Prema Racing dominated the 4 Hours of Barcelona and extended their championship lead to 21 points. Ferdinand Habsburg led the charge for the team, moving up from 7th on the grid to take the lead after 38 minutes of racing, which the team held until the end of the race. Panis Racing finished second, with Cool Racing taking the final podium position.
LMP2 Pro/Am winners were the no88 AF Corse Oreca, finishing 5th overall, the third different winners in the category this season. The LMP3 winners were Inter Europol Competition, with the no13 Ligier finishing ahead of the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine and the no17 Cool Racing Ligier. The LMGTE victors were Christian Ried, Lorenzo Ferrari and Gianmaria Bruni in the no77 Proton Competition Porsche, with the team scoring their second win in a row.
The race started with the no65 Panis Racing Oreca of Julien Canal leading the field, but with Salih Yoluc in the no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca making a bid for the lead on the run into Turn 1. Canal held his line and kept his lead, with Yoluc slotting in behind ahead of the no37 Cool Racing Oreca of Niklas Kruetten. However, there was contact between the no83 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Sarah Bovy and the no10 Eurointernational Ligier-Nissan of Freddie Hunt, with the Ferrari crashing into the wall at Turn 2. The Safety Car was deployed before the end of the opening lap of the race to remove the three damaged and stranded cars.
In LMP3, Charles Crews moved to the head of the field in the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier but was being challenged by the no2 United Autosports Ligier of Josh Caygill. The two cars circulated for several laps just tenths apart, but Crews was able to keep Caygill behind him. The top four cars in the LMGTE class were fighting it out with the no77 Proton Competition Porsche leading the way.
The no19 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, which had started a lap down from the pitlane, was making rapid progress through the LMGTE and LMP3 field. However, Viscaal’s progress was interrupted when he was tapped into a spin by the no32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari at the chicane.
The no37 Cool Racing Oreca now had Yifei Ye in the car but the Chinese driver had to serve an extra 10 seconds at the next pitstop for an infringement on the previous visit to the pitlane. The no65 Panis Racing Oreca also had a 5 second penalty added to their pitstop and then they incurred another penalty, this time 10 seconds. This allowed the no9 Prema Racing Oreca of Louis Deletraz to pull away from the chasing pack.
The overall victory went to the no9 Prema Racing Oreca of Ferdinand Habsburg, Lorenzo Colombo and Louis Deletraz, finishing ahead of the no65 Panis Racing Oreca of Julien Canal, Nicolas Jamin and Job Van Uitert. The no37 Cool Racing Oreca of Yifei Ye took the chequered flag in third place, 77 seconds behind the lead car.
CLICK HERE for the provisional result from the 4 Hours of Barcelona.
The next race of the 2022 European Le Mans Series will be the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday 25 September.
