The second round of the European Le Mans Series 2026 took place on Sunday May 3, with United Autosport taking a much-needed overall victory.
The four-hour ELMS race at Le Castellet Paul Ricard saw plenty of thrilling action and costly mistakes.
Back to winning ways
In their first win since the 2023 season, it was United Autosports’ #22 LMP2 that took overall victory and class honours in the second round of the European Le Mans Series.
The #22 crew, manned by Griffin Peebles, Gregoire Saucy and Ben Hanley, never lost the lead after passing the pole sitting #29 Forestier Racing by Panis on the opening lap, from which they started second.
Despite the reigning champions and previous race winners starting on pole position, it was a dismal day for the French crew of the #29 Forestier Racing by Panis, as they suffered car troubles leaving them vulnerable to their rivals, ultimately finishing last in class.
It was the #34 Inter Europol competition car that finished second in LMP2, despite the fact that with 26 minutes to go, this car and the winning #22 United made contact going into turn eight, spinning them both around in dramatic fashion.
Ben Hanley in the #22 continued on in the lead, but the #34 dropped down to fourth, and was forced to turn up the gas and fight its way back to its original position with minimal time left on the clock.
The red striped #28 IDEC Sport car rounded off the podium in third, just ahead of its #18 sister car and the #10 Vector Sport entry.
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Class honours
As for the rest of the classes, it was the #27 Nielsen Racing car that took a dramatic victory in LMP2 Pro/am.
The #27 manned by Kriton Lentoudis, James Allen and Alex Quin stole victory off of the #83 AF Corse who crossed the finish line first in that class, but was handed a drive through penalty for yellow flag infringements with just minutes to go.
The penalty all but meant the #47 CLX Motorsport car would take victory in Pro/am, but with just three minutes to go, they had to dash into the pits for a splash of fuel handing the class honours over to Nielsen Racing.
In LMP3, it was the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier, manned by Alexander Bukhantsov, Chun Ting Chou and Henry Cubides Olarte that took the class win.
With under an hour to go, the #4 DKR Engineering car had to pit from the lead to fix an open door flailing around, handing first place to our eventual winners.
And in LMGT3, it was Kessel Racing’s #57 Ferrari that triumphed thanks to driver Mathys Jaubert’s late charge to the lead.
Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra are the other drivers who occupy that car, finishing 17 seconds ahead of everyone else.
Post-race reactions
Following his late contact with the eventual second-placed car, driver of the overall race-winning #22 United Autosport LMP2, Ben Hanley, told dailysportscar.com:
“I got held up by the traffic, he got a run on the inside, but I wasn’t going to give up the position that easily, so I tried to brake a bit deeper.
“I nosed in front as we turned in, he locked the inside front, and we collected each other. I managed to keep it going; I only lost three or four seconds.”
United team manager Max Gregory said he was “super impressed with all three drivers.
“Ben did the job we all expected; that’s why he drives for us. What a star Griffin is turning out to be, a proper star of the future,” Gregory added.
“And Gregoire has got confidence in the car now, and it shows. That’s about the best stint I’ve seen from him in an LMP2 car.
“It’s been a long wait to get back to the top step in the ELMS. Now we’re there, we want to stay there.”
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SportJustSport writers 
Geoffrey H. Latayan