For the second time this year the European Le Mans Series goes green, with just over six weeks until Le Mans as Inter Europol will start for the first time ever on pole. After a dramatic finish last time out in Barcelona, are we headed for another frantic final few laps? There’s only one way to find out…

At the start of the hour, Dani Jundacella’s #18 IDEC Sport was running third but putting massive pressure on Vladislav Lomko in the #10 Vector sport LMP2. 

After a collision earlier on in the race, the #3 DKR Engineering LMP2 Pro/Am car received a ten second stop and go penalty for contact with the JMW LMGT3 Ferrari along with a penalty point. 

Eventually the track properly dried and for the first time the race saw sub two minute lap times for the LMP2 frontrunners, before Lucca Ghiotto’s #34 Inter Europol came together with the #28 IDEC Sport of Job Van Uitert. To add to the storm of drama the #9 Iron Lynx/Proton LMP2 lost a rear wheel just after starting its fourth stint with a safety car being brought out to deal with the incidents.

Going into the final hour then, the field roared away as the race went back to green. For the first time the field could race each other on a truly dry track. Leading the way in LMP2 is Nielsen’s #24 of Ferdinand Habsburg, with Vector Sport’s #10 still holding station in second and CLX Motorsport’s #47 in third. LMP3 sees no change, the order being M Racing from Ultimate and then WTM. LMGT3 now sees Iron Lynx’s #63 ahead of the Racing Spirit of Leman #59 and GR Racing’s #86. 

And with one hour to go, it’s still anyone’s race…

thumbnail credit – United Autosports, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons