FFSA GT, Dijon – Race Two Report
A Good Win For Larbre Qualifying The qualifying session for race two - for top-seeded drivers - was very hard-fought. Renaud Derlot, race one winner (#17 Graff Racing Corvette Z06) set the pole position. Behind him, Grégory Guilvert (#11 LMP Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9), second quickest, and Stéphane Ortelli (#25 Oreca Audi R8 LMS), in third position, were very close. Behind the wheel of the second LMP Motorsport DBRS9, #10, Anthony Beltoise, was fourth quickest, ahead of Laurent Groppi (#7 Larbre Compétition Porsche 911 GT3 R) and Maxime Martin (#15 JAB Racing Morgan Aero 8). Race At the start, the weather conditions were still uncertain. Renaud Derlot was the best starter, while Laurent Groppi, starting from the third row, had moved up to second place in the exhaust of the leading Corvette. Maxime Martin had been pushing really hard too and the Morgan was soon in third place, ahead of Ortelli, Beltoise and Guilvert. At the front, Derlot, Groppi and Martin were covered by one second only. Groppi kept the pressure on Derlot and succeeded in passing the Corvette in the Parabolique curve. Martin tried too to overtake Derlot but the Graff Racing driver kept his position. The rain was now falling and the track was more and more wet. The safety car came on the circuit after an off by Christian Demigneux (#43 ASP Compétition Lamborghini Gallardo), but the green flag flew three laps later, with 45 minutes to go. Before pitting, Groppi received a warning for not respecting the racing line while chasing after Derlot. The driver change of the #25 Oreca Audi R8 LMS (David Hallyday taking over from Stéphane Ortelli) lasted too long. Hallyday succeeded in leaving the pitlane but he crawled to the pits one lap later and had to retire. After the driver changes, the Larbre Porsche was still in the lead. Patrick Bornhauser was ahead of Gael Lesoudier (#15 Morgan), Arnaud Peyroles (#17 Corvette), Nicolas Tardif (#10 Aston Martin DBRS9), Eric Debard (#1 DKR Engineering Corvette), Fabien Barthez (#12 Viper), Marc Sourd (#16 Sainteloc-Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS), Julien Rodrigues (#6 Luxury Racing Ferrari) and Gérard Tonelli (#9 Graff Racing Corvette). Lesoudier passed briefly Bornhauser for first place and both drivers had an eight-second lead on Peyroles. Bornhauser did not give up and took the lead again on lap 38 and took the chequered flag while Lesoudier was trapped behind some backmarkers; but the Morgan driver kept second place, ahead of Peyroles. In the late stages, Barthez crashed his Viper in the Parabolique. Badly damaged, the #12 Viper had to retire. Race result - here In the championship standings, Derlot/Peyroles have a large lead, with 93 points. They are ahead of Groppi/Bornhauser -58pts-, Dayraut/Campbell (#33 Luxury Racing Ferrari) -43 points- and Makowiecki/Jakubowski (#23 Luxury Racing Ferrari) -37 points-. Claude Foubert |
