Yahoo Autos Bourdais leads early at Petit Le Mans, two titles settled
Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta began with two championships being decided and Sebastien Bourdais jumping out front before a full-course caution came out to begin the second lap.
When Jack Hawksworth went under the green flag in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3, he and Ben Barnicoat secured the GTD PRO championship for Vasser Sullivan Racing. The same applied to Gar Robinson as he secured his second LMP3 championship by starting the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier. Both are now free to enjoy pursuing a race victory for the next nine-and-a-half hours.
“It’s a pretty nice position to be in,” said Hawksworth after putting the No. 14 on pole yesterday. “It’s been kind of a surreal weekend, really, because we know all we’ve got to do for the championship. It’s kind of weird; it’s been really relaxed all weekend rather than feeling the pressure. So take the green and once we’ve done that we’re clinched and super excited about that — it means a lot to everyone involved, a lot of hard work over the last seven years. After that, we’ll concentrate on the race. It’s gonna be fun — really go after it and there’s some great competition out there.”
Bourdais seized the lead from the start before the first full-course caution, caused by Ari Balogh crashing the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA LMP2 car in Turn 3 and ending any hopes for Kyffin Simpson and Scott McLaughlin to get a win. Balogh had an off on the pace lap, making light contact with the wall in Turn 6, which may have contributed to the accident. Rasmus Lindh also spun on the pace lap, doing significant damage to the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Duqueine LMP3.
A second full-course caution was called for debris after Antonio Fuoco’s No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 lost a tire on track. Fuoco punctured the tire in contact with the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG driven by Mike Skeen. It’s been a rough weekend for Fuoco and Cetilar — Fuoco crashed the car in the first practice on Thursday, costing the team almost all its practice time, and was called for changing lanes before start/finish at the start.
Several cars received drive-through penalties for the same infraction, including Nick Tandy in the championship-contending No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. The No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 (Augusto Farfus), the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX (Katherine Legge) and the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari 296 (Miguel Molina) also had to serve the penalty.