Panis squad takes first victory

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES MONZA (ITA) 11 JULY ROUND 4/6

Panis Racing took victory at Monza in a frantic and see-sawing fourth round of the European Le Mans Series. Will Stevens, Julien Canal and James Allen profited from strong race pace and strategy to score their first win of the season.

The first part of the race looked like an all-out battle between championship contenders G-drive Racing, Team WRT and United Autosports, with United’s Phil Hanson taking the lead from G-drive’s Roman Rusinov just before the first pitstops. Several race interruptions brought other teams into the fray, including Panis Racing. The team had been unable to fight for the lead early on but moved up the field as the race progressed and showed great pace when it mattered as Stevens held off United’s Tom Gamble for the win. Championship leaders Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Yifei Ye (Team WRT) came in fourth behind Jota Sport.

The LMP3 class provided an endless array of strategies. The polesitting DKR Engineering Duqueine was able to use the final full-course yellow, ironically after an incident in which the team itself was involved, to secure a win for Laurens Horr and Matthieu de Barbuat.

The GTE class proved to be a Ferrari fight between Iron Lynx and Spirit of Race, the two teams often only separated by a few tenths of a second. David Perel held firm throughout the final stints and joined Duncan Cameron and Alessandro Pier Guidi on the top step of the podium before dedicating the win to absent Spirit of Race driver Matt Griffin, who withdrew following the sudden death of his father.