📸 By Olly Goodall & Ralph Thompson - PLN "Junior Squad" ✍️ By Amber Reid PLNJS
Six years after its last visit in 2019, the European Le Mans Series returned to Silverstone and served up a weekend that felt like three races in one: crisp qualifying, chaos on Sunday, and a title fight reignited in the storm.
Qualifying - juniors light it up
LMP2 belonged to Esteban Masson, who hustled the #48 VDS Panis Racing Oreca to pole and a vital point for the title leaders. In Pro/Am, PJ Hyett nailed a razor-thin class pole for AO by TF in the #99, just 0.017s clear of Proton’s #77. Griffin Peebles delivered in LMP3 for WTM by Rinaldi (#12). And in a wet LMGT3 session, Célia Martin powered Iron Dames’ #85 to a superb pole - her first in ELMS.
Race - red flags, barrier repairs, and rolling strategy calls
The opener was messy. An early multi-car tangle involving a United Autosports LMP2 and a spun LMP3 triggered the first stoppage and stranded the #31 Racing Spirit of Léman in the gravel. When we went green again, the game changed fast: around 40 minutes in, Martin Berry’s #63 Iron Lynx Mercedes snapped across the exit kerb onto the Hamilton Straight after contact, hit the barriers hard, and brought out another red flag for lengthy repairs. Berry was OK; the incident reset strategies across the field.
From there, the weather turned spiteful. WTM by Rinaldi’s pole-sitting LMP3 #12 ground to a halt at the end of Hamilton Straight with a technical issue, ending its day. On a restart after FCY, Proton’s #77 (Giorgio Roda) was collected amid LMP3 drama, adding to a bruising afternoon for several Pro/Am contenders. The track kept changing; the best calls were the brave ones onto wets as the rain thickened.
With eight minutes left, the rain won. Visibility collapsed into spray and standing water; race control threw the red flag and called it - result taken at the countback.
Winners - class by class
LMP2 (Overall): #18 IDEC Sport -Jamie Chadwick / Mathys Jaubert / Daniel Juncadella
Smart tyre timing and clean stints delivered their third class win of the season and second overall, slicing the points gap to VDS Panis ahead of PortimĂŁo.
LMP2 Pro/Am: #20 Algarve Pro Racing - Kriton Lentoudis / Alexander Quinn / Olli Caldwell
Survived the Pro/Am attrition and capitalised as rivals tripped up in the spray.
LMP3: #17 CLX Motorsport — Paul Lanchère / Adrien Closmenil / Theodor Jensen
Clinical in the worst of it: fourth win of the year and the LMP3 titles wrapped one round early.
LMGT3: #50 Richard Mille AF Corse - CustĂłdio Toledo / Lilou Wadoux / Riccardo Agostini
Storming wet-weather stints (Wadoux especially) turned a tough start into win #2 of the season.
A few words from Jamie Chadwick..
"There's always pressure and expectation to perform in motor sport, but there's so many added variables in endurance racing, so many things that can go right or wrong. You can never guarantee yourself a result in the European Le Mans Series, and if you're not doing well or performing, then you're not going to progress. The margins of error are so small. The most minor differences on track make all the difference between whether you're performing well or you're not.”
What it means
Titles on the line: IDEC’s surge keeps LMP2 alive into Portimão; CLX are already LMP3 champs; Pro/Am and LMGT3 remain tight enough that one slippery pit call could flip everything.
Quali stars vs race reality: Masson’s and Martin’s poles showed one-lap class; Sunday rewarded the crews that judged the sky, not the stopwatch.
Safety first: Two heavy shunts, two long stoppages; Silverstone’s speed plus traffic and changing grip punished any hesitation or misread rejoin.
Box score (highlights)
Poles: LMP2 #48 VDS Panis (Masson); LMP2 Pro/Am #99 AO by TF (Hyett); LMP3 #12 WTM (Peebles); LMGT3 #85 Iron Dames (Martin).
Race stop pages: Early red flag for multi-car incident; major red flag for #63 Iron Lynx crash; final red flag with 8 mins to go in monsoon conditions.
Silverstone came back to ELMS like it never left: fast, fickle, and flat-out dramatic. Next stop, PortimĂŁo - bring your wets, your nerve, and a pit wall willing to bet on black clouds.
