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Hope PoleVision wins FLM Winter Series opener

The first meeting of Formula Le Mans Winter Series took place this Sunday at the Paul Ricard Circuit. Hope PoleVision was the big winner of the first event, winning two out of three races on the 3,793 km long 3A layout of the French circuit.

On Sunday morning 19 cars went out in the two hours long free practice session that started at 9 o’clock. The DAMS FLM of Guillaume Bermond and Nelson Pantiatici set the fastest lap, 1.587s quicker han the Boutsen Energy Racing FLM of Dominick Kraihamer and Norbert Lenzenwerger and 1.995s quicker than the HopePole Vision FLM of Christophe Pillon and Steve Zacchia.

Thirty minutes after the end of the free practice session the cars went out again for the one hour long qualifying session. This time the DAMS FLM of Bermond/Pantiatici was 1.174s quicker than the Boutsen FLM of Kraihamer/Lenzenwerger with the Hope PoleVision FLM of Pillon/Zacchia in third place again. Best GT car was the all-new Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 GT3/3. The car, driven by Peter Kox and Albert von Thurn und Taxis made its competition debut at Paul Ricard and posted the fourth fastest time in qualifying. Three other FLM cars and a Fischer Racing Ford GT completed the top 8. Team Oreca’s Audi R8 LMS and the second Fischer Racing Ford GT did not take part in qualifying.

At 14:00 the first sprint race (30’) took place. OAK Racing’s Guy Lacroix was the first driver to retire after just one lap. Nelson Pantiatici was in a league of his own in the opening race and blew away the other drivers. Having set the best lap of the race in lap 7 (1:25.997) the 21-years old French driver eventually finished 50 seconds ahead of the second placed FLM of Kraihamer and almost 57 seconds ahead of Pillon.
Nicolas Misslin was the best GT driver, the #33 JMB Ferrari 430 GT3 finishing seventh overall. Dutchman Siebrand Dijkstra was ninth overall, second in GT, in the #31 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT2. Peter Kox completed the GT top three in his Lamborghini.

One hour after race 1 started the second sprint race took place. Michel Orts was the first driver to retire in the second race, having completed only three laps. The second Boutsen FLM only completed one more lap before retiring. Steve Zacchia however did not have any problems and managed to stay at the front, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 3. After 18 laps Zacchia was shown the chequered flag, winning the second sprint race of the day. Christoffer Nygaard in the #38 Fischer Racing Ford GT finished in second place with Albert von Thurn und Taxis taking third place in the Reiter Engineering Gallardo. The #2 HopePole Vision FLM was 2nd in the Proto class with the #20 Chrono Plus BioRacing car of Christopher Brenier in third.

The two Boutsen Energy Racing FLM cars did not take part in the final 1-hour race at the end of the day, while the EasyRace Ferrari F430 GT2 was excluded (after already being given a 5-lap penalty in race 2). Hope PoleVision secured a 1-2 in the race.
The #3 of Pillon and Zacchia won the race after lapping the entire field. Fischer Racing’s #38 Ford GT finished in third place, some 22 seconds behind the #2 Hope PoleVision car of Scott Tucker. The #6 DAMS FLM, #33 JMB Racing Ferrar 430 GT3 and #1 OAK Racing LM completed the top six.

The next round of the Formula Le Mans Winter Series will take place on December 6.