VDS Panis Racing emerged victorious at the ELMS 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (24 August) after a heavily disrupted race featuring multiple incidents, safety cars and yellow-flag periods.
The win is the second in succession for the #48 Oreca 07 crew of Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson and Charles Milesi, who have extended their championship lead to 20 points with just two rounds of the series remaining.
The safety car, or rather the timing of safety car interventions, played a key role in the outcome, with VDS Panis Racing firstly seeing their lead wiped out in the first hour due to an incident. However, later on in the race, another neutralised period played into the team’s hands, as they were able to complete their penultimate stop while their competitors were circulating at slow speed.
Second on the road was the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca 07 of Jamie Chadwick, Dani Juncadella and Mathys Jaubert, some ten seconds behind the winning car. However, the team was hit with a post-race penalty of three minutes due to pitting while the race was under full-course-yellow conditions, relegating the crew to 18th.
The main beneficiaries of the rule breach were the #43 Inter Europol crew of Tom Dillmann, Jakub Śmiechowski and Nick Yelloly, who secured their third second-place finish in succession as a result.
Rounding out the top three was the pole-sitting #24 Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 of Filipe Albuquerque, Ferdinand Habsburg and Cem Bölükbaşı, who got their first taste of podium champagne in the 2025 ELMS.
LMP2 Pro-Am win goes to Algarve Pro Racing
Algarve Pro Racing emerged from a similarly chaotic class battle in LMP2 Pro-Am with their first win of the season, as Olli Caldwell, Kriton Lendoudis and Alex Quinn kept a cool head to bring their #20 Oreca 07 home safely.
Second was the #21 United Autosports Oreca, followed home by erstwhile championship leaders #99 AO by TF, who now trail the #20 Algarve Pro Racing crew by three points with two rounds remaining.
New winner in LMP3
The class of the field so far this season in the LMP3 category left Spa almost empty-handed after a late-race incident caused the #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 to retire. The team could have wrapped up both LMP3 titles in Belgium with a fortunate set of results, but ended up beached in the gravel trap as driver Adrien Closmenil ran wide while battling with the #11 Eurointernational Ligier driven by Ian Aguilera.
The race win went the way of Rik Koen, Daniel Nogales and Jacek Zielonka for the Polish outfit Team Virage in their #8 Ligier. Second was the #15 RLR M Sport car of Michael Jensen, Gillian Henrion and Nick Adcock, while the #11 EuroInternational machine of Ian Aguilera and Fabien Michal crossed the line in third.
Racing Spirit of Léman edge ahead in championship after LMGT3 win
The #59 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin AMR GT3 Evo of Erwan Bastard, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Clément Mateu took the win in the LMGT3 class after a gripping final-lap battle with the #63 Iron Lynx Mercedes -AMG LMGT3 of Martin Berry, Lorcan Hanafin and Fabian Schiller.
Hasse-Clot emerged from the pits on the final lap just ahead of Schiller’s Mercedes and, despite the latter’s best efforts, the Frenchman’s defence stayed strong. The win meant that the RSL crew leapfrogged six other cars in the LMGT3 title battle. The #59 crew now lead the championship by just one point ahead of the #85 Iron Dames trio.
Third was the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Takeshi Kimura, Ben Tuck and James Calado.
The next round of the 2025 European Le Mans Series sees ACO-rules racing return to the United Kingdom for the first time since 2019 for the 4 Hours of Silverstone on 14 September. All the results from round four in Spa-Francorchamps can be found here.
Images (c) Endurance Archive / Walter Schruff