ELMS circus at Le Castellet this coming weekend
The Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet will host the second four-hour race of the 2025 European Le Mans Series with 44 cars potentially on the grid on Sunday 4 May. Last year Pro/Am champions and round 1 winners (overall and Pro/Am) Matthieu Vaxiviere and François Perrodo associated with Nicklas Nielsen (replacing Alessio Rovera) on board of #83 AF Corse Oreca will look at reproducing the same result for the French round. The battle in each class was fierce at Barcelona and we look at the same protagonists to animate the race at Le Castellet.
Honor to the ladies
Four ladies were part of two winning teams at Barcelona with
Jamie Chadwick associated to Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella driving the #18 IDEC Oreca backed by Genesis Magma Racing was the first female driver to stand on the top step of the ELMS LMP2 podium,
The Iron Dames Michelle Gatting, Sarah Bovy and Célia Martin kicked off the 2025 European Le Mans Serie campaign with a hard-fought victory in LMGT3 class.
They are all looking to reproduce the same race and result at Le Castellet.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona 2025. #18 IDEC Oreca (left); #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R (right).
13 Oreca in LMP2
The LMP2 class count at least 8 teams who have won ELMS races in the past and have a strong lineup with WEC or IMSA drivers:
#30 Duqueine Team with past race pole qualifyer Reshad De Gérus
#9 Iron Lynx-Proton with Matteo Cairoli,
#48 VDS Panis Racing finished second in Spain last month with Charles Miles,
#37 CLX - Pure Rxcing with A. Malykhin, T. Vautier and T. Blomqvist,
#25 Algarve Pro Racing with Théo Pourchaire,
#43 Inter Europol Competition with Nick Yelloly,
#22 United Autosports with B. Hanley,
#24 Nielsen Racing with F. Habsburg and F. Albuquerque.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona 2025. #48 VDS Panis Racing (left), #37 CLX - Pure Rxcing (center), #25 Algarve Pro Racing (right).
8 Oreca in LMP2 Pro-Am
Beyond last race winners Matthieu Vaxiviere and François Perrodo associated this time with Nicklas Nielsen driving the #83 AF Corse Oreca, three times ELMS champion Louis Deletraz associated with IMSA drivers Dane Cameron and P. Hyett have a serious revenge to take after ending last of class at Barcelona with #99 AO by TF Oreca.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona 2025. #83 AF Corse Oreca (left), #99 AO by TF Oreca (right).
Corvette-Ferrari-Porsche in LMGT3
1 Corvette, 3 Ferrari and 2 Porsche are in play for the LMGT3 class win and were in the top 6 at Barcelona.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona 2025. (from top left to bottom right): #85 Porsche 911 GT3 R C. MARTIN / S. BOVY / M. GATTING; #60 Porsche 911 GT3 R Proton Competition C. SCHIAVONI / M. CRESSONI / A. PICARIELLO; #82 Corvette Z06.R TF Sport H. KOIZUMI / R. ANDRADE / C. EASTWOOD; #57 Ferrari 296 Kessel Racing T. KIMURA / B. TUCK / D. SERRA; #51 Ferrari 296 AF Corse C. SAMANI / C. LAURSEN / D. RIGON; #55 Ferrari 296 Spirit of Race D. CAMERON / D. PEREL / M. GRIFFIN.
Related info
📷 © Courtesy of iron Dames. The Iron Dames commanding performance at Barcelona
📷 © Luc Warnotet at Barcelona. 4 women at start of race with the 4 clinching P1
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona. Mercedes-AMG in LMGT3 and Ligier JS P325s in LMP3
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona. Reshad De Gérus and Giorgio Roda pace LMP2 quali.
