Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Timur Boguslavskiy with the Akkodis ASP Team #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 won the Circuit Paul Ricard 1000km after starting from pole. 

Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Timur Boguslavskiy with the Akkodis ASP Team #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 sealed top spot after a fascinating contest as five cars looked to have a legitimate shot at pole heading into Q3. 

The Keating/Catsburg/Varrone trio won the first two WEC races of the season at the Sebring 1,000 Miles and Six Hours of Portimão and followed with a runner-up finish at the Spa Six Hours to take the championship lead. Le Mans is critical, though, as it is a double-points race and will go a long way toward determining this year’s title-winners.

Cadillac is paying homage to its first venture to Le Mans with the same car numbers 2 (the usual WEC entry) and 3 (IMSA #01 Chip Ganassi Racing) as 1950, along with #311 (IMSA #31 Whelen Engineering).

Ahead of the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Porsche is third in the FIA World Endurance Manufacturer’s Championship (WEC) and second in the Weathertech Sportscar Manufacturer’s Championship (IMSA). For the June 9th race, Porsche will feature 4 LMDH prototypes.

With three consecutive podium finishes Ferrari has increasingly bridge the gap with Toyota. Fifty years after its last Le Mans win, is Ferrari going to win again for the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans?

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is dominating the World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship by scoring almost all points attributed so far if it was not for the pole (1 point) won by Ferrari at Sebring. After 5 consecutive wins at Le Mans, three victories and two doubles this season, Toyota GR010 are definitively the favourites for the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Let us now review the official test day of the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa PRO-AM class ranking as well as the results by manufacturer not mentioned in previous articles.

#21 Comtoyou Racing Audi and #88 Akkodis ASP team Mercedes did set the fastest laps of both official test days during the Wednesday morning session.

Haase dominated both morning and afternoon sessions with Audi R8 LMS evo II #11 from Comtoyou Racing. Audi and Porsche are trusting the top 8 best laps of the first test day.

Tremendous success for the new Ferrari 296 GT3 with an overall victory by #30 Frikadelli Racing Team at the 51st 24 Hours of Nürburgring, a P1 in SP9 PRO-AM for #20 WTM by Rinaldi Racing (7th overall) and a 100% reliability as sister #19 by racing one ends 15th overall (3rd SP9 PRO-AM).

Two Mercedes-AMG GT3 will start from front row the 51st 24 Hours of Nürburgring today at 4pm. Raffaele Marciello earned pole sitting by setting the fastest lap in the #4 AMG Team Bilstein Mercedes AMG GT3; Maro Engel was second getting his Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed #3 in first row. The two next row see 4 different manufacturers represented.

Qualifying 2 at night saw eight cars being faster than the fifth during afternoon qualifying. Mercedes has three cars in the top 6. BMW and Porsche have each 2 cars within the top 8 with Mercedes-AMG Team Bilstein scoring P1 and P4.

Within the 136 cars that are on the entry list for the may 18th-21st ADAC TotalEnergies 24h Nürburgring, the SP9 class features 33 entries (all potential overall winners) are representing the best GT3 manufacturers: Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche. Many of them will be competing with factory teams or factory-supported entries.

📷 © Courtesy of Cadillac Racing. Cadillac Racing finishes first and third at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Despite qualifying sixth, Bourdais and van der Zande won the 2 hours 40’ race in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca after taking the lead in lap 71 for the 32 remaining laps.

📷 © Courtesy of Porsche. Matt Campbell dominated the qualifying in Laguna Seca at the wheel of the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 followed closely by Mathieu Jaminet with sister #6. Both Porsche 963 will start from first row the 2-hour, 40-minute MOTUL Course de Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Porsche 911 GT3 R also dominated GTD and GTD PRO classes.

Ben Keating reported us: “I am racing in Laguna Seca this weekend. Unexpectedly, I am filling in for Patrick Kelly”

We share Ben Keating’s thoughts about his last year win of the Michelin Endurance Cup, his chances of winning it for a 6th time this year as well as his experience driving the Dpi Cadillac at Daytona.

Acura is looking for a fifth consecutive vistory in a row this weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Last year winners, Albuquerque and Taylor, are currently third in the Drivers Weathertech Sportscar Championship, 20 points behind Tandy and Jaminet (Porsche #6).

After a strong debut at the 24 hours of Daytona where the three Cadillacs ended third, fourth and fifth, Cadillac Racing is leading the IMSA manufacturers’ championship. Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani are second in the drivers’ championship just one point behind the Porsche #6 team. In WEC, the #2 Cadillac is fourth just two points behind Porsche.

Porsche Penske Motorsport is third in both IMSA and WEC manufacturers championships still in contention in IMSA but far behind in points in WEC. After suffering technical issues in Daytona, both Porsche 963 were lacking performance in WEC and suffering technical issues. In IMSA, both cars were in contention for a double at Sebring and Porsche 963 #6 clinched its first victory at Long Beach in IMSA.