ELMS

A stunning start for Panis Racing and Cool Racing

Castellet, France, April 19th 2022 - A few days after the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) held its Official Tests at Le Castellet race track, Panis Racing and Cool Racing – two teams featuring Elf decals – produced impressive performances in the south of France. Panis Racing finished on the podium in the opening round of the biggest European Endurance championship whilst Cool Racing secured a top-five spot after a promising comeback.

Published on 19/04/2022
1 min reading time

Drawing on its considerable experience, Panis Racing used the free practice and qualifying sessions to fine-tune its race strategy ahead of the start of the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, the opening round of the ELMS. Once the contest got underway, Julien Canal, Nicolas Jamin and Job Van Uitert quickly established a strong pace, whilst nonetheless managing the constraints of endurance racing perfectly. Third at the halfway stage, the standard bearers of the Elf brand kept their focus, improving across all phases to find the right mix of consistency and efficiency. Their approach paid off, enabling them to hold onto third place and claim a big haul of points for the championship.

After struggling in qualifying and ending up way down the grid at the start of the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, Nicolas Lapierre, Yifei Ye and Niklas Kruetten – Cool Racing’s LMP2 drivers – were faced with the unenviable task of having to make up more than thirty places. The TotalEnergies-backed drivers produced a heroic effort, expertly negotiating the densely-packed midfield and keeping out of trouble as they staged a magnificent comeback to finish in fifth place overall. In addition to its remarkable performance in LMP2, Cool Racing savoured victory in the LMP3 class with Maurice Smith, Michael Benham and the talented Danish youngster Malthe Jakobsen.

Championship update

The TotalEnergies teams competing in the demanding ELMS endurance championship have quickly established themselves as contenders for the end-of-season titles. After the first round, Panis Racing and Cool Racing occupy third and fifth places in the teams’ standings. Cool Racing’s LMP3 crew also made a strong statement at the opening weekend of the European series, leaving Le Castellet with the early lead in the class standings.