Sunday’s second round to the European Le Mans Series proved itself to be another frustrating day in the race seat for the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing powered team at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France.
After a disappointing round first time out in Barcelona just a few weeks ago, the #59 crew of Clement Mateu, Marrius Fossard and Valentin Hasse-Clot had prepared themselves well for Sunday’s four-hour race as they hit the top four in class throughout the collective test, bronze driver test and both Free Practice sessions over the course of Friday and Saturday.
That apparent performance on track was despite a decrease within the Vantage LMGT3’s performance parameters as part of the series ongoing Balance of Performance assessments going into this round after Spain but in Qualifying, the best Mateu could offer was a P5 starting position in class.
However, once the race starting earlier today, it soon became apparent that the race pace within the predominantly silver liveried car simply wasn’t there to be had for any of their drivers.
The race had started under hazy skies, but the track and air temperatures were still good enough for the weather not to be a real issue although some rain was being predicted for some point during the race. Mateu again started his car for the team as the race began relatively cleanly until a multi-car incident with a car in the barrier lead to the first Virtual Safety Car period at the thirty-minute marker.
Getting back to green, the #59 steadily lost track position to drop down to P10 in class at the end of the opening hour after which some rain did arrive at parts of the circuit but never in the volume to necessitate and change in strategy.
P10 seemed to be where abouts the performance of the #59 Aston Martin appeared to be at as after Mateu’s stint and a bit, the likes of Fossard and Hasse-Clot appeared unable to better that position in class even with the steadily flow of further periods of Safety Car interaction. The Team Manager was summoned to Race Control to explain an apparent breach of minimum drive time (presumably against bronze driver Mateu) but no further action appears to have been taken whereas with one of their later stops being adjudged to have been unsafe – that did earn them an additional five seconds at their next stop. That would then be in addition to a thirty five second penalty for them not slowing down enough into a waved yellow zone.
At the end of the four hours, the status quo would remain for the #59 crew as they crossed the line in that tenth position in class and the last of the LMGT3 runners, one lap off the class winners pace.
For the Racing Spirit of Leman team as far as the ELMS series is concerned, next stop will be Imola in early July, but the team do have a date at the 24 Hours of Le Mans to look forward to in the meantime.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media