Lexus takes first win after Blancpain thriller

A Lexus won a Blancpain GT Series race for the first time after taking the lead on the last lap of a truly incredible Endurance Cup race at Paul Ricard last weekend.

The Bentley Continental crew of Jordan Pepper, Steven Kane and Jules Gounon – which qualified 18th – claimed the lead with 40 minutes of the six-hour contest remaining when the SMP Racing Ferrari 488 of Miguel Molina lost a wheel.

But after a late full course yellow for a damaged kerb, the Emil Frey Lexus RC F of Marco Seefried, Christian Klien and Albert Costa closed right in and Costa pounced with three corners to go.

For the first five hours, the race was controlled by the Garage 59 Mclaren 650S of Ben Barnicoat, Andrew Watson and Come Ledogar. They had built a 20-second advantage until two consecutive safety cars bunched the pack up and erased their lead.

The Ferrari crew then used their shorter joker pitstop to grab first place after the final round of stops – with more woe following for the Garage 59 Mclaren squad as they received a drivethrough penalty for having two mechanics in the working area of the pitlane when the car departed. Despite this, Barnicoat, Watson and Ledogar still took third behind the Bentley.

Further back, there was some success for Mclaren still as alexander West, Chris Harris and Chris Goodwin won the Am class.