SearchLe Mans Cup: Iron Dames just miss out on podium in promising performance at Le CastelletRACERS5 hours ago5 min readAfter a brilliant qualifying Iron Dames' Marta García and Vanina Ickx fought at the front of the Michelin Le Mans Cup GT3 field at Le Castellet in the second round of the season once again showing podium potential—only narrowly missing out due to an unfortunate first-lap contact Photo credits: Iron DamesMarta García and Vanina Ickx fought at the front of the Michelin Le Mans Cup GT3 field at Le Castellet which hosted the second round of the season—and the second race together for the new Iron Dames duo: Marta García returning to the cockpit after a long hiatus from the sport After a remarkable qualifying session that saw her secure a front-row start Ickx battled for the GT3 lead—but contact on the first lap proved costly A drive-through penalty forced the team into recovery mode Marta García maximized the outcome with a fourth-place finish managing the damage sustained in the earlier collision She secured a solid haul of points and completed her second GT3 race just outside the podium In her GT3 debut at the season opener in Barcelona, García had been leading before she was hit by a competitor, sending the #83 Porsche into the barriers The 22G impact caused the car to catch fire and García was unable to exit via the driver’s door and she was later cleared of major injuries after precautionary checks in hospital Following a full rebuild of the #83 Porsche García and Ickx returned to the track at Circuit Paul Ricard determined to bounce back from the dramatic crash that had denied them a likely podium The car ran smoothly during practice and was once again competitive with Marta placing in the top three of the GT3 class Vanina Ickx took over in the second session making big improvements as the team continued to refine the setup That progress continued into Friday: García clocked a 2:04.147 placing seventh among the bronze-rated drivers Ickx was back in the car for her second qualifying session in the series but she continued improving with purple sectors and moved into provisional pole with a 2:07.066 Alessandro Cozzi in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari responded with a 2:06.4 to retake the top spot as the times began to fall below the 2:06 mark Ickx answered with a superb 2:06.134 to regain provisional pole with less than five minutes remaining Lorenzo Innocenzi in the Kessel Racing Ferrari then became the first to dip below 2:06 Ickx went purple in sector one but lost time in the second sector and ultimately settled for second place The Iron Dames would start the race from the front row Photo credits: Iron DamesThe second round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup got underway under sunny skies on Saturday afternoon promising another exciting battle across the classes with debris flying on the main straight; Vanina Ickx made a strong launch and challenged the pole-sitting Kessel Racing Ferrari of Innocenzi The Belgian managed to pass later on the first lap triggering the deployment of the safety car Ickx continued and held second in class as the race was neutralized racing resumed and Ickx wasted no time retaking the GT3 lead from Innocenzi But a small error—running wide at Le Beausset—allowed Innocenzi to slip back past The #29 LMP3 prototype lost a large piece of bodywork on the Mistral Straight followed soon after by a third FCY for more debris—all within the first 20 minutes but Innocenzi had gained time under caution Vanina closed the gap, with Cozzi still behind her—although the latter was under investigation for failing to follow race control instructions during FCY. A fourth neutralization was triggered when Fabrizio Broggi’s Ebimotors Porsche was hit by the spinning #58 GG Classics LMP3 car of George Nakas Marshals quickly cleared the track and the race resumed Ickx was then handed a drive-through penalty for the Lap 1 incident the penalty dropped the Iron Dames Porsche to fifth in GT3 A slight misalignment in the pit box meant the car had to be wheeled back straight before García could jump in Photo credits: Iron DamesAfter the pit cycle, Andrea Belicchi led for Kessel Racing, followed by Eliseo Donno for AF Corse and David Fumanelli in the second Kessel Ferrari. García emerged in fifth, three seconds behind the #11 Code Racing Development Aston Martin of Van Der Steur—but under pressure from the charging Motorpark Mercedes of Dunner García set the car’s best time with a 2:05.575 and began to close in on Van Der Steur. Ahead, the #33 Kessel Ferrari—then running third—was handed a drive-through for an FCY infringement Drama unfolded with 45 minutes to go when the #26 Bretton Racing LMP3 car of Gregoire De Sybourg caught fire and stopped on track and a full safety car bunched up the field once more—which was good news for Iron Dames García capitalized and moved up into fifth Back in the 2:05s pace and faster than a couple of cars ahead García was also handed a five-second penalty for an FCY procedure violation The young Spaniard held on to fifth but was now under pressure from Donno With Fumanelli—already penalized earlier—receiving another drive-through García moved into podium contention as the race entered its final 15 minutes Dunner and Fumanelli served their penalties and Marta climbed into third on lap 44—but she needed to maintain over a five-second gap to Donno Rory van der Steur took the GT3 lead from Belicchi Donno capitalized when García ran slightly wide at Le Beausset and passed her for third García closed back in on Belicchi in the final laps but ultimately had to settle for fourth with her penalty not impacting the final result It was nevertheless a strong showing and another step forward from Marta García who dealt with damage and an imperfect car to take the chequered flag for the first time in a GT3 race—showing clear podium potential once again The series will now head to Circuit de la Sarthe for its flagship event in support of the 24 Hour race on 13-14 June Or you simply want to stay up-to-date with their results Privacy Policy BackELMS: 44 cars on the starting grid for the 2025 4 Hours of Le CastelletThe second round of the 2025 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) takes place this Sunday 4 May at the Circuit Paul Ricard An impressive 44 cars are expected on the grid with a large French contingent on home soil in terms of both drivers and teams No fewer than 33 French drivers and 7 French teams will be competing on the Côte d'Azur several winners of the opening round in Barcelona will be aiming for another success on French soil: François Perrodo The 4 Hours of Le Castellet is shaping up to be a major event in the ELMS 2025 season both for the fans and for the French drivers in search of home success This second round could prove decisive in the race for the title and will provide a great spectacle on the Var circuit just a few weeks before endurance racing's showpiece event: the 24 Hours of Le Mans See the entry list for the 4 Heures du Castellet 2025 Related News24h Le Mans02/05/2025 The trailer for the documentary ‘American Thunder: NASCAR to Le Mans’ unveiledIn 2023 during the Centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans ‘American Thunder: NASCAR to Le Mans’ retraces this adventure in a full-length documentary broadcast exclusively on Prime Video on 12 June The second round of the 2025 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) takes place this Sunday 4 May at the Circuit Paul Ricard For the 93rd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours (11-15 June 2025) the #59 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo entered by United Autosports in the LMGT3 class will feature a unique livery: the Meningitis Flag The aim of this livery is to raise awareness of a disease that is all too often overlooked: meningitis The Automobile Club de l’Ouest is proud to announce that Roger Federer the revered champion and global sporting icon will don the mantle of official starter at the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans the fourth round of the FIA WEC World Endurance Championship IDEC Sport beats LMP2 Pro-Am entries to victory at Paul Ricard… IDEC Sport took a resounding victory in the 4 Hours of Le Castellet surviving changeable conditions that created strategy headaches for European Le Mans Series teams Daniel Juncadella and Mathys Jaubert headed a pair of LMP2 Pro-Am cars to deliver victory in the surviving No making up for the disappointment of losing the lead on the final lap of Barcelona’s season-opening contest by 1.885 seconds at the conclusion of a race that began in greasy conditions which worsened substantially before eventually drying out who becomes the first female outright winner of an ELMS race had been among the many drivers caught out on the opening lap with a moment of wheel spin exiting the first complex of corners triggered when Alexander Malykhin crashed the No And the race was reset again with 67 minutes to go after a Turn 6 clash between Job van Uitert in the second IDEC entry that had been fighting back from being spun at Turn 1 and Luca Ghiotto (Inter Europol Competition) resulted in the Dutchman becoming wedged in the tyre barriers to bring out the safety car again This was especially badly-timed for the erstwhile leaders which had gained time by switching back to slicks sooner than the opposition Ferdinand Habsburg (Nielsen) and Vladislav Lomko (Vector Sport) had to pit shortly after racing resumed with a little over an hour to go Allen closed on Jaubert in the latter stages Second overall and victory in the Pro-Am category still marked a remarkable result for a crew that had yo-yoed up and down the order with Wells running second outright at one point in the opening hour as picking wets for the start paid off Sette Camara lost out to fellow Pro-Am contenders Rene Binder (Proton Competition) and Clement Novalak (TDS Racing) during the worst of the rain but Allen remained in touch with Mathias Beche (in for Novalak) in what became the class lead battle after Binder’s team-mate Bent Viscaal was removed from their path Binder was deemed to have gained a lasting advantage when he decided not to cede the lead after straight-lining the opening complex of corners and the resulting drive-through penalty cost Viscaal the lead Allen decisively ambushed Beche into the final corner with 38 minutes to go and never relinquished the position The outright podium was completed by Louis Deletraz with a late charge from Deletraz taking him past Beche The Swiss also lost out to the eventual LMP2 Pro runner-up 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca that had started on pole in the hands of Jakub Smiechowski The Polish team’s race was badly thwarted by the first safety car after Smiechowski’s choice of wet tyres had given it an early edge The crew began its recovery with Nick Yelloly before Tom Dillmann took over for the closing laps and passed Beche for fourth overall in the Proton entry started by Giorgio Roda The Dutchman gained a spot when Marino Sato made a late pitstop in the No 21 United Autosports Oreca he took over from Daniel Schneider and Oliver Jarvis Enzo Fittipaldi and Manuel Espirito Santo netted eighth overall and third in LMP2 Pro ahead of the unfortunate Vector entry that Lomko shared with Ryan Cullen and Pietro Fittipaldi 24 Nielsen car that ultimately finished 11th 9 Iron Lynx-Proton crew was also out of luck It led with Maceo Capietto in the greasy interim period before switching back to slicks but shed its front-right wheel on Matteo Cairoli’s outlap Pre-event LMP2 Pro-Am championship leaders had a difficult day after winning outright in Barcelona It incurred heavy damage on the opening lap when the spinning Francois Perrodo was hit hard by Jacek Zielonka’s pursuing Team Virage LMP3 entry Paul Lanchere and Theodor Jensen repeated their Barcelona heroics with a polished drive to victory in the LMP3 category Pole-sitter Closmenil overhauled M Racing’s Quentin Antonel to secure the second consecutive triumph for the No which had to fight back after losing time on slicks in the early stages A mammoth opening stint from Antonel’s team-mate Stephane Tribaudini who spent over half the race in the cockpit set up M Racing’s challenge as it correctly chose wets for the opening phase and Tribaudini pulled away from Torsten Kratz (WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine D09 Toyota) Its lead appeared not to be threatened despite serving a drive-through for a pass-around procedural infringement but the safety cars allowed CLX to close and ultimately pass once racing resumed Any slender hope of Antonel getting back on terms was ended when he made his final stop for fuel before Closmenil whose winning margin stood at 24.911 seconds 51 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and a strong final lap defence from Lilou Wadoux earned a narrow LMGT3 win over the No sharing with Riccardo Agostini and Custodio Toledo fended off Fabian Schiller at the flag by 0.305 seconds The Ferrari had run out of sync with the rest of the leading pack Wadoux only making her final pit visit with 25 minutes to go and held on as Schiller mounted an unsuccessful bid to resume a lead that had appeared secure prior to the final round of stops Lorcan Hanafin and Martin Berry had appeared the most likely candidates to profit from a double dose of misfortune striking the No Duncan Cameron was the only LMGT3 driver to start on wets and built a commanding lead as a result His 90-second advantage was trimmed by the Malykhin safety car but Cameron still had over half a minute in hand when he was forced to take fuel around a minute shy of completing his drive time Cameron therefore had to stay on board when Berry could hand over to Hanafin on schedule but the 296 he shared with Matt Griffin and David Perel was still on course for a podium until the closing stages when Riccardo Pera muscled ahead into the final corner sharing with Mike Wainwright and Tom Fleming completed the podium just 1.669 seconds shy of the victorious Wadoux Conrad Laursen recovered from a late spin at Signes 51 AF Corse Ferrari previously driven by Charles-Henri Samani and Davide Rigon RESULTS: 4 Hours of Le Castellet James Newbold (@James_Newbold) is a UK-based freelance motorsport journalist Nick Yelloly sets the pace in European Le Mans Series qualifying at Paul Ricard.. Matteo Cairoli comfortably quickest in opening Free Practice session at Le Castellet.. Goodyear to rollout new specification of slick tire for LMP2 class ahead of 4.. James Calado returns to the European Le Mans Series for the first time since.. After securing LMP2 Pro/Am pole position this afternoon at Paul Ricard will this be the weekend that it all comes together for PJ Hyett and ‘Spike The Dragon’ While AO Racing’s IMSA GTD Pro effort boasts race and title-winning success and an AO by TF ORECA won the ELMS LMP2 title last year the team’s founder/driver is still searching for his first victory with ‘Spike’ after a tough start to the season in both IMSA and the ELMS there is growing confidence within the camp that a big result is on the horizon who joined the outfit this year after his exit from Porsche Penske Motorsport during the winter when the team does battle in the ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am division at Paul Ricard “We’ve been close to some really good results but we’ve been unlucky,” Cameron tells DSC “We had the race in hand at Daytona before hitting trouble we definitely felt we were on for P2 but suffered a small failure “So I’m disappointed for PJ in particular because he’s been doing it for a little while now and only has a load of pole positions and just a couple of podiums to show for it the line-ups are good on both sides of the AO programme “We just have to keep knocking on the door because eventually it will come down and I want to experience that with PJ soon.” which mandates a Bronze-graded driver in each line-up the competition is red hot again this year You only need to glance at the final result of the 4 Hours of Barcelona which saw AF Corse’s #83 win the race overall after a late charge from Matthieu Vaxiviere is fresh from winning the 2024 IMSA GTP title He is hopeful that with Louis Deletraz’s experience behind the wheel of an ORECA the expertise of service provider TF Sport they can fight for the title in the second half of the campaign “Working with PJ is great,” Cameron adds “It’s impressive what he can do with limited experience We’re trying to accelerate his growth and he keeps showing he can take feedback and apply it “Taking the first few strides is very easy then you get to the window he’s in now But he’s going about it the right way and keeps on top of fitness “TF has also been very good for what we’re trying to achieve every time I’ve worked with them since I tested at Portimao last year They always prepare great cars and have great staff on board We’ve brought some engineering guys with us from the US too so we have some continuity for PJ and me through both championships.” Shifting from GTP to LMP2 competition has required some adjusting for Cameron Not only has he had to get his head around the ORECA 07 quickly but he’s been racing it in two configurations too The IMSA and ELMS-spec ORECAs run with differing power levels and tyres he’s enjoying his time racing in two high-level championships with a highly ambitious team “Doing IMSA and ELMS was something that really appealed when I first spoke to PJ and Gunnar (Jeannette) about joining the team,” he explains “It’s not a big schedule if you do one And I’ve been to most of the ELMS circuits through testing with the Porsche project ELMS seems like it sits between IMSA and WEC in terms of racing style and I enjoyed that element a lot in Barcelona “It’s also been a great help to have Louis with us because he knows the car and the tyre so well here There are some key differences in the tyre; the Goodyear is forgiving but requires a different driving style to get the most out of it So it’s been important to get laps in during testing to get my head around it I’d love to find a way to win this weekend if not I’d happily trade that for Le Mans!” Author: © 2023 dailysportscar.com. All Rights Reserved. Link Digital Goodyear has announced it will debut a slick tire specification for LMP2 teams at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet the second round of the 2025 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) Goodyear says the specification marks a step forward in tire performance and durability for LMP2 competitors offering better performance tailored to the diverse driver line-up It will be introduced at Le Castellet and remain in use for the remainder of the 2025 ELMS campaign It will also be used by all 17 LMP2 contenders entered for the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours in June The LMP2 slick specification builds upon the foundation of Goodyear’s existing compound and has been developed to further improve performance and durability for drivers across race stints The specification arrives after the current set of LMP2 regulations was renewed in preparation for the next generation of cars set to debut in 2028 Goodyear says that the development process ensured the tires will remain optimized not only for outright performance but also for versatility This approach guided Goodyear’s work in LMGT3 where car architecture and handling dynamics vary further “This new specification is an evolution of our existing slick LMP2 compound It has undergone extensive testing in close collaboration with several LMP2 teams both on the track and through simulation work Their input has been very valuable in helping us fine-tune the construction to suit the specific demands of endurance racing That partnership has allowed us to introduce a tire that delivers even higher standards of performance and maintains the reliability needed for endurance races as grueling as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.” Silver and Bronze-rated drivers competing in LMP2 so it’s essential the slick tire offers drivability is forgiving and remains trusted to race on by an array of drivers with a range of driving styles That’s a key focus for both our LMP2 and LMGT3 products.” Teams competing in the LMGT3 category will continue to run the latest specification of Goodyear’s Eagle Medium slick compound this season This season also marks the third year without tire warmers in ELMS placing even greater emphasis on fast warm-up characteristics Each team across LMP2 and LMGT3 is supplied with a single specification of a slick and wet-weather compound per event “As with the previous LMP2 slick specification we’ve maintained a strong focus on ensuring quick tire warm-up which is critical for cars during out-laps safety car restarts and in changeable weather conditions,” said Coelho “We’d like to thank the drivers and teams for their cooperation in developing this new specification and we cannot wait to see them do battle for the remainder of this season.” Following an action-packed season-opening 4 Hours of Barcelona in April ELMS will continue its six-race European tour with a stop at Circuit Paul Ricard on May 3 and 4 In related news, Davanti Tyres is using its first track tire, the Protoura Race, to launch its move into motorsports, with the company establishing the Davanti Tyres Race Team for 2025, which is set to compete in the inaugural 2025 Swift Sport Challenge. Click here to read the full story.  SearchJamie Chadwick makes ELMS history again wins overall at Le CastelletRACERS20 hours ago6 min read"We've just been trying to learn as much as we can and that's just paid off" – Jamie Chadwick made history as the first woman to win overall in the European Le Mans Series helping IDEC Sport to back-to-back victories in a chaotic Photo credits: ELMS / Jan Patrick WagnerTwo rounds into the 2025 European Le Mans Series season and women in motorsport continued to make groundbreaking achievements After a double class win at Barcelona — where Jamie Chadwick took LMP2 victory and the Iron Dames secured a win in LMGT3 — Chadwick took another historic step at Paul Ricard by claiming her first overall win The British racer thus became the first woman in the history of the series to win outright on another remarkable day for the women of the grid as Lilou Wadoux also claimed victory in LMGT3 who has broken records at every stage of her career has long been a trailblazer for women in the sport — from becoming the youngest-ever British GT champion in 2015 to her maiden victory in IndyNXT as she climbed the single-seater ladder Making a spectacular debut in prototypes in the 2025 European Le Mans Series As part of the Genesis Magma project, Chadwick joined the lineup of the #18 LMP2 Oreca operated by IDEC Sport sharing the car with platinum-rated Daniel Juncadella and silver-rated Mathys Jaubert The trio soon proved to be the team to beat in the LMP2 class Despite narrowly missing out on the overall win by a couple of laps in Barcelona and Jaubert executed a flawless strategy at Le Castellet and capitalized on their pace once again standing on the top step of the podium In the South of France, the team made good progress from practice, showing strong potential. The #18 Oreca was fourth fastest overall with a best lap of 1:50.188 Chadwick found a tenth between sessions and was the second-fastest driver within her team in FP1 Mathys Jaubert was again behind the wheel for qualifying in the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca aiming to improve on his fifth place from Barcelona He provisionally went to the top of the times early on and as the session progressed and lap times tumbled he posted a 1:49.600 to return to the top three with five minutes remaining Photo credits: ELMS - MariusHeckerRain had fallen earlier on Sunday morning With some drops still falling as cars lined up on the grid tyre choices varied — most opting for wets As the lights went green, Chadwick took the start in the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca for her second-ever LMP2 outing with water spray reducing visibility and cars on different tyres Chadwick had to go wide into Turn 2 in avoidance of contact; she kept the car straight but had to run off-track Several cars went off in the opening corners: the #83 AF Corse LMP2 of François Perrodo spun and was hit head-on by the #8 Virage machine The race resumed after a 12-minute neutralisation with several more cars struggling to keep it on track The Iron Lynx LMP2 of Jonas Reid spun but was able to rejoin Chadwick — now down to 18th — survived the chaotic opening and began her charge back through the field She pitted on lap 6 as conditions worsened and with most of the LMP2 field also pitting for wets Chadwick made it back up to sixth in class She began running in the 2:12s and was among the top four in class on pace Jamie soon improved to a 2:10.3 and consistently held strong pace The Safety Car returned when the #37 CLX LMP2 of Malykhin crashed into the barriers The race was neutralised as it reached the one-hour mark At the restart with 2h55m remaining, Chadwick climbed to fifth after the #43 Inter Europol car of Smiechowski finally made its first stop She began to gain ground on Matthias Kaiser while fending off Ryan Cullen’s Vector Sport entry Photo credits: ELMS - MarcelWulfJamie pitted from fifth on lap 31 after a strong stint having recovered from the early moment and run a clean race in extremely challenging conditions She handed over to Daniel Juncadella with 2h40m to go Juncadella and Lomko cycled into second and third Juncadella pitted for dry tyres and remained in the car he rejoined in second and immediately set the fastest lap of the race — a 2:05.718 He continued to improve over the next few laps With 1h30m remaining, it was time for young star Mathys Jaubert to take over from Juncadella for the final stint in the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca Just one lap into his stint, Matteo Cairoli’s #9 Iron Lynx Proton Oreca lost a wheel an incident between Luca Ghiotto’s Inter Europol car and Job van Uitert’s IDEC LMP2 brought out the Safety Car again with Van Uitert ending up deep in the barriers running fifth overall and first of the cars already on four stops was now perfectly placed for a strong finish Once the top four runners made their final stops Jaubert cycled into the overall lead on lap 73 The Frenchman maintained a consistent pace in the 1:52s holding a stable gap of over two seconds to the chasing pack the final round of pit stops began: Jaubert pitted on lap 85 for his last scheduled stop and IDEC Sport executed another clean service with Jaubert rejoining in the overall lead once more He kept his cool and extended his advantage aided by four Pro-Am LMP2 cars sitting between him and the nearest Pro-class contender Once Filipe Albuquerque pitted from second The young Frenchman continued to manage his lead, entering the final 10 minutes with a gap of over 13 seconds to the #43 Inter Europol Oreca of Tom Dillmann Heavy traffic in the closing laps saw James Allen’s Pro-Am Nielsen Racing LMP2 close in rapidly But once Jaubert cleared the slower GT traffic The closest LMP2-Pro entry remained over 10 seconds behind Mathys Jaubert crossed the line to win for IDEC Sport made even more history as the first woman to win a European Le Mans Series race outright Photo credits: ELMS / Marius Hecker“Honestly "There's still a lot of work to do to get to the performance I want to get to Chadwick and her teammates now extend their championship lead in the LMP2 class having taken full points from the first two rounds The next race is scheduled for 6 July at Imola where Jamie has previously raced in Formula Regional European Championship in 2020 Goodyear will debut a new slick tyre specification for LMP2 teams at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet (4 May) Goodyear says the new specification marks a step forward in performance and durability The newly developed LMP2 slick specification builds upon the foundation of Goodyear’s existing compound Goodyear expects the tyre to improve performance and durability for drivers across race stints after it is introduced for the second round of the 2025 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) It will also be used for the remainder of the 2025 ELMS campaign and by all 17 LMP2 contenders entered for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June Tyrepress and Tyres & Accessories subscribers can log in below to read the full article If you are not yet a Tyrepress or Tyres & Accessories subscriber Subscribe now and website in this browser for the next time I comment If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com Christian Ried’s latest ‘Retirement’ lasts almost 24 Hours Following confirmation that Christian Ried will cede his FIA WEC AMG seat with Iron Lynx in the #61 Mercedes AMG to Martin Berry came the news at Paul Ricard yesterday that Ried will be back in the driving seat this weekend He has been called up to replace regular driver Claudio Schiavoni who has withdrawn from the Paul Ricard meeting after suffering back pain in testing yesterday for a driver with almost 30 years of racing history in Porsches this will only be Christian’s second race meeting in a GT3 spec 911 when Christian shared a Martinet Racing 997 GT3R with Matthew Vaxiviere Christian I’m pursuit of points towards the Porsche Cup that year The pair scored a sixth-place finish in Race 2 after a DNF in the opening race of the weekend Whilst the scope of Claudio’s injury is currently unknown there is every possibility that Christian may be back in an Iron Lynx AMG after all for next weekend’s WEC race at Spa He has one further race still scheduled with a return to the other AMG at Interlagos a race for which Martin Berry has a prior clashing appointment and a retirement that has so far included outings in three different LMGT3 cars (Mustang we firmly expect Christian to reach for the carpet slippers and cocoa The new-for-2025 Duqueine D09 LMP3 cars in the ELMS and Michelin Le Mans Cup have arrived at Le Castellet with an important update The cars were understood to be proving to be somewhat marginal on cooling capability in 2025 form and DSC understands Duqueine has been given dispensation to add an oil cooler above the gearbox from this race onwards Takeshi Kimura is racing this weekend for Pegasus Racing in the #16 Ligier JSP4 alongside David Caussanel for the weekend’s double-header Ligier European Series rounds It is understood to be Kimura-san’s first outing in a prototype and comes courtesy of a last-minute opportunity after fellow Japanese racer Yuki Tanaka was unable to make the trip to France Franck Perera is spending the race meeting with the VDS Panis Racing team ahead of him stepping into the cockpit of the #48 Oreca for the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans next month He will replace full-season ELMS driver Charles Milesi who will compete at Le Mans with Alpine in Hypercar Perera is “Taking in everything as part of the team that I can learning their processes and how the team operates,” before a two-day test here on Monday and Tuesday in the ORECA together with Esteban Masson and Oliver Gray IDEC Sport is based almost literally just over the circuit fence here at Le Castellet and the team invited media and others to see its base on Friday evening with a reception inside the facility (opened in late 2023) It also used the opportunity to introduce its full 2025 ELMS and Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 line-ups Also in attendance was Genesis Magma Racing’s Cyril Abiteboul whose own centre of operations for the Korean brand’s forthcoming Hypercar programme is nearing completion next door IDEC Sport is working with the South Korean manufacturer to design and build the new facility with the first track test of the GMR001 test car to take place shortly afterwards Genesis factory driver André Lotterer was in attendance too The three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will join IDEC Sport for Le Mans for his 14th start at the race as he replaces full-season ELMS driver Daniel Juncadella in the #14 IDEC Sport Oreca (Juncadella will be on TF Sport Corvette duty) and a very comfortable ‘club’ area Back any the circuit meanwhile and IDEC is undertaking a chassis swap for the #28 ORECA Daniel Juncadella and Mathys Jaubert’s fairytale start to the 2025 ELMS season continued this afternoon in a highly entertaining wet-dry four-hour race at Paul Ricard The trio combined to claim the win in the Genesis Magma Racing-backed #18 IDEC Sport ORECA After winning the LMP2 class with a second-place overall finish in Barcelona this time they went one better and took a narrow overall and LMP2 class victory in tricky conditions It was a near faultless performance from the three of them the only setback being an off on lap 1 in the greasy conditions for Chadwick pit strategy and safety car restarts played a key part in the outcome Chadwick recovered to sixth and Juncadella carried on climbing the standings before handing the baton to Jaubert who was tasked with soaking up late pressure again “It was one of those race where there was a lot of mistakes going on we just stayed out of trouble,” Juncadella said “After Barcelona to win again is unexpected but it’s a great result for the team,” added Chadwick after becoming the first female driver to win an ELMS race overall The winning margin was narrow, with just 1.8 seconds separating Jaubert and a hard-charging James Allen for Nielsen Racing behind. It looked like a re-run of the season opener was on the cards with time winding down who helped Nielsen score an emphatic LMP2 Pro/Am win the Genesis Trajectory Programme driver held on in the closing laps putting in another head-turning performance to extend the #18 crew’s championship lead to 23 points “That was a lot easier than Barcelona!” Jaubert admitted to DSC “But it’s still a big result for us and the IDEC team on its 10th anniversary.” who admitted post-race that he didn’t realise the #18 ahead was leading bookended a hugely impressive performance for Nielsen Racing’s #27 crew The team nailed the tyre choice for the start putting Tony Wells on wets when most of the LMP2 runners opted for slicks “It helps being British sometimes,” Wells quipped It laid the foundation for a team’s first ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am win through Sergio Sette Camara and James Allen’s stints Allen had to keep an eye on his mirrors and monitor the progress of the AO by TF ORECA in the final 10 minutes “It was really stressful in the car,” he said “But I need to point out that this win was possible because my teammates did so well despite having not driven the car in the wet before.” Louis Deletraz made it two LMP2 Pro/Am ORECAs in the top three with an impressive final stint aboard ‘Spike the LMP2 Dragon’ The Swiss found a way past Mathias Beche’s TDS ORECA and eventually Marino Sato’s #21 United Autosports ORECA at the Mistral Chicane to take second The class pole-sitters (Deletraz, PJ Hyett and Dane Cameron) didn’t quite achieve the breakthrough result they targeted but it was undeniably a strong performance they secured 18 points on a day which saw the Barcelona-winning AF Corse ORECA hit trouble and finish at the bottom of the timing screens After starting 21st and last in class due to Francois Perrodo’s absence from Qualifying the #83 ended up getting involved in a heavy shunt at the start looped the car at the end of the lap and was ploughed into hard by the #8 Team Virage Ligier of Jacek Zielonka The hit damaged the Ligier beyond repair and forced the Zebra-patterned prototype into the garage The team rejoined the race nine laps down after a 24-minute stop and eventually finished 37th overall TDS Racing’s ORECA completed the Pro/Am class podium which dropped the #21 to fifth behind the Proton Competition 07 which led the class before being dealt a drive-through in the third hour featured the #43 pole-winning Inter Europol Competition ORECA and the #47 CLX Motorsport example with fourth and eighth place overall finishes Vector Sport followed up its podium in Spa with a fine fourth that has seen Gary Holland’s team move up to second in the standings The first was the #37 CLX Pure Rxcing ORECA Alex Malykhin lost the rear on the exit of Signes and ended up hitting the barriers head-on The car was an on-the-spot retirement and caused the second of three safety cars The Iron Lynx Proton ORECA also DNF’d after leading a chunk of the race during Maceo Capietto’s stint The car’s front-right wheel detached on Matteo Cairoli’s outlap It forced him to pit the car for repairs to the hub in the third hour which dropped the car to last in class and five laps down It would eventually be withdrawn after further drama also ended up in the barriers after contact with the #34 Inter Europol ORECA sent Job Van Uitert off track at Turn 7 which in turn set up a sprint to the end with 68 minutes on the clock CLX Motorsport and Ligier’s dominance in the new turbo-powered LMP3 era continued Adrien Closmenil and Theodor Jensen were the class of the field once again in the #17 JS P325 Toyota en route to scoring yet another win for the Swiss outfit CLX has kicked off the 2025 season with two ELMS LMP3 wins and two Le Mans Cup wins and shows no sign of slowing down M Racing’s Ligier JS P325 took second and looked poised for a win until Closmenil made a late pass for the lead on Quentin Antonel with 40 minutes remaining Eurointernational’s Ligier made it a podium sweep for the French constructor on a day in which Duqueine and Ginetta’s challenges faded WTM By Rinaldi’s D09 had the speed required to take a top-three finish but retired with a driveshaft failure DKR Engineering’s Ginetta G61-LT-P325 Evo came home an encouraging fifth a thrilling finale with the top five cars finishing a handful of seconds apart Richard Mille AF Corse’s #50 Ferrari claimed the honours in LMGT3 via strong drives from Custodio Toledo staying mistake-free as Iron Lynx’s Fabian Schiller closed in on the #50’s rear bumper Iron Lynx scored its first podium as a Mercedes-AMG partner team and looked like a title contender once again How damaging will the retirement from Barcelona prove to be later in the season GR Racing made it onto the third step with a ballsy move from Riccardo Pera on Spirit of Race’s David Perel at the final corner Fourth place will feel bittersweet for Perel Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin after Cameron built a huge lead in the first hour by starting on wet tyres Next up on the ELMS schedule is the 4 Hours of Imola on July 6th many of the teams will travel to the Circuit de la Sarthe for the Le Mans 24 Hours next month RACE RESULT >> Images courtesy of ELMS & Nielsen Racing SearchMichelin Le Mans Cup: Vanina Ickx secures front row start at Le CastelletRACERS2 days ago2 min readWith a strong qualifying effort Vanina Ickx claimed second place on the GT3 grid for the Michelin Le Mans Cup at Le Castellet as Iron Dames will aim to bounce back from the unfortunate start of the season Photo credits: Jan Patrick WagnerVanina Ickx secured second place in qualifying for the Michelin Le Mans Cup at Le Castellet where the Belgian veteran returned to an elite sportscar series after over a decade Marta Garcia and Vanina Ickx were back on track after the massive accident that had denied them a likely podium at the season opener in Barcelona the car ran smoothly and was quick once again with Marta placing in the top three in the GT3 class showing she was immediately back up to speed In the Thursday test Vanina Ickx took over in second practice and made big improvements as the team fine-tuned the setup with Garcia clocking a 2:04.147 to go third fastest in GT3 setting a 2:06.6 to go seventh fastest in the session reserved for Bronze-rated drivers On Saturday morning, it was time for qualifying, and Vanina Ickx took over the #83 Porsche for her second qualifying session in the series Ickx’s first representative time was a 2:10.770 She kept improving with all-purple sectors and went on top with a 2:07.066 Alessandro Cozzi in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari managed to find a few more tenths and reclaimed the top spot with a 2:06.4 as others also began improving and dipping under the 2:06 barrier and clocked a 2:06.134 to put the Iron Dames Porsche back on provisional pole with less than five minutes to go Lorenzo Innocenzi’s Kessel Racing Ferrari was the first to dip under the 2:06 mark The experienced Belgian racer improved again but remained in second Ickx went for one more attempt—she was significantly quicker in the first sector but lost time in the second and had to settle for second place The new Iron Dames duo will therefore start from the front row for the first time this season The second round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup season is scheduled for 16:45 on Saturday where the Iron Dames will aim to capitalize on their pace and bounce back from the dramatic start in Barcelona A driver change has been confirmed this morning at Paul Ricard ahead of the second ELMS race of the 2025 season The #60 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R 992 will see team co-owner Christian Ried join Matteo Cairoli and Alessio Picariello for the remainder of the weekend Ried is stepping in to substitue for Claudio Schiavoni had physical problems during the private test sessions yesterday The Italian has been counted out from competing this weekend on medical advice The move comes just days after Ried was confirmed to be stepping away from Iron Lynx’s AMG LMGT3 programme in the FIA WEC. He will be replaced by Australian Martin Berry at all but one of the remaining races this season Goodyear is debuting a new slick tyre specification for European Le Mans Series’ LMP2 teams at this weekend’s 4 Hours of Le Castellet The new specification has been developed to improve both tyre performance and durability across race stints It builds on the foundation of Goodyear’s existing compound and will be used for the remainder of the 2025 campaign as well as the Le Mans 24 Hours next month “This new specification is an evolution of our existing slick LMP2 compound,” João Coelho “It has undergone extensive testing in close collaboration with several LMP2 teams “That partnership has allowed us to introduce a tire that delivers even higher standards of performance and maintains the reliability needed for endurance races as gruelling as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.” The new specification arrives after the current set of LMP2 regulations was renewed in preparation for the next generation of cars set to debut in 2028 Coelho adds: “We have a mixture of Platinum and remains trusted to race on by an array of drivers with a range of driving styles Teams competing in the ELMS LMGT3 category will continue to run the latest specification of Goodyear’s ‘Eagle Medium’ slick compound this season The 4 hours of Le Castellet marks the 70th European Le Mans Series event and the 14th ELMS race held at the circuit Circuit Paul Ricard is the only venue that has been an ever present on the ELMS calendar since LMEM took over responsibility for the Series in 2013 (above) and due to the Covid 19 pandemic when the race in Spain was cancelled due to restrictions Le Castellet became the first circuit to host two events in the same season* The 4 Hours of Le Castellet was held on Sunday * Portimao held two races in the same season in 2023 but both came on the same event after the Imola event was cancelled due to incomplete building works The full ELMS livery is now adorning the #82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R After the original car bound for the ELMS was destroyed in testing at Spa TF Sport were forced to use one of their WEC Corvettes as an emergency replacement for the opening European round at Barcelona last month That car has now been confirmed as the full season ELMS chassis with a brand new car obtained to replace it in WEC as the #81 Paul Ricard is home to a number of notable motorsport operations in particular to ORECA where their new and hugely expanded facility assembles the Ferrari 296 GT3 and builds the spines for the Acura and Alpine LMDH Hypercar as well as the forthcoming Genesis GMR001 It’s also been the home since 2017 for the dominant LMP2 car of the current era the ORECA 07 almost 140 chassis have been built to date across Oreca and Alpine badged cars with the Acura DPi also built around Oreca 07 chassis – nine were used for that purpose It was a delight to see chassis #100 on display in the circuit foyer at Le Mans in 2022 for Cool Racing with Yifei Ye the car is understood to actually be the 99th chassis completed The 2025 4 Hours of Le Castellet will run to a circuit configuration not used for the ELMS since 2017 the chicane on the Mistral in use for the first time since the first year of the current generation of LMP2 cars It’s a move that is understood to have been made to offset tyre wear issues that caused problems in LMP2 in 2024 Sophia Floersch was an unexpected addition to the Algarve Pro Racing line-up on track at the Collective Test on Thursday The Portuguese team is working to put together a programme to bring the German racer back to the paddock where she scored a pair of podium finishes in LMP2 in 2021 and 2022 Forty-two cars are set to contest round 2 of the 2025 Michelin Le Mans Cup in a two-hour encounter at the Circuit Paul Ricard on Saturday The car and driver line-ups are identical at present fro those that started the season in Spain earlier this month That means that the TS Corse Duqueine and the second Inter Europol Ligier both listed for the full season but missing for the season opener 17 LMP3 Pro-Am and eight GT3 runners to make up the grid Marta Garcia returns after her huge accident in the opening race the Spanish single seater ace pitched into the wall by contact from the rear whilst leading the race  Garcia joins Vanina Ickx in the Iron Dames Porsche which is an entirely new car no more than 10% of the Barcelona car’s components were recoverable The Le Castellet Round sees Free Practice on Friday and qualifying on Saturday morning qualifying and the races will be streamed on YouTube MLMC PAUL RICARD ENTRY >> Round two of the 2025 Ligier European Series season on 2 and 3 May completes the current ACO ‘ladder’ in support of the European Le Mans Series The much improved 26-car full season entry remains stable for the second round with 15 Ligier JS P4 and 11 Ligier JS2Rs The action at Circuit Paul Ricard begins on Friday followed by two qualifying sessions at 3:40 and 4 pm The two one-hour Castellet Heat races will be run on Saturday at 9 am and 1:05 pm and will be streamed live on the series’ YouTube channel and Facebook page LES PAUL RICARD ENTRY >> Author: Here you can see the webcast of the BMW Group Press Conference at the Auto Shanghai 2025 SearchGabriela Jilková and Cindy Gudet kick off GT4 Europe campaign with ProAm podium in Le Castellet MIKA BÖCKERApr 155 min readCindy Gudet and Gabriela Jilková kicked off their 2025 GT4 European Series campaign with a strong performance for Matmut Evolution claiming a ProAm podium in Race 2 at Paul Ricard after two battling drives in mixed-weather conditions Photo credits: SRO / JEPCindy Gudet and Gabriela Jilková enjoyed a positive start to season for Matmut Evolution in GT4 Europe In the mixed-weather opener at Circuit Paul Ricard in the South of France the all-female Matmut Evolution team showed a strong performance and achieved a rewarding podium finish in the ProAm class repeating their personal best result from 2024 Jilková and Gudet are entering their second year as teammates in the GT4 European Championship having been selected by the French squad via an all-female shootout to create a female team in the GT4 platform — the Volant 100% Féminin Matmut — as part of a commitment to equality an experienced GT4 racer with podiums to her name in the highly competitive ADAC GT4 Germany among others having previously partnered with Lucile Cypriano in the FFSA GT4 Championship before stepping up with Gudet in the European series Gudet is now entering her second season in sportscar competitions but has shown impressive progress over her rookie season in the ProAm class and is now aiming to take another step forward Competing also in the Ligier European Series as well as the Ultimate Cup the French racer is collecting very valuable track time and is ready for the next step The strong driver duo returned to Le Castellet where they had collected their first class podium last year and soon showed good pace in the ProAm class from practice They were sixth fastest in the official practice session and the second-best Toyota Supra GT4 in the strong 42-car field they were third fastest in class in the Pre-Qualifying session establishing the Matmut Evolution team as one of the podium contenders in ProAm the first qualifying saw some light rain at the start of the session Jilková improved on her final run with a lap time of 2:13.329 In Q2 it was time for Cindy Gudet to get behind the wheel; a red flag was desployed when the #19 Lema Racing Mercedes lost a wheel improved significantly over the session and set a 2:13.355 putting the car P14 overall and second in ProAm — a strong starting position for Race 2 Photo credits: SRO / JEPFollowing previous rain showers though occasional wet patches remained on the track Jilková started the race in her Toyota Supra GT4 from 20th place overall and 7th in class Jilková moved up to 17th position and into fifth place in her class She spent the next few laps between Vanspiegel in the Ford and Detry in the Porsche However her pace deteriorated as the car experienced more severe tyre deg and the Czech racer couldn’t hold on to her position; after 12 minutes of racing she continued to defend against her pursuers over the following minutes she was stuggling to keep DeBack and Gedik behind however only lost one position in the overall standings; when the pit stop window opened Jilková came in one lap later for the driver change Cindy Gudet was in 22nd place overall and had slipped to seventh in class In a duel with Dinesen — which included several short position changes — however she would eventually end up dropping behind Naska and Xavier as the tyre drop continued to be significant Gudet had to defend herself against Visser and eventually gave in with five minutes remaining The Matmut Evolution team nevertheless crossed the finish line in ninth place in class and 28th overall but with valuable experience that could be applied in the second race Photo credits: SRO / JEPCloudy and rainy conditions preceded the second race Cindy Gudet started from 15th place overall an additional formation lap was completed behind the safety car The start on the slippery track was very chaotic it seemed the actual race track was the least busy part of Circuit Paul Ricard; hardly any car stayed cleanly on track Gudet tried to defend her starting position and initially lost one place in both classifications by the end of the first lap After 12 minutes, the #30 WS Motorsport car spun in the final corner and hit the wall The recovery initially required a full course yellow The restart took place eight minutes later Gudet briefly climbed back to 18th place overall and retained second in class; she was able to defend cleanly until the mandatory pit stop The Matmut Evolution team’s driver change to Jilková took place 32 minutes into the race: after the pit stop cycle Jilková emerged in 14th place overall and at the top of the ProAm class the Czech racer and Tremvoulet in the Mercedes engaged in a close battle for the class lead This fierce fight allowed the chasing pack to close the gap Bouveng in the BMW eventually overtook Jilková with a slight contact and took the class lead Still in the Porsche overtook Jilková on the back straight pushing her into third place in class and 16th overall Gabriela was fighting hard for a podium and she fought back and ultimately crossed the finish line in 17th overall and fourth in class Penalties for other teams saw them move up to 15th place at the end of the race — securing a rewarding ProAm podium finish The women’s duo were thus rewarded for their efforts with their first podium of the GT4 Europe season as a result of a hardly-fought race weekend with a strong performance for both drivers constantly battling elbows out in around the top-15 of the 42-car field The next round is scheduled for 16-18 May at Zandvoort where Jilková has traditionally enjoyed notable success in both GT4 and LMP3 machinery - and will be eyeing to continue the trend SearchMarta García scores third top-20 of FRECA campaign in le CastelletRACERSJul 22 20244 min readMarta García made significant progress at the Le Castellet round of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine recovering multiple positions to secure her third top-20 finish of the season in Race 1 and demonstrating fighting spirit in both the extreme heat and rain throughout the weekend Photo by: Racers - Behind the HelmetIron Dames' Marta García had a strong showing in the first race of the Le Castellet round the sixth meeting of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine as she recovered seven positions to claim her third top-20 finish in the series so far The inaugural F1 Academy champion is making good progress in her first season of the highly competitive series consistently battling around the top 20 in a strong 33-car field often separated by a little over a second Coming off a challenging round at the very demanding Mugello circuit which was nevertheless a good learning experience returning to the circuit where the Valencian was victorious twice last year in F1 Academy García's progression throughout the FRECA season has been steady with a top-15 finish at Spa Francorchamps in only her second weekend where she again showed good pace and determined battles but she would have to fight through extreme heat on Saturday and a rainstorm on Sunday García made good steps forward in Friday practice running for most of the collective testing inside the top-20 and making good progress over the first day to finish P22 barely one second off the overall pace setter with a personal best of 2:00.179 on Friday having found seven-tenths between sessions The first qualifying of the weekend on Saturday morning saw all three female drivers in the series in Group B and would start P26 for the first race of the weekend Championship leader Rafael Camara took pole from Michael Belov with the two lining up ahead of Brando Badoer and Tuukka Taponen the start was clean through the first couple of corners and Marta gained two positions off the line then one more on Kanato Le at the end of the first lap Le set fast sectors and fought back on the second lap but Garcia remained glued to the G4 Racing car while Ivan Dominguez demoted Taponen for fourth An off-track moment for Noah Stromsted at turn 8 gained García P23; she was now chasing Romain Andriolo closely The Iron Dame set her personal best on lap 7 and was looking to attack Andriolo and Le in a three-car battle for P21 then Edgar Pierre and Enzo Deligny collided at turn 3 This played into Marta García's hands having also overtaken Andriolo in the process García drove away from the Frenchman and tried to close in again on Kanato Le with a handful of laps to go she set her personal best of the race and almost caught Le but ran out of time to attack A post-race penalty for Deligny promoted García to P19: the F1 Academy champion thus collected her third top-20 finish of the season with a strong first race at Le Castellet gaining seven positions in a series where it’s notoriously difficult to pass Photo by: Racers - Behind the HelmetSunday morning's second qualifying session was marked by significantly different conditions with light rain showers before the session and heavier rain as cars hit the track in the first group to go out on Sunday morning alongside teammate Pin with significant track development and tumbling times at each run Nevertheless García made a good improvement at the end and was P11 in Group The second race started under safety car conditions due to heavy rain throughout most of the afternoon; while the rain slightly eased just before the start visibility remained tricky and as cars followed the pace car The race had a thrilling start with plenty of carnage in the first corners once the green flag finally dropped: Badoer spun and Marta was quick to gain two places right at the restart More chaos ensued as Enzo Peugeot and Tuukka Taponen made contact at the final corner She continued to make up ground before the race was neutralized again behind the safety car with Alessandro Giusti and Kanato Le making their way up into podium contention as Ugochukwu and Bohra followed in the top five García had made sterling progress in the first laps under green gaining four places: when the safety car made its way back to the pits at the end of lap 6 with more cars taking the escape road into the chicanes Marta was up to 19th after another hectic lap - and looking strong for another recovery drive Marta fell down to P21 as a few fast cars recovered from behind although she soon tried to recover with strong pace having again moved up the order from her starting position she lost out to Edgar Pierre on the final lap the weekend brought many learning opportunities for the FRECA Iron Dames duo with significant progress and many midfield battles showing how García is making strides towards the front © 2025 - RACERS, The Girls Behind the Helmet VideoHIGHLIGHTS: Relive the action from a dramatic French Grand Prix, as Verstappen capitalises on Leclerc's misfortune Verstappen wins the 2022 French Grand Prix as pole-sitter Leclerc crashes out of the lead Get up to speed with everything you need to know about the 2022 French Grand Prix which takes place over 53 laps of the 5.842-kilometre Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet on Sunday Using the links above you can find the full weekend schedule including details of practice and qualifying sessions with details of how and where you can watch the race on TV or download the 2022 French Grand Prix schedule to your mobile device © 2003-2025 Formula One World Championship Limited After six years of planning and development, Spanish plastics recycler GCR Sustainable Plastic Solutions has started operations at its new polyolefins recycling facility in Castellet i la Gornal With an annual capacity of more than 130,000 tonnes the new plant is one of the largest in Europe GCR was planning to invest around €100m in the project The new facility provides recycled feedstock for GCR’s Ciclic and Granic product portfolios The Ciclic line includes high-quality recycled plastics such as HDPE which can lower the CO₂ emissions of plastic applications by up to 90 per cent Customer Service+49 7224 9397-701servicenoSpam@GO-AWAYeuwid.de Editorial Team+49 7224 9397-0recyclingnoSpam@GO-AWAYeuwid.com Get the latest news about developments and trends in the industry sent to you once a week free of charge by newsletter Sign up for our newsletter We use cookies and external services on our website others enhance your user experience or help us improve this website You can change your privacy settings any time by clicking privacy policy Necessary cookies are required for the correct functioning of the website Content from video and social media platforms is blocked by default. If access to these services is accepted, separate consent is no longer required when using them. You can find more information on the individual external services in our privacy policy the French team will be taking two of the contenders for the Normandy driver's seat to the South of France © Overtake/Motors Inside / Jack Doohan at the wheel of the A524 in CanadaAs the battle rages on the track between the top four teams of Red Bull the transfer market continues to stir behind the scenes and Alpine has been making headlines in recent days Since the Monaco Grand Prix and the days following the race in the Principality Esteban Ocon and Alpine F1 have announced the end of their collaboration at the end of this season on the eve of the first laps in Barcelona last weekend the paddock learned of the official appointment of Flavio Briatore the illustrious leader of Enstone for many years the one that revealed Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso was seen in discussions with Carlos Sainz Sr the son of the recent Dakar winner would thus have become a candidate for a seat at Alpine in a few hours while his contract with Williams F1 was already thought to be signed If Sainz indeed claims to return to Enstone next year where he already drove under the colors of Renault in 2017 and 2018 starting with that of Alpine reserve driver Jack Doohan a regular in the World Endurance Championship with the Arrows and former Haas F1 driver The team led by Bruno Famin will thus carry out a test session with these two drivers at the Paul Ricard circuit in a few days This session will take place precisely next week between the Austrian and British Grand Prix Doohan and Schumacher will take turns at the wheel of the Alpine A522 that competed in the F1 championship in 2022 as the regulations prohibit private tests on more recent single-seaters The two men have never hidden their desire to become or to return as Formula 1 starters Even if these tests are not officially organized to compare the times of the drivers who will hit the track there is no doubt that both the Australian and the German will be eager to impress the French team's decision-makers You already have an account? 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SearchF4 Spain: Stellar recovery drives for Lia Block at Le CastelletRACERSJul 9 20245 min readLia Block enjoyed her best weekend in Spanish F4 to date with a remarkable performance at Circuit Paul Ricard recovering 32 positions across three races to achieve her personal best finish of 17th showcasing significant progress in the highly-competitive series Photo credits: GRS TeamLia Block enjoyed by far her best weekend in single seaters with a remarkable showing at Circuit Paul Ricard which hosted the third round of the Spanish Formula 4 Championship The 17 year old Williams Academy driver bounced back from an extremely close qualifying which saw 35 cars in a little over one and a half second to recover an impressive 32 positions throughout the weekend This feat secured her a personal best finish in the series who previously raced in off-road competitions and only transitioned to single seaters at the beginning of the season has made enormous progression over the first half of the year having made her F4 debut in the highly-competitive Formula Winter Series with Spanish team GRS before joining the all-female F1 Academy championship Block steadily improved over the first F1 Academy weekends showing particularly positive qualifying performances the American scored her first point with a tenth place in race 2 then made a further step forward at Circuit de Catalunya She was twice in the points and topped her personal best finish with a sixth place Block maximized her track time with additional outings in the competitive Spanish F4 series joining the grid from the second round at Portimao Competing in the closely-contested midfield one of Europe's most renowned circuits for the third round of the Spanish F4 - which returned to the South of France for the first time since 2021- aiming to further develop her skills in F4 machinery In an incredibly tight 35-car field where everyone was within 2 seconds in practice she rocketed up to P24 by the first corner navigating through the chaos with precision The race saw an early safety car deployment when Lucas Fluxa stalled on the track kept her position at P20 and began to put pressure on Adam Al Azhari She then took advantage of a mistake by another driver Her steady improvement in sector times allowed her to close in on the cars ahead: by lap 5 she had gained another position when championship leader Keanu Al Azhari ran over a kerb damaging his front wing and forcing him to pit even when overtaken by Pedersen and Lambert Block successfully defended her position against Bouzinelos and a late-race battle with Enzo Tarnvanichkul saw her secure a one-second margin This result marked her first top-20 finish in the Spanish F4 championship Photo credits: GRS TeamIn the second qualifying session on Sunday morning Lia Block faced another incredibly close competition followed by James Egozi and Keanu Al Azhari Block's performance in Race 2 was again nothing short of spectacular: she gained four positions right off the line and continued her charge moving up six more places by the end of the first lap The race was then interrupted by a big accident involving Gerhards Block's quick reactions allowed her to avoid the incident and move up to P20 before the neutralization which was extended due to a contact between Yevan David and Adam Al Azhari Block found herself in P19 when the race finally restarted with 10 minutes remaining; she had a clean restart and Block's persistence paid off as she regained P19 and engaged in a tight battle in the closing laps she overtook Tarnvanichkul and then gained another position to move up to P18 on the final lap A late-race incident involving Lucas Fluxa allowed Block to finish P17 moving from P34 to P23 and gaining 11 positions Photo credits: GRS TeamStarting from P34 in the final race of the weekend Block was again determined to complete another recovery drive She quickly moved up to P33 at lights out and gained three more positions by the end of the first lap fighting fiercely with Al Azhari and Restrepo she fiercely fought back to P27 with five minutes remaining on the clock Block overtook Bouzinelos and gained another position although the Rodin Motorsport driver managed to reclaim his spot shortly after Despite struggling slightly for pace in the final race Block's tenacity shone through: she crossed the finish line in P27 having made up ground from the start and gaining valuable racing experience Lots of improvements in these three races with my highest finish of 17th in Race 1 Lia Block's recovery of 32 positions throughout the weekend was a testament to her development as a racing driver and her commitments to also competing in high-level mixed-gender series is paying off With continued progress also in the latest F1 Academy rounds the Williams Academy driver clearly proved that she still has a big room for improvement and we can expect more strong performances as the season progresses Inter Europol Competition take first overall European Le Mans Series victory after dramatic final hour at Le Castellet… Inter Europol Competition claimed its first overall victory in the European Le Mans Series by winning the 4 Hours of Le Castellet but saw a potential 1-2 finish fall away after late drama for Clement Novalak Vlad Lomko and Tom Dillmann finished 14.004 seconds ahead of the No 47 Cool Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Paul-Loup Chatin The Swiss squad crossed the line in third place but were promoted after the No Reshad de Gerus and Job van Uitert received a ten-second penalty for zigzagging and blocking another car That moment came when Van Uitert defended the race lead in a battle with Dillmann at the restart for a Full Course Yellow that had fired the starting pistol on a dramatic final hour at Le Castellet Cool Racing initially looked in strong contention to claim a second consecutive race victory with its No 37 car until Malthe Jakobsen suddenly slowed and came to a halt on track with 43 minutes to go only to be passed by Dillmann and even drop to fourth when the final round of stops shook up the LMP2 order while the entire top three dropped behind the No 34 Inter Europol Oreca of Clement Novalak as the Frenchman opted not to pit Novalak remained in the lead until 20 minutes remaining 34 car pulled off to the side on the start-finish straight with a reported gearbox problem This promoted Dillmann back to first place who remained there to claim Inter Europol’s first LMP2 victory in the ELMS it added to previously LMP2 wins obtained in the FIA World Endurance Championship (through last year’s class win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans) as well as the Asian Le Mans Series Louis Deletraz and Robert Kubica to complete the overall podium for AO by TF United Autosports rounded out the overall top five with the No Richard Mille by TDS took the LMP2 Pro-Am class win with the No 77 Proton Competition entry of Giorgio Roda An extended final stint gave RLR M Sport victory in LMP3 while Spirit of Race ended a lengthy win drought by coming out on top in LMGT3 Gael Julien completed a 29-lap run to the flag aboard the No 15 Ligier JS P320 Nissan he shares with Michael Jensen and Nick Adcock to win This allowed the British squad to complete one stop less than most of its rivals and meant Julien crossed the line 3.716 seconds ahead of the No 4 DKR Engineering Duqueine D08 Nissan of Wyatt Brichacek ended a multi-year win drought by winning LMGT3 while the Iron Dames were again denied victory despite dominating much of the race 55 Ferrari 296 GT3 with Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Andrea Caldarelli to win by 4.903 seconds after four hours of racing the Italian squad brought an end to a winless streak of 1029 days Perel and Cameron took the GTE class victory at that event alongside current Ferrari Hypercar driver Alessandro Pier Guidi The win came despite an early dominant run from the No 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R of Sarah Bovy which led the class from pole and held a strong lead until the final round of stops both Perel and Caldarelli vaulted to the front after spending less time in the pits while Gatting even dropped to fifth behind GR Racing and Racing Spirit of Leman 86 Ferrari was eliminated from contention through a late drivethrough penalty for “anticipating the end” of the last Full Course Yellow Gatting was unable to pass Valentin Hasse-Clot’s No 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to claim the final stop of the podium Casper Stevenson and Derek DeBoer finished third with the Iron Dames fourth and GR Racing fifth RESULTS: 4 Hours of Le Castellet Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS IDEC Sport beats LMP2 Pro-Am entries to victory at Paul Ricard.. Read on how she has managed to overcome a lot of adversities to get to this point The 32-year-old hit back-to-back 900s on Run 2 and claimed silver at her fifth Games a joyful moment after finishing 11th in Sochi and seventh in PyeongChang "All the emotions just exploded at the end," she told Olympics.com in Beijing "And today was amazing even though I didn't start on the right foot my thoughts of how important this is and somehow the strength came as well "Somehow I managed to put it all together in the second run and make it happen." "I have been working on it so much and just enjoy and make my riding happen and that's what it was and I couldn't be happier. "I did a run that I wanted to do and it just worked out with second place which is still amazing after Chloe, she's an incredible rider, an incredible athlete." The Olympic Winter Games are just a TICKET away 🏂❄️🎿 Sign-up to get a reminder of when the next tickets go live and all the latest news of your favourite national Olympic teams and athletes trying to qualify Her silver medal is Spain's first Beijing a Spanish woman's best ever result at the Olympic Winter Games just the latest in a career of firsts for Castellet Her silver at the 2015 Worlds was Spain's first snowboarding medal at a world champs and she is now the most decorated Spanish snowboarder and winter athlete in history been forced to withdraw from competition due to concussion - all sustained in crashes in training or competition Queralt has been through it all to get where she is but perhaps the most painful of all was losing her partner He died a year after being diagnosed with brain cancer A Swiss coach managed to convince her to get back on the board "That's where I saw I had to continue on (Snowboarding) was what made me smile and be happy." In New Zealand she revamped her routines and rediscovered her love for the sport training with coach Benjamin Bright who encouraged her to compete in big air too Now she's coached by two-time Olympic silver medalist Danny Kaas "If there's something I get out of these Games it's that nothing good comes easy," she continued to Olympics.com in Beijing "And we are made for passing obstacles and for learning from them and to be grateful of everything we've got and learn from every step of our lives." Asked how she thought her partner who she lost in 2016 would feel she said: "I think everyone would be very happy about my result today From every stone I've found on the way I managed to learn something from it." "Next up is to celebrate this with my family and celebrate something so unbelievable" "I'm super grateful to have them by my side and it's thanks to that I am where I am." BackInter Europol Competition score first ELMS LMP2 victory at Le CastelletThe 2024 edition of the 4 Hours of Le Castellet certainly provided plenty of entertainment for the thousands of spectators that travelled to the Circuit Paul Ricard They witnessed a dramatic race that saw the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca-Gibson take the chequered flag for the Polish team's first ever LMP2 victory in the ELMS The reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 championship winning team started 12thon the grid with Sebastien Alvarez making his way up the field to hand over to Vlad Lomko who led for most of his stint before handing over to Tom Dillmann to secure the victory at his home race with the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca finishing second on the road but a penalty for excessive weaving during the race dropped the car down to 4th.The no47 COOL Racing and the no14 AO by TF Orecas took second and third respectively The LMP2 Pro/Am victory went to the no29 Richard Mille by TDS Racing Oreca after a race long fight back after a collision at the start put Rodrigo Sales down the order on lap 1.The American pushed hard to get back in contention handing over to Gregoire Saucy in a good position with Mathias Beche able to bring the car home to claim the class victory It was another superb fight back from the crew of the no15 RLR M Sport Ligier which had started on pole but ended up down the order.Michael Jensen Nick Adcock fought their way back to hand the car to Gael Julien with the French driver getting out in front to take the win ahead of the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine and the no35 Ultimate Ligier The LMGT3 victory went to the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296 with Duncan Cameron starting on the front row and briefly holding the lead.Contact with another car spun the British driver around Matt Griffin took over the second stint to move the car up the field before handing back to Cameron to finish his driving time the British driver holding his own against the silver and gold drivers that were now out on track David Perel brought the car home to score the team’s first victory since 2021.The no63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini was second 4.9 seconds behind Perel at the chequered flag with the no59 racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage in third CLICK HERE for the provisional result from the 4 Hours of Le Castellet Round 3 of the 2024 European Le Mans Series is the 4 Hours of Imola will take place on Sunday 7 July but before that some of the teams and drivers will be heading to Le Mans for the 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 15/16 June as part of the development of tires for the 2025 season © Pirelli / Pirelli works on tires for the 2025 season with Charles Leclerc here at Le Castellet (Ferrari).Pirelli has carried out its fourth test session this season the objective is to develop the tires for next season it was at the Circuit du Paul Ricard that this session took place Ferrari arrived in the south of France with its two drivers, Carlos Sainz and the winner of his home Grand Prix Carlos Sainz worked on the new soft compounds with the aim for Pirelli to reduce overheating The Spaniard completed 138 laps covering a distance of 768 kilometers it was Charles Leclerc's turn on an artificially wet track He drove on the short 3.5 km track with a volume of water on the track that varied to reproduce as faithfully as possible the conditions encountered in the race It should be noted that during test sessions the team on the track is working for Pirelli and cannot make any changes to its car The data collected is then shared among all the teams on the grid Les photos des essais Pirelli au Castellet. Toutes les photos Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Queralt Castellet of Spain competes during the women’s snowboard halfpipe final at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou (Photo by Xu Chang/Xinhua via Getty Images) the Olympic snowboard halfpipe silver medalist from Spain posted that she’s “grateful to be here” after significant injuries from a crash at the Toyota U.S Castellet suffered six fractured ribs and a collapsed lung in a crash in her second of three runs fell through the air and crashed toward the bottom of the pipe The competition was stopped for 13 minutes Castellet did not take her third and final run “A frightening for life … a whole lot of luck,” was posted on Castellet’s social media Thursday with images of her sitting up in a medical room bed “Grateful to be here after collecting all the pieces. glad that even tho it wont be pleasurable i will be recovered “I have now not other choice but to take in all that time and look after my body and myself.” became the oldest Olympic snowboard halfpipe medalist when she took silver behind American Chloe Kim last year in her fifth Winter Games Castellet also won the Winter X Games in Aspen A Division of NBCUniversal DISCLAIMER: This site and the products offered are for entertainment purposes only and there is no gambling offered on this site This service is intended for adult audiences No guarantees are made for any specific outcome If you or someone you know has a gambling problem The provisional entry list for the ELMS 4 Hours of Le Castellet The grid features the same 43 cars as Round 1 There will be 128 drivers and 28 teams representing 30 different nations In LMP2 Paul Loup Chatin is listed once again in COOL Racing’s #47 ORECA The Frenchman was a late addition to the team for Barcelona standing in for the injured Ferdinand Habsburg whose recovery is ongoing after his testing incident with Alpine Interestingly, Habsburg was listed on the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa provisional entry list this morning in Alpine’s #35 A424 Hypercar The race in Belgium is scheduled for the weekend following the 4 Hours of Le Castellet Elsewhere Eric Trouillet is set to race with Ultimate in its #35 Ligier JS P320 alongside Jean-Baptiste Lahaye and Matthieu Lahaye ENTRY LIST >>> Richard Verschoor on his return to MP Motorsport Bruno Michel’s Debrief: Experienced heads and enthusiastic rookies golf and food: Dino Beganovic’s Hometown Tour View all latest news Felipe Drugovich’s laptime of 1:44.031 set in today’s Qualifying session at Le Castellet has been deleted after it was found that whilst setting his fastest time on his final attempt in the session the MP Motorsport driver exceeded track limits at the apex of Turn 3 his second fastest time of 1:44.241 has been used which drops the Brazilian to sixth in the final classification This promotes Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan and ART Grand Prix’s Théo Pourchaire to fourth and fifth READ MORE: QUALIFYING: Sargeant sneaks ahead of Iwasa and Vesti in tight battle for pole Inter Europol Competition scored its first-ever overall ELMS victory today in the 4 Hours of Le Castellet Vladislav Lomko and Tom Dillmann in the #43 ORECA 07 Gibson produced a near-perfect run in a race that was filled with drama in the closing stages after a safety car in Hour 3 led to a change of lead in all four classes The triumph is a real milestone result for the team which will head to the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours full of confidence as it looked on track for a 1-2 finish after the sister #34 vaulted to the lead with a shorter final stop But Clement Novalak stopped on track with 19 minutes remaining when the car got stuck in second gear who earlier in the final hour had fought to the lead with a daring move on Job van Uitert on the inside at Signes came home 14 seconds ahead of Paul Loup Chatin to start 12th and win on strategy was unexpected It’s a testament to the job the team did It’s a shame it wasn’t a 1-2 because of the bad luck to the sister car,” Dillmann said after the race Chatin salvaged a strong finish for COOL Racing in the #47 ORECA which looked on course for a victory after the safety car restart when Malthe Jakobsen led the race in the #37 sister car that won the season opener in Barcelona The Dane stopped close to the pit entry though setting up a duel between Inter Europol’s ORECAs and the IDEC Sport example After the race Jakobsen told DSC that he lost second gear a couple of laps before stopping He believes the g-force through Signes jammed the gearbox with the debris from whatever had broken earlier IDEC Sport didn’t finish on the podium either as a 10-second time penalty was handed to van Uitert for weaving down the Mistral straight which resulted in contact on the entry to Signes with the hard-charging Dillmann This dropped the IDEC ORECA to fourth after the race Despite the weaving and subsequent touch at high speed Dillmann described it as “hard and fair racing” in the post-race presser The penalty promoted the AO by TF ORECA to the final podium place Edgar led the race overall early after finding a way past pole-sitter Paul Lafargue before Luca Ghiotto made a charge to the front in the #34 The car lost time later on too with a penalty for overtaking with all four wheels off the circuit and a tyre related issue The #22 United Autosports ORECA would take fifth behind the penalised IDEC car after Ben Hanley was unable to hang on to a podium place late in the race In LMP2 Pro/Am Richard Mille by TDS took an unexpected victory Mathias Beche and Gregoire Saucy overcame an early setback and got the better of the DKR ORECA which ran an alternate strategy and the #83 AF Corse example which spent much of the race fighting to the lead before losing places right at the end – it was another car that suffered with an issue with tyre wear “The start was more eventful than I’d like we had a couple of guys go for aggressive moves that meant I was pushed into the #83 and I damaged the front end which made the rest of the race a challenge We just focused on keeping our heads down,” Sales explained The #77 Proton Competition ORECA which started from pole The #83 crew that led the standings heading into the weekend will leave disappointed with fourth after Matthieu Vaxiviere dropped out of the top three and came home fourth It opted to leave Andres Latorre Canon’s stint until the end of the race which meant they spent much of the first half of the race in the lead their advantage out front evaporated for (Bronze-ranked) Latorre’s stint against higher-ranked drivers in the end He came home eighth after a clash from his car saw Alex Lynn’s #25 Algarve Pro Racing car tumble down the order RLR M Sport victorious in topsy-turvy LMP3 encounter LMP3 was won by the pole-sitting #15 RLR M Sport Ligier but it was far from a simple lights-to-flag victory for Nick Adcock The car dropped to seventh at the start and later lost time to a penalty for an infringement before the start on the grid benefitting from the safety car and superior pace at the end coming seemingly out of nowhere to take the victory Julien managed to put together a stint in the final hour that saw him save fuel and pace the field finishing three seconds clear of the chasing pack “We had an issue with the gearshift into Turn 1 Nick had a strong stint and Gael was in the last double stint and did an amazing job,” Jensen said ahead of the Ultimate Ligier that completed the podium Eurointernational’s finishing outside the top three was arguably the biggest surprise of the race Matthew Richard Bell led early and put the team in a strong position even though the car dropped down the order due to serving its longer stop before their rivals was unable to get the team back to the sharp end after losing time to the timing of the safety car (called for the #88 Inter Europol Ligier stopping at the final corner) and FCYs WTM By Rinaldi also had a chance at victory and led for a lengthy chunk of the race before retiring The car was unable to continue after its master relay burnt out Perel late-race heroics scores Spirit of Race win Spirit of Race’s trio of Duncan Cameron Matt Griffin and David Perel scored their first win as a trio in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari recovering from an early spin caused by contact which cost Cameron 55 seconds LMGT3 looked rather static up front for much of the pre-safety car action with Iron Dames leading from pole position and building a comfortable lead ahead of the Iron Lynx Lamborghini that held second But once again the Iron Dames crew of Sarah Bovy Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting would fail to convert an early lead into a victory The safety car bunched the field up and on strategy Spirit of Race and GR Racing became unlikely contenders by taking fuel-only stops at the end to gain track position while Iron Lynx through Andrea Caldarelli and Racing Spirit of Leman’s Aston Martin found pace in the final stint following bold strategy calls from the pit wall and strong drives from Cameron and Matt Griffin he kept Caldarelli at bay en route to the chequered flag “For a moment I thought the tyres were falling away but the car came alive when the fuel was low It was sliding but it felt good,” Perel told DSC after the race “It was a really hard race,” added Griffin “Duncan had an amazing qualifying and got turned around in the stint and lost 55 seconds and the main thing was we were all fast and made things happen gained from the safety car and David brought it home like a champ!” with Racing Spirit of Leman claiming third fourth place will feel like a crushing blow Frey and Gatting have points on the board after retiring from the lead in Spain GR Racing fell to fifth after running as high as second in Davide Rigon’s stint at the end the car handed a late drive-through for an FCY infringement Across all four classes today there was a remarkable change in fortunes for podium sitters only two (the #29 ORECA and #63 Lamborghini) have scored podiums in both races to start the season Next up on the calendar is the 4 Hours of Imola on July 7th after the break for the Le Mans 24 Hours RACE RESULT >> FILE - Spain’s Queralt Castellet stands at the bottom of the superpipe after winning the silver medal in the snowboard finals at the Winter X Games on Saturday FILE - Spain’s Queralt Castellet practices for the superpipe at the Winter X Games at Buttermilk in Aspen “Q” has become an answer in this equation: Name one of the contenders who could give defending Olympic halfpipe champion Chloe Kim a run for the title at the Beijing Games French snowboarder Queralt Castellet drops into the superpipe before the women’s snowboard finals at Buttermilk in Aspen on Saturday Spain’s Queralt Castellet airs out of the superpipe during the women’s finals at the Winter X Games on Saturday Spain’s Queralt Castellet practices for the superpipe at the Winter X Games at Buttermilk in Aspen maybe two reasons — the primary being that it saves everyone the effort of trying to pronounce her name “Q” has become an answer to this trivia question: Name a rider who could give defending Olympic halfpipe champion Chloe Kim a run for the title at the Beijing Games She is feeding off the energy of this younger generation She looks around and sees almost nobody who was there at her first Olympic appearance in 2006 Castellet was a wide-eyed teenager from Spain — never mistaken for a haven of snowboarding — going against an American force that included Hannah Teter along with a host of international riders such as Xuetong Cai of China it’s an honor to be able to share this time with all different kinds of ages of riders and different styles,” said Castellet “And to see what has happened to snowboarding because of all the different flavors that they bring in there’s video of a 16-year-old Castellet competing at the 2006 Turin Games She hasn’t watched the halfpipe run in quite some time She does recall this from her 26th-place finish: sheer enjoyment Her best Olympic result was seventh at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games But she’s a different sort of rider these days with whom she began collaborating about two seasons ago Kass saw a snowboarder who had as many tricks at her disposal as Kim learned what she could do — and do well — in the pipe and then went about honing in on her strengths they’ve dialed up her cab jump — riding “switch” (the opposite direction from normal) and jumping frontside — along with adding degrees of spin too: riding with the kids at Ski & Snowboard Club Vail “I think that made her have a little bit more fun .. young kids she’s not competing against,” Kass explained “She was trying new tricks and what they were learning.” Castellet found a fresh voice from a snowboarder she grew up watching and admiring including in 2006 when he finished behind Shaun White who is trying to defend his title again this winter Castellet also took to heart one of Kass’ biggest pieces of advice: Just have fun but I could get a little too serious or a little too repetitive in some things,” said Castellet whose country has won only one gold medal at the Winter Games very important to enjoy everything on the mountain “Q” doesn’t have an exact “A” for that one “I can’t tell you what I’m going to be doing tomorrow but I definitely know that there’s snowboarding,” Castellet said More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports BackELMS – G-Drive Racing wins the 2021 4 Hours of Le CastelletG-Drive Racing's #26 Aurus 01-Gibson won its first race of the season at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet this afternoon and is fast catching up to Team WRT in the provisional ELMS championship classification After a nail-biting 4 Hours of Le Castellet G-Drive Racing's #26 Aurus 01-Gibson shared by Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto and Nyck de Vries has claimed its first win of the season Roman Rusinov: "We had some troubles during the first two rounds I am very happy with this outcome." United Autosports' #22 and #32 ORECA 07-Gibsons rounded out the podium and desipte winning the first two races of the season Team WRT's #47 ORECA 07-Gibson finished fifth this weekend In the provisional championship classification but now G-Drive Racing only trails by three Association SRT41's #41 ORECA 07-Gibson entered in the Innovative Car class finished in 25th place The prototype had previously participated in the 4 Hours of Barcelona in preparation for the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans (21-22 August) DKR Engineering's #4 Duqueine M30-D08-Nissan delivered a flawless race in LMP3 and the Luxembourg tream dominated the competition thanks to the speed of driver Laurents Hörr recent two-time winner at Barcelona and the Red Bull Ring reached the second step on the podium with United Autosports' #2 Ligier JS P320-Nissan rounding out the top 3 though TF Sport's #95 Aston Martin Vantage AMR took the start in pole position Iron Lynx's #80 Ferrari F488 GTE Evo scored the win in this class Rino Mastronardi and Miguel Molina crossed the finish line with a 21-second lead on Spirit of Race's #55 Ferrari The Italian marque even pulled off a hat trick with AF Corse's #88 completing the podium The next round of the 2021 European Le Mans Series season is set for 11 July at the Monza circuit in Italy the second race of Season 9 of the FIA World Endurance Championship Granada 2015 Winter Universiade silver medallist reminisces about her experience as she soars towards a fifth Olympics in China Queralt Castellet is Spain’s undisputed “Queen of Snowboarding” colorful and highly motivated 32-year-old Spanish snowboard halfpipe star is on course to compete at her fifth Olympic Games in Beijing Castellet’s first World Cup halfpipe competition was all the way back in September 2005 as she burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old at an event in Valle Nevado as she has flipped and twisted through the air “I have seen many riders that have been dominating this discipline and I kind of have been included in this pack from the beginning – I’ve seen a lot of them arrive and go and I’ve always been there,” Castellet tells FISU’s Brian Pinelli in the latest edition of the FISU Legends Interview Series “What keeps me motivated is the fact that I keep pushing it I’m a part of it and I’m enjoying it it’s an opportunity that I get to enjoy everyday that I’m on my snowboard,” said the Spanish snowboarder While Castellet is now entirely focused on competing at a fifth Winter Games in China she reminisced about her Granada 2015 Winter Universiade experience recalling her silver medal performance in the Andalucian ski resort of Sierra Nevada She says that she felt immense pride and joy as her native Spain hosted the FISU showcase event “It was so amazing to be in Spain riding with so many international riders,” Castellet said “To have a halfpipe in Spain is amazing – it’s not a very common thing but in Spain we have a lot of snow and mountains “There is a lot of skiing and snowboarding culture even if Spain is more known of the beaches Castellet entered the competition fresh off a world championship silver medal in Kreischberg Castellet finished runner-up to her Chinese rival Cai Xuetong who remains among the top riders in the world headed to the Beijing Olympics it was such a relief,” Castellet recalled “I was stoked and second place was such a relief “It was a lot of emotions and I felt this proud feeling there like I hope you guys like it “One cool thing about the FISU World University Games is the vibe – its different than all the others – it’s a bit more friendly a bit more laid back and way more fun orientated.” Having competed at every Olympic Winter Games since Torino 2006 Castellet’s cherished moments and international experiences are vast She served as the flag bearer for Spain at the Vancouver 2010 opening ceremony an indelible moment she will forever be proud of Her Olympic performances have subsequently improved at each and every Games that she has participated her best result a seventh at PyeongChang 2018 The Spanish snowboard star has cherished the varied opportunities that each and every of her Olympic experiences has provided I always approach it as an opportunity to showcase my sport – it’s not a pressure it’s an honor to be able to show what snowboarding is to the entire world,” Castellet said “It’s also true that every time I enter a competition it’s with the goal is to medal – the Olympics is no different and I’m always there to rocket and give it my best.” When Castellet drops into the Olympic halfpipe in Zhangjiakou snowboarder Shaun White will also be competing at his fifth Winter Olympics The 35-year-old White – who has recently battled through a case of COVID-19 – is in pursuit of an unprecedented fourth Olympic snowboard halfpipe gold medal The American snowboard icon will also become the oldest halfpipe rider in Olympic history “He’s amazing and we’re good friends – we kind of have this friendly relationship that we’ve both been here for such a long time and we’re still kickin’ it and rippin’ it,” Castellet said © International University Sports Federation SearchELMS: Iron Dames dominant run at 4H of Le Castellet halted by safety car timingRACERSMay 6, 20245 min readSarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting have been flawless throughout the first two rounds of the 2024 ELMS, driving at their absolute best and building sizable margins - but once again it was not meant to be for the drivers of the #85 Iron Dames Porsche who still salvaged a fourth place finish at Le Castellet after an ill-timed safety car erased an over 50 second lead Photo credits: FocusPackMedia - Marcel WulfFor the second consecutive round Iron Dames utterly dominated a European Le Mans Series race before being denied by circumstances outside of their control: after a technical issue at the final pit stop at the Barcelona season opener an ill-timed safety car intervention erased an over 50 second gap ahead of the last stint - and a final pit stop lost the all-female trio the lead of the race as well as the chances of a podium Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting have been flawless throughout the first two rounds of the 2024 European Le Mans Series, driving their best races to date and mounting sizable margins - but once again it was not meant to be for the drivers of the #85 magenta Porsche 911 GT3 R who still salvaged a fourth place finish after a superb final stint by Michelle Gatting The Barcelona disappointment had been brushed aside as the team headed to Le Castellet where the outfit had traditionally enjoyed some of their strongest results since the project debut in 2019 The 5.770 km circuit - this weekend used in its configuration without the chicane on the Mistral straight - had in fact always been friendly ground for the Iron Dames Frey and Gatting were once again in contention for a big result A competitive lap by the Danish driver in the first session as well as the third fastest times in both the Bronze and second practice set the tone for the rest of the weekend as Sarah Bovy took over driving duties for the LMGT3 class qualifying on Saturday afternoon with high hopes And the Belgian bronze-rated driver lived up to expectations once again. Sarah's first timed lap put the #85 Porsche in P4 Spirit of Race and Formula Racing Ferraris made up the top positions got in the rhythm and immediately snatched the top spot with a 1:56.003 which was almost a second faster than anyone Takeshi Kimura (#57 Kessel Racing Ferrari) struggled to reduce the gap in the final minutes and it would be Duncan Cameron to take second place, although the driver of the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari could never challenge Bovy for the top spot Following Célia Martin's pole position in the Michelin Le Mans Cup Iron Dames took their second pole position of the day as qualifying master Sarah Bovy conquered her second pole in just as many ELMS rounds in 2024 Photo credits: Iron DamesJust three weeks after the start of the 2024 European Le Mans Series season the crews of the 43 teams lined up on the grid for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet under clear skies Sarah Bovy led the LMGT3 field into turn 1 as she tried to make her way past the slower LMP3 cars - and a spinning prototype was in fact the cause for a lead change as the Spirit of Race Ferrari 296 of Duncan Cameron seized the opportunity to pass the Iron Dame on lap one Bovy, though, immediately fought back and reclaimed the top spot after a pass on the Mistral straight on lap 2; the Iron Dames Porsche soon tried to pull away, as Cameron came under pressure from the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini driven by Hiroshi Hamaguchi The Belgian established her trademark commanding pace and after setting the class fastest lap almost a full second faster than her closest competitor By lap 20, Iron Dames already enjoyed a 7 second lead. Hamaguchi found a way past Cameron for second place 30 minutes into the race - and the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari hit trouble soon after Bovy continued to extend the gap throughout the first stint and the magenta Porsche was over 20 seconds ahead courtesy of an uninterrupted first part of the race Iron Dames opted to pit 50 minutes into the race for fuel and Bovy remained behind the wheel Kessel Racing's Takeshi Kimura was up to second in class Sarah's pace continued to be unchallenged and with position changing behind her for second Iron Dames' race was going according to plan Sarah Bovy had built a 50 second advantage and pitted from the lead The Swiss driver set the car's new benchmark on lap 60 and was one of the few drivers in class to lap under the 1m57 Frey's pace was highly competitive as well as consistent and Her glorious run was suddenly interrupted when the #88 Intereuropol LMP3 of Kai Askey came to a halt on the main straight and the Virtual Safety Car was deployed - which by regulation translated into a full Safety Car despite the issue being fully cleared by that time This meant that Rahel Frey saw the 54 second margin disappear on lap 69 At the restart, Frey led the Iron Lynx Lamborghini - now driven by Axcil Jefferies - and the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin of Casper Stevenson Frey tried to regroup and get back into her rhythm When the overall race leader - the #37 COOL LMP2 Oreca of Malthe Jakobsen - came to a halt on track, Iron Dames reacted and pitted just before the full course yellow was deployed. Michelle Gatting took over the #85 Porsche and the team fitted a new set of tyres for the final stint battling for fourth with Valentin Hasse Clot (Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin) Michelle was faster but couldn't clear the Vantage GT3 having also been squeezed on the Mistral straight The Dane continued to follow the Aston Martin like a shadow but Hasse Clot always closed the door Michelle showed impressive pace and was the protagonist of one of her most remarkable stints running on par with most gold and platinum rated drivers While she couldn't eventually get a move stick for fourth on track she gained the position following a penalty for GR Racing's Davide Rigon and took the chequered flag in fourth place salvaging a positive result for the all-female team that banked 13 important points for the championship after the Barcelona retirement Iron Dames are now up to 7th in the LMGT3 teams' standings The European Le Mans Series will resume at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola on 6-7 July - but the Iron Dames will now switch their focus to next week's 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps R-ace GP driver Fabien Michel has been handed a highly unusual pit stop handicap for this weekend’s Le Mans Cup race following an analysis of his performance in Round 1 by the organisers “The Stewards notify all competitors and officials that in accordance with article 6.2.3 of the Sporting Regulations the MLMC Committee has issued the technical analysis from the Barcelona competition via email dated 19th April 2024 to all competitors,” the bulletin reads “The Stewards confirm the decision of the MLMC Committee that from the technical analysis of driver Fabien Michal there will be an additional 13 seconds imposed on the Pit Stop Handicap Time for car 85 at this event.” MV2S & Murphy withdraw from Le Mans Cup weekend Two LMP3 class cars have been withdrawn from this weekend’s Le Mans Cup race the #28 Ligier from MV2S and Murphy Prototypes’ #48 Duqueine (for the second consecutive meeting) This makes three withdrawls following Blackthorn pulling its second Aston Martin Vantage – which is on site in Le Castellet – from the event All three teams have been fined as a result This brings the total number of entries down to 39 cars The #43 Inter Europol Ligier’s Le Mans Cup weekend has been a challenging one so far The car failed to complete a lap in Free Practice 1 after suffering from broke bell-housing on its outlap The car finally joined the track action with 30 minutes remaining in Free Practice 2 after repairs before suffering another bell-housing issue A late change for Reiter Engineering sees gamer-turned-racer Moritz Lohner receed his seat to 2023 GT World Challenge Europe Gold Cup and N24 GT4 race winner Miklas Born in he #50 Ligier After missing the opening round of the 2024 Ligier European Series season at Barcelona newly-established British team Jolt Racing arrives with a smartly-presented JS P4 this weekend The Ligier programme will sit alongside a parallel GT Cup effort with a McLaren 570S GT4 At Le Castellet the car will be steered by ex-Ginetta Juniors and JCW Mini racer Thomas Jack Lee It is currently a one-off appearence for him 2023 FIA WEC GTE Am champion and Le Mans class winner Nico Varrone is a late addition to the 4 Hours of Le Castellet entry list this week on a single race deal The Argentinian Corvette driver will race the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 in the seat previously filled by Ulysse De Pauw in Barcelona alongside Manu Collard and Charles-Henri Samani This adds to his forthcoming Nurburgring 24 Hours start in a 296 with Frikadelli Racing there are numerous announcements due and questions as yet unanswered affecting multiple teams At least three teams have outstanding issues known to DSC that mean it is as yet impossible to confirm their Le Mans line-ups It is possible that the reserve list may come into play is on-site this weekend giving support to a young driver in the Michelin Le Mans Cup paddock With the announcement due soon of the complete Le Mans entry list we will find out soon whether Romain will be named for a 24th consecutive start in the great race Giorgio Roda was the fastest driver in this afternoon’s Bronze test with a 1:42.193 in the #77 Proton Competition ORECA lapping the circuit 1.4 seconds faster than John Falb in the #24 Nielsen car In LMP3 Eric Trouillet in the #35 Ultimate Ligier set a 1:51.062 putting him three tenths up on Miguel Cristovao in the #17 COOL Racing JS P320 LMGT3 saw Duncan Cameron top the times in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296 He was two tenths quicker than Iron Lynx’s Hiroshi Hamaguchi This weekend historical motor racing shook the dust off with the Dix Mille Tours du Castellet that took place under a glorious Provençal sun at Paul Ricard circuit after a long stop due to the world pandemic The event launched the start of the 2020 season of the séries by Peter Auto As this meeting was originally scheduled in April the resumption was all the more appreciated by those who were able to take part – drivers the organisation and the public – with the health measures in force being respected by one and all Ten grids told the history of motor sport out on the track: Fifties’ Legends more than 350 cars took part in the races on the famous Paul Ricard circuit The presence of the many clubs that traveled to Le Castellet added excitement behind the scenes Over 380 historic cars turned up and were driven to the inside of the circuit where they went on display and took part in track runs We hope that this glorious weekend could be just the first one of many other that can be saved from the unlucky 2020 calendar Enjoy the photo gallery! Photos by Yaron Esposito IG: aaronandcars News | Jan 23 There’s no quit in Queralt Castellet she’s one of the older snowboarders still on the circuit and even though she admitted her body was pretty beat up after the women’s halfpipe snowboard final at X Games Aspen on Saturday night the Spanish rider gave no indication she was going to slow down “Keep it going,” Castellet laughed after the contest “Every day I’m on the snowboard I learn and every year I learn new tricks and every season I come out with better and better riding Castellet returned to the Buttermilk superpipe on Saturday and succeeded in winning her third medal in an X Games career, which goes back more than a decade. She won gold in 2020 over Japan’s Kurumi Imai (silver) and Haruna Matsumoto (bronze) — California’s Chloe Kim sat out that season — a year after winning her first silver medal in 2019 Kim, the reigning Olympic gold medalist and five-time X Games Aspen champion also opted out of this year’s event to rest up and train ahead of the Beijing Games next month the bulk of her Olympic competition did drop into the Buttermilk superpipe on Saturday It was the 22-year-old Japanese rider’s first X Games medal the 28-year-old Matsumoto won bronze for the second consecutive year while Imai was the first one off the podium The competition was a battle of who could best put down a 1080 in their run who jumped over Castellet after the Spaniard had the lead after the first run Castellet overcame a couple of gnarly crashes one in warm ups and another during competition to win her second career silver medal at X Games To me X Games is one of the most important events that there is,” Castellet said “Even though this year is a very intense one for us … I was very excited to be in the X Games and do my best riding Taking fifth was California’s Maddie Mastro first run before unsuccessfully breaking out her double cripplers after that posting later on Instagram that she “made a tough decision to not take my last run tonight due to my ankle.” She then added that she was “excited for the next few weeks ahead.” The 21-year-old Mastro — who has two X Games medals to her name including last year’s silver and a 2018 bronze — is perceived by many as Kim’s closest competitor come the Olympics Finishing sixth was 27-year-old Californian Summer Fenton and in seventh was 20-year-old Canadian Elizabeth Hosking Like Mastro and arguably all of the Japanese riders Castellet looks to give Kim a run for her money in Beijing Castellet is headed to her fifth Olympics next month her best previous finish having been seventh at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang Japanese snowboarder Sena Tomita airs out of the superpipe during the women’s finals at Buttermilk in Aspen on Saturday Spanish snowboarder Queralt Castellet airs out of the superpipe during the women’s finals at Buttermilk in Aspen on Saturday Japanese snowboarder Sena Tomita gives an interview after winning the women’s gold medal in the superpipe at Winter X Games in Aspen on Saturday Japanese snowboarder Haruna Matsumoto airs out of the superpipe during the women’s finals at Buttermilk in Aspen on Saturday Maddie Mastro airs out of the superpipe during the women’s finals at Buttermilk in Aspen on Saturday Elizabeth Hosking airs out of the superpipe during the women’s finals at Buttermilk in Aspen on Saturday Show CaptionsHide Captions Even though she’d be 36 by the next Olympics Castellet wouldn’t close the door on a sixth appearance and largely credits her first Olympics — a 26th-place finish at the 2006 Turin Games in Italy the same year Aspen’s own Gretchen Bleiler won her Olympic silver medal — as lighting her fire for a long career the 2026 Winter Olympics will also be held in Italy blood and tears and my life to that.’ And that’s what I’ve done,” Castellet said of her first Olympic appearance It was the first time I shared that experience with the girls that until then were hanging on the wall of my room.” acolbert@aspentimes.com Readers around Aspen and Snowmass Village make the Aspen Times’ work possible Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage are you considering any property transactions this spring View Results