This year we have of course been blessed by the presence of the #59 Racing Spirit of leman AMR Vantage GT3 of Clement Mateu, Erwan Bastard and Valentin Hasse-Clot – a crew who finally delivered upon their possibilities last time out when the-all French driver line won the LMGT3 class outright at Spa Francorchamps two weeks ago.

As a result of that finish in Belgium, the #59 crew now find themselves lifted to lead the LMGT3 Drivers Championship table by one solitary point with just the races from Silverstone and then Portimao still to go.

They join forty-three other LMP2, LMP3 and LMGT3 entries for this four-hour race on Sunday around the full 5.6-mile Grand Prix circuit where track action will begin with Free Practice 1 on Friday before Free Practice 2 and qualifying across Saturday before the four-hour race starting at 13:00hrs local on Sunday.

Joining them at Silverstone for what will be their first time in their history will be the LMP3 and GT3 teams and crew that make up the Michelin Le Mans Cup Series who will bring along a near capacity grid of forty-three entries of their own.

Within this series we also have the early GT3 class pace setters from the French based Code Racing Development AMR Vantage GT3 with drivers Philipp Sager and Rory Van Der Steur usually behind the wheel of the #11 entry together.

However, for Silverstone, the young American is this time absent (not sure why just yet) and his place is now being taken by the increasingly busy Valentin Hasse-Clot as the Frenchman double stints in both the ELMS and Le Mans Cup Series this time around

Having started the season so well at Catalunya and Paul Ricard, high end performances started to wear off over the two Road to Le Mans races at Le Mans before most recently at Spa Francorchamps where the crew qualified in fourth, but countless track and pit lane penalties put them back to a disappointing P8 in class finish. 

From leading the class after round two, the #11 crew now find themselves fourth in the table and sixteen points behind the new leaders going into this Silverstone and Portimao final run in for the season.

Also starting their track activities on Friday with Free Practice 1 and 2 before Qualifying and race on Saturday.

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Despite that and the race being the first time within the Championship and the LMGT3 variant of the AMR Vantage for McIntosh, that still permitted the #10 car to steal a late class podium finish by the end of what was the fifth round of the season nearly two months ago.

DeBoer rejoins his counterparts for this weekend’s six-hour race for what is listed as being his swansong appearance within the Championship this year before McIntosh again deputises for his countryman and sees out the remainder of the season.

The team also secured their first class win of the season within the parallel European Le Mans Series race from Spa Francorchamps two weeks ago where Hasse-Clot, Clement Mateu and Erwan Bastard did similar at the end of that four-hour affair so confidence within the team and crew should be running high

Amongst the eighteen strong LMGT3 entry also sees the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage LMGT3 of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi, a team who didn’t have a great showing last time out in Brazil where there usual steady progress saw them bring home a disappointing P14 in class finish for a second non points scoring finish to the year after James crashed out in Italy.

With three races of the season still to complete, both teams still find themselves significantly behind the present LMGT3 class leaders with a forty-two points deficit to the #27 crew – increasing to fifty-eight points for both Barrichello and Hasse-Clot within the #10 car.

Like the Hypercar class before it, the LMGT3 class will also see sweeping balance of performance changes across its nine strong manufacturer entry with the Vantage seeing changes within its power, energy and base weight parameters with the #10 car also getting additional success weight ballast thanks to their P3 finish last time out.

First track action for the event will be Free Practice 1 on Friday morning.

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The forty-four mixed class grid of LMP2, LMP3 and thirteen LMGT3 class cars eventually got underway with thankfully a dry track and warming late summer sunshine for this fourth round to the season.

From that point Mateu wasted no time at all as he grabbed the class lead as early as the exist of La Source on the first time around to quickly establish a lead over the chasing pack over those opening laps as the race went into a Virtual Safety Car condition with a car off in the gravel after just forty minutes.

Although grouped back together again, the chasing Iron Dames Porsche soon had the attention of others behind them as the racing finally got back to green at the end of the first hour but (like many times before) that was very short lived as an LMP2 car went off heavily into the tyre wall just a few corners on although stops had now placed the #59 car down to second in class by the end of the second hour.

Unlike the Code Racing Development Aston Martin in the Le Mans Cup Series race yesterday, the in-car discipline of Mateu onto silver graded Bastard and then onto factory driver Hasse-Clot was totally on-point with the #59 crew becoming one of the few LMGT3 based crews not to come to attention of race control over the final two hours.

With Bastard again next in line within the car after Mateu’s opening double, that young Frenchman quickly regained control of the class but with still the Iron Dames Porsche leading the chasing pack behind him as he eventually handed over to the factory driver Hasse-Clot.

A brief Full Course Yellow then delayed the resumption of the LMGT3 battle between the #59 and #85 Porsche but losing out to the Iron Lynx Mercedes who had assumed the class lead. Another FCY with just nineteen minutes remaining made for a nail-biting end to the Spa four-hour race but Hasse-Clot was eventually able to pass the #63 car to take their first class win of the season by less than a second.

With the series now heading to Silverstone next month, this result lifts the #59 crew up to first in the LMGT3 Drivers Championship, one point in front of the Iron Dames crew with just two races remaining.

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The entry list for Spa again just features the sole Aston Martin Racing LMGT3 from the Racing Spirit of Leman team and their all-French driver line up of Clement Mateu, Erwan Bastard and Valentin Hase-Clot within their #59 car.

Early rounds have seen Mateu step up to the mark in qualifying with an ‘at worst’ performance of P3 on the grid ahead of each of the three four-hour races ran so far and including a pole position at Le Castellet, but the longevity of their overall performance has seen them finish in either P6 or P7 at the end of each race to rest in seventh within the LMGT3 Drivers Championship table.

Since the start of the season in Barcelona, all six available LMGT3 platforms have had a change in Balance of Performance at each of the subsequent rounds so far (excluding success ballast) but the data for Spa has yet been made available but all three drivers will arrive at the circuit with a good racing knowledge of the circuit in an Aston Martin.

The forty-four strong LMP2/LMP3 and LMGT3 grid will hit the track for the first time on Friday before Qualifying on Saturday and the start to this four-hour race at 13:00hrs local on Sunday.

Then within the similarly sized Le Mand Cup Series we will see forty-three LMP3 and GT3 powered crews compete in what will also be their fourth round of the season after visits to Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Le Mans with the #11 Code Racing Development Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Philipp Sager and Rory Van Der Steur amongst the eight strong GT3 class.

A P2 start and P2 debut finish together in Barcelona before a race win at Paul Ricard were not sadly backed up with the series annual visit to the Circuit de La Sarthe and its two Road to Le Mans races where a lowly P9 finish in class was the best that they could offer over the course of that weekend.

The teams results from June sees the driver duo slip to second within the GT3 Drivers Championship, but just two points behind the new leading pair with three races still to go.

Running a short programme again to the ELMS, the Le Mans Cup grid will also hot the track for the first time on Friday before both Qualifying and the race on Saturday.

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Having had to settle for just a front row starting position this time around, there was still plenty of inter-class contact within the opening laps to readjust that running order with the #59 car taking the early lead in class as minor issues on track finally built up to an incident on track which saw up to six cars involved at the bottom of the first half hour of racing.

Fortunately, not involving the RSLM Aston Martin, it did eliminate three LMGT3 class rivals as the race was red flagged to allow for the clear up operation, but the race soon got back underway after a 15-20minute delay (although the race clock did keep running) but Mateu would have to suffer the consequences of two of his own actions on track.

First starting out of position on track at the start and then his reduction and adherence to the Full Course yellow speed limit on track would earn the Frenchman individual drive through penalties from which there would be no recovery on track from either himself or his co-drivers.

The best that the #59 car could then offer was to attempt to stay on the lead lap in and around seventh in class from the halfway stage but the continued periods of caution without the ability of a wave around would never improve their position as the weather again came into question as the skies darkened again.

Into the final hour of the race, an off-track excursion for the #59 car further delayed them although they didn’t loose any further track position then although they would at their final stop as Hasse-Clot was forced to suffer an additional ten second time penalty for an earlier (unknown by us) incident.

The four hours of Imola would finally end for the all-French driver crew with a distant P29 overall and P7 in class finish for their efforts as both the team and Hasse-Clot refocus their attention to this weekend’s FIA WEC round from Brazil.

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That results lifted the crew up to eleventh within the LMGT3 Drivers Championship table and with both Mateu and Hasse-Clot getting valuable seat time within other series, the crew will certainly be looking for an improvement upon their race pace to date.

No Le Mans Cup Series support this time around (as they will return at the Spa Francorchamps round later in August) but track action will begin with Free Practice 1 on Friday before Free Practice 2 and Qualifying on Saturday before the start to this four-hour race later on Sunday at 12:00hrs local.

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As per the previous two rounds this year from Nogaro and Dijon-Prenois, we again welcome back the two Mirage Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo’s of both Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub within their #7 Pro-Am entry as well as the #5 Am class entry of David Levy and Jodie Sloss.

Last time at Dijon-Prenois back in early May, it was a return to podium winning form for the two Mirage entries as the #7 crew scored an overall race win in the first hour long race before finishing fourth overall next time around whilst the #5 crew scored both a P2 and P3 in class respectively across the two races.

These results lift the #7 crew up to second in class within Pro-Am (twelve points off the leading pair) whilst the #5 move up to fourth albeit with only half the points of the so far dominant #63 Alpine pairing.

Track action for this series will begin on Friday with their first Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying session before moving onto Qualifying and the first race on Saturday with the concluding race then on Sunday afternoon after the three-hour British GT affair.

Although not this time driving an Aston Martin, look out for Clement Mateu from the Racing Spirit of Leman European Le Mans AMR Vantage LMGT3 team who will also be competing at Spa within this series - albeit in a Ginetta!!

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Like Barcelona, we unfortunately only have one Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 within each of the two ACO rules series as the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman return with their all-French driver line up of birthday boy Clement Mateu, Erwan Bastard and Valentin Hasse-Clot whilst the LMC should see the #11 Code Racing Development Vantage GT3 of Rory Van Der Steur and Phillipp Sager.

Indeed, it was the last minute.com arrangements within the #11 Code Racing Development LMC entry that impressed so much last time out with it being the first time in Europe for the young American and the first time within an Aston Martin for Sager for them to deliver both a front row in class qualifying start to end in that position with a P2 finish first time out.

They will be competing this weekend amongst another grid of forty-two cars which will be made up of just eight GT class cars and thirty-four mixed class LMP3 entries.

We then have the #59 AMR Vantage LMGT3 entry from the Swiss based Racing Spirit of Leman team who also qualified well at the opening with Mateu bagging a second row P3 start in class, but they were unable to capitalise upon that the eventually finish P7 for at least some championship points.

They will be racing within a slightly larger grid size of thirteen GT runners alongside the same number in LMP2 cars and eighteen LMP3 entries.

Track action will begin on Thursday with collective test sessions for each series before the start of more formally timed sessions on Friday before both series move into Qualifying on Saturday with the start to the LMC race at 16:45hrs local. The ELMS race will start at midday (local) on Sunday.

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For this year, the #59 entry is also an all-French affair as AMR factory driver Valentin Hasse-Clot remains and he has brought last season’s D’Station Racing World Endurance Championship drivers Clement Mateu and Erwan Bastard with him for their assault within the ultra-competitive LMGT3 class.

Lasts week’s Prologue Test appeared to be productive for the team as whilst Hasse-Clot has already had racing duties this season, we don’t believe that either Mateu or Bastard had turned a racing lap on track up to this point so going into Saturday’s Qualifying for the opening round – all appeared well.

That confidence transpired through Qualifying as Mateu delivered the goods to slot his #59 car onto the second row of the grid for Sunday’s four-hour opener within their thirteen-car strong class.

Under blue skies with a cooling breeze, forty-four multi-classed cars took the start with the #59 Aston looking to replicate the feat of the Code Racing Development AMR within Saturday’s opening round of the Le Mans Cup where they finished a magnificent second in class for their debuting efforts.

With the speed differential between the LMP2 protypes and the slower LMGT3’s as such, it wasn’t long before the leading prototypes started passing through the LMGT3 field for the first time of many as Mateu had by then slipped to P5 in class as the teams bronze rated driver held onto that position throughout his first hour of driving.

Back out again for his second hour long stint, Mateu quickly looked to regain ground lost to his earlier stop as the first Safety Car was called for a Ferrari LMGT3 car backed into the gravel trap at the ninety-minute mark. Losing twenty minutes to that, the race soon got back to business with the #59 car hanging onto P4 in class.

With sixty-four laps now under his belt, Mateu day was done as he handed the car over to silver ranked driver Bastard as it was clear now that the car to chase was the #85 Iron Dames Porsche who were by now maintaining a healthy lead from their present fifth position. A spin and an excursion through the gravel at turn ten compounded their own issues as the car lost ground during both the spin and the time it took to clean the Goodyear tyres up again.

Eighty minutes to go and another Safety Car for the extraction of a stranded LMP3 car in the gravel at least brought the gaps back down again but the race only got going again just before the final stop to allow Hasse-Clot into the car in the chase to the flag from what was now P9.

Two late yellows for stranded prototypes raised the pressures on the class leaders as the opening race entered its final half hour before another Safety Car in the final fifteen minutes as Hasse-Clot pushed – first for P8 before the final Safety Car before grabbing P7 by the chequered flag for six valuable championship points.

The next round of the series will be from Le Castellet in France at the beginning of May.

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Track action for the ELMS entry steps aside tomorrow for the Le Mans Cup Prologue test giving the teams just over a couple of days to refettle their cars ahead of scrutineering on Thursday afternoon ahead of the first Free Practice and Bronze Driver test sessions later on Friday.

Free Practice 2 and Qualifying will fill Saturday ahead of a midday start to this four opener to the season on Sunday.

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