David Droux, Eric Trouillet and Luis Sanjuan secured the overall victory and the Nova NP02 class victory in a thrilling finale.
On the final lap of the race, the crew of car #9 had to slow down to save fuel. However, the gap created in the last hour allowed the Franco-Swiss trio to achieve their first success of 2024.
“It was a race with many obstacles – admitted Droux – We were reactive during the pit stops. I had to save fuel to avoid doing an extra lap, but it was an intense race, we communicated a lot via radio to reach the objective that we had planned.”
Sanjuan praised the team: “Fantastic work by the engineers, my team and my teammates.”
“We appreciate each other very much, we like to share these moments together,” Trouillet commented.
The Graff party was completed by the second place of the #8 car of Louis Rossi, Loris Kyburz and Yann Zimmer. Pascal Rauturier's men managed the strategic aspect perfectly to place two of their three cars on the podium. The only shadow was the mechanical problem that occurred with car #7 of James Winslow and Alim Geshev, which forced them to retire.
Reigning champions Nicolas Maulini and Jacques Wolff (Racing Spirit of Leman) took the third step of the podium after starting from 22nd position! In his debut with COGEMO, Yohan Rossel, accompanied by Jesse Bouhet and Antoine Lacoste, placed fourth. ANS Motorsport #71 (Marc Faggionato, Karen Gaillard and Iko Segret) completed the Top5.
Team Virage won the LMP3 category. With an excellent second part of the race; Raphael Narac, Jacek Zielonka and Daniel Macia secured their first win together.
“It's incredible to start our Endurance adventure in this way – congratulated the Spaniard – We were all beginners behind the wheel of this car. Starting with a victory is the best way to kick off our season”.
Car #1 also made an unlikely comeback. After pitting on the first lap following a contact, Axel Gnos restarted at the back of the group. A good reading of the race allowed the Swiss driver and the two Greeks, Georgios Kolovos and Panagiotis Kaitatzis, to climb up to sixth place in LMP3.
Inter Europol #34 (Alexander Bukhantsov, Pedro Periono and Tim Creswick) avoided all the early lap mishaps and managed pit stops, track pace and incidents well to start the year with a second place finish.
With a different strategy to that of its rivals, RLR M Sport (James Dayson and Ian Aguilera) calculated every move well to finish third in the category.
Despite the fastest lap of the race, credited to Adrien Closmenil, the #87 car was unable to take advantage of the pole position due to a technical problem which delayed its comeback towards the top of the standings. However, the French rider and Cédric Oltramare have shown that they will be protagonists throughout the season.
The next round of the season will take place in the south of Portugal, at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, from 23 to 26 May.
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