was sent spinning by the No. 12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine D08 Nissan of Torsten Kratz at about the same time Bovy and Hamaguchi collided at Eau Rouge.

However, the Italian team recovered and won by 14.917 seconds ahead of the Ligier No. 31 Racing Spirit of Leman, driven by Jacques Wolff, Jean-Ludovic Foubert and Antoine Doquin.

The No. 17 Cool Racing Ligier completed the class podium in third, while a top-three finish for DKR Engineering was lost on the final lap when Wyatt Brichacek spun out at the Bus Stop chicane just before the chequered flag and dropped to seventh.

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

Davey Euwema is the European editor of Sportscar365. Euwema lives in the Netherlands and covers, among others, the FIA ​​​​World Endurance Championship, the European Le Mans Series and the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS.