ELMS Spa 4 Hours Spa Resources

LMP2

» Graff Racing took their first LMP2 class victory at Spa. The team won LMP3 class races twice in 2016 with a Ligier JSP3. An LMP2 victory is impressive, as 2017 is the first year of LMP2 competition for Graff.

» Richard Bradley put in a hero stint at the end of the race, preparing for a potential penalty. The effort was worth it, as they were given a drive through penalty with less than 2 minutes to go. Bradley served the penalty with 1 lap to go, and emerged in the lead by less than a second.

» The Graff Racing victory was far from comfortable. The car was penalised for overtaking off the circuit (passing the #27 SMP Dallara). It was also under investigation for a pit stop infringement and the right hand door was open during the final stint. Any more penalties would have cost the team the victory.

» The incident packed race seen 4 Full Course Yellows, one of which would become one of the two Safety Car periods. The stop-start nature of the race meant that those who reacted to the yellows the quickest put themselves in the best position come the finish.

» DragonSpeed reacted to the FCYs the best, pitting the cars at just the right time to get an advantage. Both cars pitted early to avoid having to make a late race splash. This strategy was undone by a Safety Car, but DragonSpeed continued the theme. At one point the team held off on pitting to take advantage of a FCY. With 1 Hour 24 minutes to go, the team pitted just as a FCY was ending. This late stop saved both cars a splash which others had to make.

» Lap times between lead cars varied by up to 5 seconds a lap. G-Drive pulled out a gap under FCY, which suggests that the other teams aren’t quite maximising their speed under FCY. G-Drive was later penalised for not respecting Safety Car regulations (not FCY speeds). Maybe they cut it a bit too close?

» Henrik Hedman started the #21 DragonSpeed, an unusual tactic for that car. The car dropped back in the hands of the silver driver, but stayed on the lead lap. Once the car was handed over to Lapierre, he was 3-5 seconds faster than the rest of the field. The car came back from 1min 40 seconds behind, to 39 seconds off the leader.

» SMP finished third, but it could have been more. The car needed a splash at the end, but a series of traffic filled laps and problems navigating the Team Nederland car cost the team too much time. The Dallara had the speed though – passing the United Autosports Ligier on track and keeping up with the Orecas.

» The Dallara P217 appears to suffer from quite bad porpoising. Similar to the Audi R18 Quattro a couple of years ago, the car bounces quite violently over the bumps at Spa. It caused some moments under-braking at the Bus Stop and Les Combe.

» G-Drive by DragonSpeed extend their championship heading to Portimao. They lead United Autosports by 18 points with 26 available.

LMP3

» The AT Racing LMP3 victory is the first for the AT Racing name, and the first for AF Corse in LMP3. The victory means AF Corse have now won in every class in the ELMS.

» The #11 Eurointernational drivers will be scrubbed off the Christmas card list of a lot of the field. The car was involved in incidents with 360 Racing, Duqueine Engineering, Panis Barthez and Proton Competition. The car eventually retired shortly after the 2 hour mark, stopping on the exit of La Source and prompting a FCY.

» The Norma M30 returned to form after a difficult event at Paul Ricard. Duqueine Engineering finished 2nd, their first podium, and fired themselves up into the top 10 of the LMP3 standings.

GTE

» Championship leaders, TF Sport, had a miserable 4 Hours of Spa. The car sustained damage on the opening lap which hampered it for the entire event. The Aston Martin stopped on track, requiring resets and eventually finished 5th in class.

» The problems for TF Sport have closed up the GTE championship. TF Sport now lead JMW by 1 point. #55 Spirit of the race is 11 points back, and the sister #55 is 17 points back. Beechdean AMR can mathematically win the title – the team are 24 points behind, with 26 available at Portimao (25 for the win, 1 for pole). It would require an act of God for Beechdean to win the title, but it is possible.

Dave Ellis
Engineering student, lover of all things technical and lifelong motorsport fan. Employed in the Oil & Gas Industry, developing Major Emergency Management simulations. Owner of the best beard on the site.

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