It was certainly an eventful fourth round of the European Le Mans Series this weekend (25 August) at Spa Francorchamps, and come the chequered flag, both LMP2 entries were reasonably happy with the race result. Sebastian Alvarez, Vlad Lomko and Tom Dillmann finished the four-hour race in second position in the #43 Oreca, while Clement Novalak, Ollie Gray and Luca Ghiotto were fourth, following an excellent recovery drive in the #34.

Tom qualified the #43 Oreca in third position on Saturday, and it was Sebastian who took the start, immediately moving into second position behind the #14 TF Sport entry and beginning what would be a race-long battle with the eventual race winners.

A flurry of safety car periods dominated the second and third stints of the race, with Sebastian leading as he pitted and handed the #43 over to teammate Vlad. He resumed third, soon passing the #22 and settling in two seconds behind the race leader. The gap remained consistent as the team adapted to racing following a radio failure.

The gap grew at the next stop, and all of a sudden, we were in the closing stages, with Tom taking over the car for the final stints. Like his two teammates, he double-stinted the tyres and was mindful that he would need to attack in the final laps. He did just as expected, piling the pressure on the #14 and taking the chequered flag just 1.1 seconds behind.

The #34 trio had a much tougher race from ninth on the grid. Clement took the start, quickly moving up to fifth position, but as he accelerated out of the pit box after his first stop, the rear wing caught a mechanic who had finished working on the other car. Jan was uninjured despite the contact that broke the rear wing and was straight back in action. Clement meanwhile returned to the pit for a new rear wing assembly and resumed at the back of the field.

From there, it was always damage limitation. Ollie Grey took the middle stints in the race and continued Clement’s initial progress. In the final portion of the race daw, Luca gained two further positions, finishing in fourth place, just a second away from a podium position.

While the two LMP2s enjoyed a strong result, the #88 of Alex Bukhantsov, Kai Askey and Pedro Perino were left disappointed. A slow stop and a late splash of fuel consigned the trio to ninth position.

Inter Europol Competition are next in action at Mugello in the Ultimate Cup Series, then to Indianapolis for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and then back to Mugello for the penultimate round of the European Le Mans Series, where we are two points shy of the new series leader.

Sebastian Alverez
“We can be very happy with P2; it was the best we could do today, and we need to keep pushing. |There were some missed opportunities later in the race with the radio issue, so given the situation, second position is still mega. The other car climbed back through the field and finished p4, so that shows how good the cars are.”

Vlad Lomko
“It was a good race for us. The competition was very strong, which is a good thing, and we’re very happy with the level that we are at. The result could have been even better, even though we came close to winning had we not had the radio issues in the race. It just wasn’t working, and it made working the strategy much harder, and perhaps I missed a chance to undercut.

“I’m happy with the result, happy with the team’s performance and it’s important for the championship.”

Tom Dillmann
“It was a tough race, and doing the pitstops and understanding the gaps was difficult. In my first stint, I felt a little unbalance on my first stint and I was therefore saving the tyres – to make sure I could push and catch the #14 TF car, but just not quite enough.

“I didn’t know how many laps there were to go, so it was pretty tough to manage. I also had a fuel pump issue, and that made it even more difficult. I couldn’t trust the fuel reading on the steering wheel, so it was a bit hairy!

“To finish on the podium and second is good. TF Sport were strong all weekend, so credit to them. We were also strong, took another podium and we’re fully in the hunt for the championship.”