It was a big weekend of endurance sportscar racing, with the opening rounds of the European Le Mans Series and GT World Challenge Europe kicking off.
Both races saw plenty of action, incidents and late winning moves.
Panis kick off new ELMS season where they left off
Currently known as Forestier Racing by Panis, the French team kicked off the 2026 European Le Mans Series with an outright victory at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The 2025 LMP2 class champions are now manned by Louis Rousset, Oliver Gray and Esteban Masson.
They overcame 20 seconds’ worth of time penalties to overtake #34 Inter Europol Competition in the final 10 minutes and win the race.
After the victory, Gray told dailysportscar.com: “It was a great race. The car was on rails, it was incredible. The pace we had was amazing.
“This partnership is only going to grow, and I hope we can continue this success for the rest of the year.”
The ELMS season consists of six four-hour races across a range of European countries and includes 47 cars over four classes: LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, LMP3 and LMGT3.
In LMP2 Pro/Am, it was the #20 Algarve Pro Racing car that took class honours, with LMP3 won by #5 Rinaldi Racing and LMGT3 by the #75 Proton Competition Porsche.
The race saw plenty of action right from the first corners to the final 30 seconds.
On the first lap, a spinning Proton Competition LMP2 was T-boned by the #47 CLX Motorsport car, which was then collected by the #27 Nielsen Racing entry.
At the same time, Anti Rammo lost it on the curb of his #4 DKR Engineering LMP3, collecting two others with him.
The race was subsequently red-flagged and proceedings were halted for 25 minutes.
It was former F1 driver Jack Doohan, though, aboard the #24 Nielsen Racing LMP2, who suffered late heartbreak.
With 30 seconds to go, his second-placed car suffered a suspension failure following earlier contact, resulting in him finishing the race in seventh place.
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Aston Martin pull through at six-hour GTWC opener
The GT World Challenge Europe kicked off its opening race of the season at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France, with Comtoyou Racing claiming a surprise victory in their #7 Aston Martin.
The car, shared by Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi, overtook the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG with eight minutes to go as they made a mistake and went wide off the track.
After the race, Thiim told dailysportscar.com: “It started off with a puncture, and we just came back. The team worked really good, and the car was amazing.
“We really brainstormed the whole thing this weekend. We tried something completely new with the car – the old Vantage’s still got it!”
A whopping 58 cars competed in the event, with GTWC Europe being split up into four categories: Pro, Gold, Silver and Bronze.
With Pro going to the overall-winning Aston, the Gold class was won by the third-placed #58 Garage 59 McLaren.
Silver Cup victory was claimed by the #9 Pure Rxcing Porsche, while the Bronze Cup went to the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche.
On his GT debut, current F1 Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll raced with Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya, but following several penalties, the #18 Pro Cup Aston Martin finished in 48th.
While Max Verstappen was present but not racing, the #3 Pro Cup Verstappen Racing Mercedes finished in ninth after being front and centre of the most heart-in-mouth moment of the day.
Driver Jules Gounon briefly went airborne, going four-wide down the back straight, but managed to keep his foot in unscathed in a wild moment.
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SportJustSport writers