Barcelona, Spain, April 25th - Following on from last week’s pre-season testing, the European Le Mans Series kicked off the 2023 championship this weekend at the Barcelona racetrack.
Several ELF-backed teams featured among the headline acts in Catalonia, with Cool Racing competing in LMP2 Pro (Lomko-De Gerus-Lopez), LMP2 Pro/Am (Coigny-Lapierre-Jakobsen) and LMP3 (Chila-Siebert-Garcia), whilst Panis Racing focused solely on the LMP2 Pro class, with the crew of Van Uitert-Maldonado-Van Der Helm. Cool Racing wasted no time in strutting its stuff as Reshad De Gerus grabbed outright pole position in the no.47 Oreca 07, whilst Marcos Siebert claimed the LMP3 class pole in the no.17 Ligier JS P320. In the race itself, Lomko-De Gerus-Lopez were fighting for a podium place until they were given a stop-and-go penalty for contact with another car, which saw them finish down in seventh overall and fourth in LMP2 Pro. The crew nonetheless set the fastest race lap, something which suggests that they have clear potential for the rest of the season.
Cool Racing could take considerable consolation from its other results, as Alex Coigny, Nicolas Lapierre and Malthe Jakobsen claimed fourth position outright and third in the LMP2 Pro/Am class, whilst Adrien Chila, Marcos Siebert and Alex Garcia prevailed in the LMP3 class after four hours of incident-packed racing. Meanwhile, Panis Racing also scored vital points with fifth place overall, and second position in the LMP2 Pro class, making a very promising start to its 2023 season.
After this opening round, there can be no doubt that Cool Racing is going to be a force to be reckoned with this year for the titles in all three categories, whilst Panis Racing must also be counted as a serious contender for the title in the LMP2 Pro class.
