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USA

Spielberg ELMS: Thiriet by TDS scores second straight win

The #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing car of Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche and Ryo Hirakawa took a confident second straight European Le Mans Series victory at Spielberg.

#46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05 - Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche, Ryo Hirakama

#46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05 - Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche, Ryo Hirakama

Vision Sport Agency

#46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05 - Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche, Ryo Hirakama
#46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05 - Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche, Ryo Hirakama
#46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05 - Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche, Ryo Hirakama
#46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05 - Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche, Ryo Hirakama
#33 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 05 - Nissan: Jun Jin Pu, Nick de Bruijn, Tristan Gommendy
#33 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 05 - Nissan: Jun Jin Pu, Nick de Bruijn, Tristan Gommendy
#33 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 05 - Nissan: Jun Jin Pu, Nick de Bruijn, Tristan Gommendy
#38 G-Drive Racing Gibson 015S-Nissan: Simon Dolan, Giedo van der Garde, Harry Tincknell
#38 G-Drive Racing Gibson 015S-Nissan: Simon Dolan, Giedo van der Garde, Harry Tincknell
#38 G-Drive Racing Gibson 015S-Nissan: Simon Dolan, Giedo van der Garde, Harry Tincknell
#19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier JSP3: David Hallyday, David Droux, Dino Lunardi
#19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier JSP3: David Droux
#66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari F458 Italia: Rory Butcher, Robert Smith, Andrea Bertolini
#66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari F458 Italia: Rory Butcher, Robert Smith, Andrea Bertolini

The French team took the lead after the first pitstops and never gave it up afterwards.

The #23 Panis-Barthez car, quickest in qualifying, took the early lead of the race in the hands of Timothe Buret.

He was followed by Eurasia's Tristan Gommendy by less than a second for the first half hour before taking the top spot as Buret suffered a streak of incidents.

Shortly after making contact with the Ferrari of LMGTE leader Rory Butcher and running wide, he received a drive-through for not respecting the formation of the race start. Soon afterwards, he went into the gravel and touched the wall.

The first set of pitstops saw Gommendy give up his seat to Pu Junjin, but the #33 Eurasia entry rejoined only second as he lost out to the Thiriet by TDS Oreca.

The latter team's starting driver Pierre Thiriet continued to drive after his stop and established himself in the lead as a result.

His teammate Ryo Hirakawa continued to head the field when he took over, the Japanese driver's stint including the first full-course yellow of the race.

It was caused by the #7 Villorba Corse car, driven by Roberto Lacorte, spinning out in the gravel at Turn 5.

Hirakawa extended his lead of 20 seconds over SMP Racing's Julian Leal by further 10 before being replaced by Mathias Beche.

The #48 Thiriet by TDS car's advantage grew over a minute during Beche's run with Stefano Coletti, Leal's replacement, falling behind Eurasia's Nick de Bruijn.

The former IndyCar driver lost around 15 minutes after contact with LMP3 leader Marco Jacoboni and the car required repairs in the pits during the team's planned stop.

Beche was replaced by Thiriet on the team's final visit to the pits and, even though they lost some time as they were ordered to replace a damaged headlight, the Frenchman rejoined in the lead with ease.

There was another full-course yellow with 40 minutes remaining after the Harry Tincknell could not avoid a spinning car in front of him and left debris on track.

The Briton's #38 G-Drive entry recovered to third from an early pitstop due to a puncture and, thanks to the neutralisation, Tincknell could have the car repaired without losing a position.

Thiriet cruised through the remainder of the race, which had another full-course yellow due to Tracy Krohn retiring in the gravel, to cross the line first by 51 seconds.

De Bruijn's teammate Gommendy brought the Eurasia home in second to complete an Oreca 1-2.

The G-Drive Gibson of Tincknell completed the podium, with SMP Racing's Coletti finishing fourth.

The top five was completed by Greaves Motorsport's team of Memo Rojas, Julien Canal and Nathanael Berthon, inheriting fifth from Algarve Pro Racing, which received a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line at the pit entry.

Duqueine takes narrow victory in LMP3

French team Duqueine Engineering ended United Autosports' winning streak by winning the LMP3 class.

David Droux had an impressive opening stint to establish himself in the LMP3 lead but his teammate David Hallyday failed to hold on to the position.

The two Eurointernational entries led the rest of the first hour and, even though the #12 lost a lot of time in the pits, the #11 car, driven by Marco Jacoboni, led the category until the final hour.

However, the #19 returned to the lead and the trio of Droux, Dino Lunardi and Hallyday secured the team's first ELMS of the season.

Lunardi, who took the chequered flag, was just three seconds ahead of the championship leader United Autosports car of Alex Brundle, Michael Guasch and Christian England.

Terrence Woodward, Ross Kaiser and James Swift secured the team's first podium ahead of Graff's Eric Trouillet, Paul Petit and James Winslow.

JMW dominates LMGTE 

JMW Motorsport's Rory Butcher, Robert Smith and Andrea Bertolini spent the majority of the race in the lead and went on to score their first victory.

Butcher started the race for the team and established a safe lead in no time.

Although Porsche driver Marco Seefried took over temporarily, Bertolini was in the lead once the German pitted.

It was Butcher eventually finishing the race, with a lead of more than a minute.

AF Corse's Rui Aguas, Marco Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perazzini held off AT Racing trio Alessandro Pier Guidi, Aleksander Talkanitsa and Aleksander Talkanitsa Jr for second.

The all-Ferrari podium was followed by the championship leading Aston Martin of Andrew Howard, Darren Turner and Alex McDowall.

Race resuts

Cla #DriverCarLapsTime
1   46  Mathias Beche 
 Pierre Thiriet 
 Ryo Hirakawa 
Oreca 05 160  
2   33  Tristan Gommendy 
 Pu Jun Jin 
 Nick de Bruijn 
Oreca 05 160 51.622
3   38  Giedo van der Garde 
 Simon Dolan 
 Harry Tincknell 
Gibson 015S 160 59.108
4   32  Andreas Wirth 
 Stefano Coletti 
 Julian Leal 
BR 01 159 1 lap
5   25  Michael Munemann 
 Chris Hoy 
 Parth Ghorpade 
Ligier JS P2 159 47.698
6   41  Julien Canal 
 Jakub Giermaziak 
 Memo Rojas 
Ligier JS P2 159 49.276
7   23  Paul-Loup Chatin 
 Fabien Barthez 
 Timothé Buret 
Ligier JS P2 159 54.011
8   48  Sean Doyle 
 Patrick McClughan 
 Garry Findlay 
Oreca 03R 156 4 laps
9   2  Alex Brundle 
 Mike Guasch 
 Christian England 
Ligier JS P3 151 3.458
10   19  David Hallyday 
 David Droux 
 Dino Lunardi 
Ligier JS P3 151 9 laps
11   6  Terrence Woodward 
 Ross Kaiser 
 James Swift 
Ligier JS P3 151 4.997
12   9  Eric Trouillet 
 Paul Petit 
 Enzo Guibbert 
Ligier JS P3 151 26.286
13   66  Andrea Bertolini 
 Robert Smith 
 Rory Butcher 
Ferrari F458 Italia 151 58.662
14   24  Jacques Nicolet 
 Pierre Nicolet 
Ligier JS P3 150 10 laps
15   8  Marcello Marateotto 
 Giorgio Maggi 
 Bert Longin 
Ligier JS P3 150 18.079
16   10  Sean Rayhall 
 John Falb 
 Enzo Potolicchio 
Ligier JS P3 150 20.932
17   51  Rui Aguas 
 Marco Cioci 
 Piergiuseppe Perazzini 
Ferrari F458 Italia 150 34.609
18   56  Davide Rigon 
 Alexander Talkanitsa Sr.
 Alexander Talkanitsa Jr. 
Ferrari F458 Italia 150 35.905
19   16  Eric Debard 
 Valentin Moineault 
 Simon Gachet 
Ligier JS P3 150 36.643
20   12  Roman Rusinov 
 Andrea Dromedari 
 Fabio Mancini 
Ligier JS P3 150 48.951
21   99  Darren Turner 
 Alex MacDowall 
 Andrew Howard 
Aston Martin V8 Vantage 150 50.377
22   88  Gianluca Roda 
 Christian Ried 
 Klaus Bachler 
Porsche 911 RSR 991 150 54.000
23   77  Wolf Henzler 
 Robert Renauer 
 Mike Hedlund 
Porsche 911 RSR 991 149 11 laps
24   60  Christina Nielsen 
 Johnny Laursen 
 Mikkel Mac 
Ferrari F458 Italia 149 21.608
25   55  Duncan Cameron 
 Matt Griffin 
 Aaron Scott 
Ferrari F458 Italia 149 26.003
26   18  Thomas Laurent 
 Yann Ehrlacher 
 Alexandre Cougnaud 
Ligier JS P3 149 28.262
27   20  Romain Iannetta 
 Maxime Pialat 
 Eric Clement 
Ligier JS P3 148 12 laps
28   7  Roberto Lacorte 
 Giorgio Sernagiotto 
 Niccolo Schiro 
Ligier JS P3 148 7.827
29   5  Tom Jackson 
 Alvaro Fontes 
 Jesus Fuster 
Ligier JS P3 147 13 laps
30   3  Mark Patterson 
 Matthew Bell 
 Wayne Boyd 
Ligier JS P3 146 14 laps
31   15  Morten Dons 
 Osman Yusuf 
Ligier JS P3 146 1'09.223
32   40  Olivier Pla 
 Tracy Krohn 
 Nic Jonsson 
Ligier JS P2 145 15 laps
33   4  Jean-Marc Merlin 
 Erik Maris 
Ligier JS P3 140 20 laps
34   29  Leo Roussel 
 Inès Taittinger 
 Remy Striebig 
Morgan 123 37 laps
35   11  Giorgio Mondini 
 Andrea Roda 
 Marco Jacoboni 
Ligier JS P3 105 55 laps
36   21  Nicolas Lapierre 
 Henrik Hedman 
 Ben Hanley 
Oreca 05 103 57 laps
37   17  Jean Baptiste Lahaye 
 François Heriau 
 Matthieu Lahaye 
Ligier JS P3 87 73 laps
38   13  Jakub Smiechowski 
 Jens Petersen 
Ligier JS P3 42 118 laps
 

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