Costa is star turn as Lexus springs surprise
BLANCPAIN ENDURANCE PAUL RICARD (F) JUNE 2 ROUND 3/5
After six hours and 1000 kilometres of Paul Ricard, it wasn’t until the final lap that the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup race was decided. And, after a truly incredible contest, it was a Lexus that finished on top to take the car’s maiden Blancpain win.
Albert Costa proved to be the star as the Emil Frey Lexus RC F driver grabbed the lead with three corners to go when he passed the Bentley Continental of Jules Gounon – a car that had started down in 18th place.
For almost five hours of the race the best battling was for third, with as many as 10 cars running line astern at one point. But up front the Garage 59 Mclaren 650S GT3 of Ben Barnicoat, Andrew Watson and Come Ledogar was in control.
That was until two consecutive safety cars – bizarrely called at the end of full-course-yellow periods – bunched the field up and eradicated the Mclaren’s 20-second lead.
That allowed the SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Miguel Molina to claim the advantage after using its shorter joker stop in the final round of pit visits to claim top spot. But it didn’t last long as, with 40 minutes to go, the Ferrari lost a wheel and was out.
That, and a late FCY for a damaged kerb, set up the thrilling finale, with the Lexus that Costa shared with ex-formula 1 driver Christian Klien and Marco Seefried claiming victory. After the late pass, the M-sport Bentley of Gounon, Steven Kane and Jordan Pepper finished two seconds back. The Garage 59 Mclaren salvaged a podium, despite receiving a drivethrough penalty for having two mechanics in the working area of the pitlane during its final stop.
Elsewhere, a number of the other early-season frontrunners hit trouble, including the points-leading WRT
Audi R8 LMS of Dries Vanthoor,
Alex Riberas and Christopher Mies. That retired with two hours on the clock with a starter-motor issue when running third.
Barnicoat had grabbed the lead at the start after the polesitting R-motorsport Aston Martin of Jake Dennis had a “bit of a disaster” as the race began, with Dennis losing power and plummeting down the order. The Aston did eventually get going and Dennis worked his way back into contention over the opening stint.
But there was then more woe when a left-front suspension failure while Nicki Thiim was at the wheel dropped them towards the rear of the field.
Further back, there was some success for Mclaren still as Alexander West, Chris Harris and Chris Goodwin won the Am class.
The Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Michele Beretta, Sandy Mitchell and Martin Kodric won the Silver Cup, while the AF Corse Ferrari of Gianluca de Lorenzi, Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron took Pro-am honours.