The third race of the season of the European Le Mans Series took place on the Paul Ricard Circuit on Sunday 6th June. Proton Competition chances for a podium finish of the four-hour race started out well with Cooper MacNeil flying during his stint behind the steering wheel of car #77. Car #93 had an unfortunate contact with a Ferrari which ended up with a long repair process at the garage put them out of contention for any kind of race victory. despite a strong race by the #77 the WeatherTech Porsche just missed out on a podium finish crossing the line in 4th place

The #95 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Ollie Hancock led the class into T1 but was displaced by the #77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried. However, the German had gained the place by cutting two corners to avoid accidents with wayward LMP3 cars and Ried, sensibly, gave the place back on the Mistral Straight.

Duncan Cameron in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari also made rapid progress on the opening lap, moving from 8th to 3rd and then 2nd on lap 3, getting ahead of Ried’s Porsche. Hancock pulled out a big lead in the #95 Aston Martin, placing several LMP3 cars between him and the trailing pack of GTE cars led by Cameron. Rino Mastronardi was also moving up through the order in the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari and on Lap 9 moved ahead of the #55 Ferrari to take second place at T5.

The #83 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Manuela Gostner and the #93 Proton Competition Porsche of Michael Fassbender were battling for 6th. The first Full Course Yellow lasted for 5 minutes in the first hour of the race when the #18 LMP3 Ligier stopped on track. At the restart Cooper MacNeil in the #77 Porsche was now challenging Duncan Cameron’s Ferrari for 3rd spot but it took four laps before the American could get ahead of the British driver. At the top of the first hour the Safety Car was deployed to recover the #13 LMP3 Ligier and after 14 minutes the race resumed, with Ollie Hancock still holding a reduced lead in the #95 TF Sport Vantage, while Rino Mastronardi now had Cooper MacNeil’s Porsche right behind.

The earlier battle between Manuela Gostner and Michael Fassbender ended in tears as the Porsche tried an audacious move down the inside of the Ferrari only to clip Gostner’s car into a spin which then resulted in heavier contact as the 488 spun into the path of the Porsche 911. Both cars limped back to the pits with the Ferrari retiring with suspension damage and the Porsche rejoining after lengthy repairs.Fassbender received a warning for causing the collision.

The #95 Aston Martin came into the pits and rejoined with John Hartshorne at the wheel and this put Rino Mastronardi’s #80 Ferrari into the lead with the #77 Porsche falling back in second place. The #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was handed over to David Perel, with the South African moving back to the head of the field ahead of Matteo Cressoni in the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari.

Cressoni moved back into the lead when Perel pitted out of sequence. The #88 AF Corse Ferrari of Emanuel Collard was second with Perel rejoining in third. In the final hour of the race it was a three way Ferrari encounter with the #80 Iron Lynx 488 with Miguel Molina being caught by the #55 Ferrari of Matt Griffin but the Spaniard had a 20 second gap to the Irish driver and Griffin was only catching by a few tenths each lap. However, Griffin’s charge was blunted when the Ferrari was hit by a United Autosports Oreca and while Griffin was able to continue, he’d lost a few seconds to Molina and momentum.

At the chequered flag Miguel Molina crossed the line 14.6 seconds ahead of Matt Griffin, with the #88 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessio Rovera in third 17.9 seconds behind Griffin. Matteo Cressoni, Rino Mastronardi and Miguel Molina now head to Monza with a 14 point advantage over David Perel, Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin, who are on 51 points.

Round 4 of the European Le Mans Series is the 4 Hours of Monza and will take place on Sunday 11 July.