2014 European Le Mans Series

2014 European Le Mans Series

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The 2014 European Le Mans Series season was the tenth season of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's European Le Mans Series. It was the third 24 Hours of Le Mans-based series created by the ACO, following the Asian Le Mans Series and the FIA World Endurance Championship. The five-event season began at Silverstone Circuit, in conjunction with the FIA World Endurance Championship, from 18–19 April and ended at Autódromo do Estoril on 19 October.

In the lead LMP2 class, five different teams won the five races that were held during the 2014 season. However, it was Signatech Alpine and their triumvirate of Paul-Loup Chatin, Nelson Panciatici and Oliver Webb that won the respective titles; they won the race at the Red Bull Ring, and ultimately won the championship by four points from the Jota Sport trio Filipe Albuquerque, Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell, who won at Imola. Third place in the championship went to Le Castellet winners Gary Hirsch and Christian Klien for Newblood by Morand Racing. Other race winners included Pierre Ragues – who was part of the Hirsch-Klien Le Castellet entry – having joined the team mid-season, Sébastien Loeb Racing duo Vincent Capillaire and Jimmy Eriksson were winners at Estoril, while the opening race at Silverstone was won by Thiriet by TDS Racing, with their drivers Ludovic Badey, Tristan Gommendy and Pierre Thiriet.

In the GTE class, SMP Racing and their drivers Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Sergey Zlobin took their respective titles with a final round victory at Estoril while the pre-race championship leaders AF Corse, with drivers Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin struggled in the race; having led by 21 points going into the race, Cameron and Griffin eventually lost the title by 3.5 points to Bertolini, Shaitar and Zlobin. The teams shared all five wins during the season; SMP Racing won two races, while AF Corse won three, with Cameron and Griffin being joined by Michele Rugolo for the victories; however, as Rugolo missed the Imola event, he finished six points behind them in the championship.

SMP Racing also took the honours in the GTC class, as Olivier Beretta, Devi Markozov and Anton Ladygin finished all five races on the podium – with a victory at Le Castellet – to take class honours by 15.5 points ahead of Formula Racing duo Johnny Laursen and Mikkel Mac, who won with Andrea Piccini at Imola. Third in the class championship went to another SMP Racing entry, with drivers Kirill Ladygin, Aleksey Basov and Luca Persiani, who won the race at the Red Bull Ring. Other race victories went to Team Ukraine at Silverstone with drivers Andrii Kruglyk, Sergey Chukanov and Alessandro Pier Guidi, and BMW Sport Trophy Marc VDS at Estoril, with their trio of Bas Leinders, Markus Palttala and Henry Hassid.

Regulations

The top class continued to be LMP2, where a car of 2–3 drivers had to include at least one silver or bronze-ranking driver. GTE and GTC cars had to include one bronze and silver driver or two bronze drivers. Finally, LMPC was not a part of the 2014 season. Unlike in 2013, tyre warming was allowed in the 2014 season.

Calendar

The provisional calendar was announced during the final round of the 2013 European Le Mans Series season at Circuit Paul Ricard. However, to avoid date clashes with the FIA World Endurance Championship, a revised schedule was released, with rounds 2 and 5 being moved back one week. The first round was held alongside the first round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship season at Silverstone Circuit. Additionally, all races lasted an hour longer than in 2013, from three hours to four.

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Date
1	4 Hours of Silverstone	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, United Kingdom	19 April
2	4 Hours of Imola	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy	18 May
3	4 Hours of Red Bull Ring	Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Austria	20 July
4	4 Hours of Le Castellet	Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France	14 September
5	4 Hours of Estoril	Autódromo do Estoril, Estoril, Portugal	19 October

Entry list

The entry list was announced on February 13. It featured 42 cars, comprising 13 LMP2, 13 GTE and 16 GTC:

• LMP2 featured four Orecas (Boutsen Ginion, Sébastien Loeb, Race Performance and Murphy), three Zyteks (Greaves, Jota and Caterham), three Morgans (Pegasus, Morand and Larbre), two Alpines (Signatech) and a Ligier (Thiriet by TDS).
• GTE featured 8 Ferraris (AF Corse, AT Racing, JMW and Kessel), four Porsches (IMSA, Gulf and Crubilé) and an Aston Martin (Gulf).
• GTC featured 11 Ferraris (AF Corse, SMP, SOFREV-ASP, Formula and Ukraine), two McLarens (ART), a Porsche (Pro GT by Almeras) and a BMW (Barwell).

LMP2

Entrant/Team	Car	Engine	Tyre	No.	Drivers	Rounds
Sébastien Loeb Racing	Oreca 03	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	M	24	Vincent Capillaire	1–2, 4–5
					Jan Charouz	1–2
					Arthur Pic	4
					Andrea Roda	4
					Jimmy Eriksson	5
Greaves Motorsport	Zytek Z11SN	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	D	28	James Littlejohn	1
					Tony Wells	1
					James Walker	1
					Luciano Bacheta	3–5
					Mark Shulzhitskiy	3–5
				41	Tom Kimber-Smith	1–3
					Chris Dyson	1
					Matt McMurry	All
					Mark Patterson	3
					Johnny Mowlem	4
					Miguel Faísca	5
					James Fletcher	5
Pegasus Racing	Morgan LMP2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	D	29	Julien Schell	All
					Niki Leutwiler	All
					Jonathan Coleman	All
Race Performance	Oreca 03	Judd HK 3.6 L V8	D	34	Michel Frey	All
					Franck Mailleux	All
					Patric Niederhauser	5
Signatech Alpine	Alpine A450	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	M D	36	Paul-Loup Chatin	All
					Nelson Panciatici	All
					Oliver Webb	All
Jota Sport	Zytek Z11SN	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	D	38	Simon Dolan	All
					Harry Tincknell	All
					Filipe Albuquerque	All
Newblood by Morand Racing	Morgan LMP2	Judd HK 3.6 L V8	D	43	Christian Klien	All
					Gary Hirsch	All
					Romain Brandela	1–2
					Pierre Ragues	3–5
Thiriet by TDS Racing	Morgan LMP2 Ligier JS P2	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	D	46	Pierre Thiriet	All
					Ludovic Badey	All
					Tristan Gommendy	All
Murphy Prototypes	Oreca 03	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	D	48	Rodolfo González	1–2, 4
					Karun Chandhok	1–2
					Alex Kapadia	1
					Nathanaël Berthon	2, 4
					Pipo Derani	4–5
					James Littlejohn	5
					Tony Wells	5
Larbre Compétition	Morgan LMP2	Judd HK 3.6 L V8	M	50	Gustavo Yacamán	1
					Keiko Ihara	1

LM GTE

Entrant/Team	Car	Engine	Tyre	No.	Drivers	Rounds
AF Corse	Ferrari F458 Italia	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	54	Piergiuseppe Perazzini	All
					Marco Cioci	All
					Michael Lyons	All
				55	Duncan Cameron	All
					Matt Griffin	All
					Michele Rugolo	1, 3–5
					Mirko Venturi	2
				65	Peter Ashley Mann	2
					Lorenzo Casè	2
					Raffaele Giammaria	2
				70	Yannick Mallegol	3–5
					François Perrodo	3–5
					Emmanuel Collard	3–5
AT Racing	Ferrari F458 Italia	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	56	Alexander Talkanitsa, Sr.	All
					Pierre Kaffer	All
					Alexander Talkanitsa, Jr.	1–3, 5
					Mirko Venturi	4
Team Sofrev ASP	Ferrari F458 Italia	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	58	Fabien Barthez	All
					Anthony Pons	All
					Soheil Ayari	All
JMW Motorsport	Ferrari F458 Italia	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	66	Daniel McKenzie	All
					George Richardson	All
					Daniel Zampieri	1–2, 5
					Rob Bell	3
					James Walker	4
IMSA Performance Matmut	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	M	67	Erik Maris	All
					Jean-Marc Merlin	All
					Éric Hélary	All
				76	Raymond Narac	All
					Nicolas Armindo	All
					David Hallyday	1–2
					Christina Nielsen	3–5
SMP Racing	Ferrari F458 Italia	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	72	Andrea Bertolini	All
					Viktor Shaitar	All
					Sergey Zlobin	All
Proton Competition	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	M	77	Horst Felbermayr, Sr.	3
					Horst Felbermayr, Jr.	3
					Richard Lietz	3
Kessel Racing	Ferrari F458 Italia	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	80	Michał Broniszewski	1–2, 4–5
					Giacomo Piccini	1–2, 4–5
				81	Thomas Kemenater	1–4
					Matteo Cressoni	1–4
Crubilé Sport	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	M	82	François Perrodo	1–2
					Sébastien Crubilé	1–2
					Emmanuel Collard	1–2
Gulf Racing UK	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE	Aston Martin 4.5 L V8	M	85	Roald Goethe	All
					Stuart Hall	All
					Daniel Brown	All
	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6		86	Michael Wainwright	All
					Adam Carroll	All
					Ben Barker	1–2, 4–5
					Michael Meadows	3

GTC

Entrant/Team	Car	Engine	Tyre	No.	Drivers	Rounds
Sébastien Loeb Racing	Audi R8 LMS ultra	Audi 5.2 L V10	M	51	Henry Hassid	1
					Mike Parisy	1
					Olivier Lombard	1
SMP Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	57	Boris Rotenberg	2–5
					Mika Salo	2–5
					Maurizio Mediani	2–5
				71	Kirill Ladygin	All
					Aleksey Basov	All
					Luca Persiani	All
				73	Olivier Beretta	All
					Devi Markozov	All
					Anton Ladygin	All
Team Sofrev ASP	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	59	Christophe Bourret	All
					Jean-Philippe Belloc	All
					Pascal Gibon	1–2, 4–5
					Jean-Luc Beaubelique	3
Formula Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	60	Johnny Laursen	All
					Mikkel Mac	All
					Jan Magnussen	1, 3–5
					Andrea Piccini	2
AF Corse	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	62	Yannick Mallegol	1–2
					Howard Blank	1–2
					Jean-Marc Bachelier	1–2
				63	Mads Rasmussen	All
					Dennis Lind	1
					Ilya Melnikov	2–3
					Filipe Barreiros	4–5
					Francisco Guedes	5
				94	Thomas Flohr	2, 4
					Francesco Castellacci	2, 4
					Andrea Rizzoli	4
				95	Adrien De Leener	All
					Cédric Sbirrazzuoli	All
Prospeed Competition	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	M	75	Gilles Vannelet	All
					Maxime Soulet	1–2, 5
					Paul van Splunteren	1–2
					Max van Splunteren	3–5
					Mike Parisy	3–4
Team Russia by Barwell	BMW Z4 GT3	BMW 4.4 L V8	M	78	Leo Machitski	All
					Timur Sardarov	All
					Jonny Cocker	All
BMW Sport Trophy Marc VDS	BMW Z4 GT3	BMW 4.4 L V8	M	87	Bas Leinders	5
					Markus Palttala	5
					Henry Hassid	5
Ombra Racing	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	92	Mario Cordoni	4–5
					Marco Zanuttini	4–5
					Andrea Montermini	5
Pro GT by Almeras	Porsche 997 GT3-R	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	M	93	Franck Perera	1–4
					Lucas Lasserre	1–2, 4
					Eric Dermont	1–2, 4
					Matthieu Vaxivière	3
					Henry Hassid	3
Team Ukraine	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari 4.5 L V8	M	96	Andrii Kruglyk	1
					Sergey Chukanov	1
					Alessandro Pier Guidi	1
ART Grand Prix	McLaren MP4-12C GT3	McLaren 3.8 L Turbo V8	M	98	Kevin Korjus	All
					Grégoire Demoustier	All
					Yann Goudy	All
				99	Ricardo González	All
					Karim Ajlani	All
					Alex Brundle	All

Season results

Rnd.	Circuit	LMP2 Winning Team	LMGTE Winning Team	GTC Winning Team	Results
		LMP2 Winning Drivers	LMGTE Winning Drivers	GTC Winning Drivers
1	Silverstone	No. 46 Thiriet by TDS Racing	No. 55 AF Corse	No. 96 Team Ukraine	Report
		Pierre Thiriet Ludovic Badey Tristan Gommendy	Duncan Cameron Matt Griffin Michele Rugolo	Andrii Kruglyk Sergey Chukanov Alessandro Pier Guidi
2	Imola	No. 38 Jota Sport	No. 72 SMP Racing	No. 60 Formula Racing	Report
		Simon Dolan Harry Tincknell Filipe Albuquerque	Andrea Bertolini Viktor Shaitar Sergey Zlobin	Johnny Laursen Mikkel Mac Andrea Piccini
3	Red Bull	No. 36 Signatech Alpine	No. 55 AF Corse	No. 71 SMP Racing	Report
		Paul-Loup Chatin Nelson Panciatici Oliver Webb	Duncan Cameron Matt Griffin Michele Rugolo	Kirill Ladygin Aleksey Basov Luca Persiani
4	Paul Ricard	No. 43 Newblood by Morand Racing	No. 55 AF Corse	No. 73 SMP Racing	Report
		Christian Klien Gary Hirsch Pierre Ragues	Duncan Cameron Matt Griffin Michele Rugolo	Olivier Beretta Devi Markozov Anton Ladygin
5	Estoril	No. 24 Sébastien Loeb Racing	No. 72 SMP Racing	No. 87 BMW Sport Trophy Marc VDS	Report
		Vincent Capillaire Jimmy Eriksson	Andrea Bertolini Viktor Shaitar Sergey Zlobin	Bas Leinders Markus Palttala Henry Hassid

Championships

Teams' championships

LMP2 standings

Pos	Team	Points
1	Signatech Alpine	78
2	Jota Sport	74
3	Newblood by Morand Racing	68
4	Sébastien Loeb Racing	57
5	Race Performance	57
6	#41 Greaves Motorsport	38
7	Thiriet by TDS Racing	35
8	#28 Greaves Motorsport	30
9	Murphy Prototypes	28
10	Pegasus Racing	18
11	Larbre Compétition	2

LMGTE standings (top-10)

Pos	Team	Points
1	#72 SMP Racing	85
2	#55 AF Corse	81,5
3	#66 JMW Motorsport	70
4	#56 AT Racing	62
5	#54 AF Corse	48
6	#81 Kessel Racing	40
7	#54 IMSA Performance Matmut	76
8	#86 Gulf Racing UK	28
9	#85 Gulf Racing UK	20.5
10	#58 Team Sofrev ASP	17

GTC standings (top-10)

Pos	Team	Points
1	#73 SMP Racing	94
2	#60 Formula Racing	78.5
3	#71 SMP Racing	67
4	#99 ART Grand Prix	45
5	#98 ART Grand Prix	38
6	#95 AF Corse	32
7	#96 Team Ukraine	25
8	#87 BMW Sport Trophy Marc VDS	25
9	#78 Team Russia by Barwell	23
10	#63 AF Corse	19.5

Drivers' championships

LMP2 standings (top-10)

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Nelson Panciatici	78
	Oliver Webb
	Paul-Loup Chatin
2	Filipe Albuquerque	74
	Harry Tincknell
	Simon Dolan
3	Christian Klien	68
	Gary Hirsch
4	Vincent Capillaire	57
5	Franck Mailleux	57
	Michel Frey
6	Pierre Ragues	53
7	Matt McMurry	38
8	Ludovic Badey	35
	Pierre Thiriet
	Tristan Gommendy
9	Tom Kimber-Smith	32
10	Jimmy Eriksson	25

External links

• European Le Mans Series Official Website