2011 6 Hours of Castellet explained

The 2011 6 Hours of Castellet (6 Heures du Castellet) was the opening round of the 2011 Le Mans Series season. It took place at Circuit Paul Ricard on April 3, 2011. It was also the first Le Mans Series race with the two new GT classes, GTE Pro and GTE Am, contesting the event after the demise of the GT1 class.

Qualifying result

Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.^[1]

Pos	Class	Team	Driver	Lap Time	Grid
1	LMP1	No.12 Rebellion Racing	Neel Jani	1:46.783	1
2	LMP1	No.16 Pescarolo Team	Emmanuel Collard	1:47.025	34
3	LMP1	No.20 Quifel-ASM Team	Olivier Pla	1:47.231	2
4	LMP1	No.13 Rebellion Racing	Jean-Christophe Boullion	1:48.491	3
5	LMP2	No.46 TDS Racing	Mathias Beche	1:48.928	4
6	LMP2	No.45 Boutsen Energy Racing	Dominik Kraihamer	1:49.692	5
7	LMP2	No.41 Greaves Motorsport	Tom Kimber-Smith	1:50.008	6
8	LMP2	No.40 Race Performance	Thor-Christian Ebbesvik	1:50.356	7
9	LMP2	No.39 PeCom Racing	Matías Russo	1:51.744	8
10	LMP2	No.44 Extrême Limite AM Paris	Fabien Rosier	1:52.158	9
11	LMP1	No.009 Aston Martin Racing	Stefan Mücke	1:52.267	10
12	LMP2	No.43 RLR msport	Rob Garofall	1:53.414	11
13	LMP2	No.42 Strakka Racing	Danny Watts	1:53.582	12
14	FLM	No.91 Hope Polevision Racing	Nicolas Marroc	1:53.659	13
15	FLM	No.93 Genoa Racing	Elton Julian	1:54.044	14
16	FLM	No.92 Neil Garner Motorsport	Phil Keen	1:54.081	15
17	FLM	No.95 Pegasus Racing	Patrick Simon	1:55.829	16
18	FLM	No.99 JMB Racing	Nicolas Misslin	1:56.806	17
19	GTE-Pro	No.51 AF Corse	Gianmaria Bruni	1:58.522	18
20	GTE-Pro	No.86 Young Driver AMR	Tomáš Enge	1:58.773	19
21	GTE-Pro	No.66 JMW Motorsport	Rob Bell	1:59.119	20
22	GTE-Pro	No.71 AF Corse	Toni Vilander	1:59.144	21
23	GTE-Pro	No.89 Hankook Team Farnbacher	Allan Simonsen	1:59.244	22
24	GTE-Pro	No.75 Prospeed Competition	Marco Holzer	1:59.244	23
25	GTE-Am	No.67 IMSA Performance Matmut	Nicolas Armindo	1:59.370	24
26	GTE-Pro	No.77 Team Felbermayr-Proton	Richard Lietz	1:59.455	25
27	GTE-Pro	No.76 IMSA Performance Matmut	Patrick Pilet	1:59.457	26
28	GTE-Pro	No.79 JOTA	Sam Hancock	2:00.336	27
29	GTE-Am	No.88 Team Felbermayr-Proton	Horst Felbermayr, Jr.	2:00.354	28
30	GTE-Am	No.61 AF Corse	Marco Cioci	2:00.470	29
31	GTE-Am	No.70 Kessel Racing	Philipp Peter	2:00.698	30
32	GTE-Am	No.82 CRS Racing	Adam Christodoulou	2:01.137	31
33	GTE-Am	No.72 AF Corse	Rui Águas	2:01.691	32
34	LMP2	No.36 RML	No Time	33

Note: the No. 16 Pescarolo Team was demoted to the back of the grid due to a ride height infringement in qualifying.

Race

The race got off to a controversial start when the pace car did not return to the pits when the green lights came on. The front running LMPs slowed down but some of the GT cars could not react fast enough, resulting in all three GTE Pro class Porsches getting heavily damaged and retired. The GTE Am class IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche and GTE Pro JOTA Aston Martin were also caught in the carnage.^[2] The race was won overall by Pescarolo Team after their first race since 2009 after their financial troubles in 2010. LMP2 was won by Greaves Motorsport, Pegasus Racing took the FLM victory. JMW Motorsport took GTE Pro victory after a hard fought battle with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari towards the end. Team Felbermayr-Proton won in the GTE Am class.

Race result

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).^[3]

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
					Engine
1	LMP1	16	Pescarolo Team	Emmanuel Collard Christophe Tinseau Julien Jousse	Pescarolo 01 Evo		185
					Judd GV5 S2 5.0 L V10
2	LMP1	13	Rebellion Racing	Jean-Christophe Boullion Andrea Belicchi	Lola B10/60		184
					Toyota RV8KLM 3.4 L V8
3	LMP2	41	Greaves Motorsport	Gary Chalandon Karim Ojjeh Tom Kimber-Smith	Zytek Z11SN		179
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
4	LMP2	39	Pecom Racing	Matías Russo Luís Pérez Companc Pierre Kaffer	Lola B11/40		179
					Judd-BMW HK 3.6 L V8
5	LMP2	42	Strakka Racing	Danny Watts Jonny Kane Nick Leventis	HPD ARX-01d		177
					HPD HR28TT 2.8 L Turbo V6
6	LMP2	45	Boutsen Energy Racing	Dominik Kraihamer Nicolas de Crem	Oreca 03		175
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
7	LMP1	12	Rebellion Racing	Neel Jani Nicolas Prost	Lola B10/60		175
					Toyota RV8KLM 3.4 L V8
8	LMP1	20	Quifel ASM Team	Miguel Amaral Olivier Pla	Zytek 09SC		174
					Zytek ZG348 3.4 L V8
9	LMP2	43	RLR msport	Barry Gates Rob Garofall Simon Phillips	MG-Lola EX265		174
					Judd-BMW HK 3.6 L V8
10	LMP2	40	Race Performance	Michel Frey Ralph Meichtry Thor-Christian Ebbesvik	Oreca 03		174
					Judd-BMW HK 3.6 L V8
11	LMP2	36	RML	Mike Newton Thomas Erdos Ben Collins	HPD ARX-01d		173
					HPD HR28TT 2.8 L Turbo V6
12	FLM	95	Pegasus Racing	Mirco Schultis Patrick Simon Julien Schell	Oreca FLM09		170
					Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8
13	FLM	93	Genoa Racing	Jens Petersen Elton Julian Christian Zugel	Oreca FLM09		170
					Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8
14	GTE Pro	66	JMW Motorsport	Rob Bell James Walker	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2		170
					Ferrari 4.5 L V8
15	GTE Pro	51	AF Corse	Giancarlo Fisichella Gianmaria Bruni	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2		169
					Ferrari 4.5 L V8
16	LMP2	44	Extrême Limite AM Paris	Fabien Rosier Maurice Basso Jean-Marc Luco	Norma M200P		169
					Judd-BMW HK 3.6 L V8
17	GTE Am	88	Team Felbermayr-Proton	Horst Felbermayr, Sr. Horst Felbermayr, Jr. Christian Ried	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR		167
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
18	GTE Am	61	AF Corse	Piergiuseppe Perazzini Marco Cioci Stéphane Lémeret	Ferrari F430 GTE		167
					Ferrari 4.0 V8
19	GTE Am	70	Kessel Racing	Michał Broniszewski Philipp Peter	Ferrari F430 GTE		167
					Ferrari 4.0 L V8
20	GTE Am	82	CRS Racing	Phil Quaife Adam Christodoulou Klaas Hummel	Ferrari F430 GTE		166
					Ferrari 4.0 L V8
21	GTE Pro	89	Hankook Team Farnbacher	Dominik Farnbacher Allan Simonsen	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2		163
					Ferrari 4.5 L V8
22	GTE Am	72	AF Corse	Robert Kuaffman Rui Águas Giuseppe Cirò	Ferrari F430 GTE		163
					Ferrari 4.0 V8
23	GTE Pro	71	AF Corse	Jaime Melo Toni Vilander	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2		161
					Ferrari 4.5 L V8
24	FLM	92	Neil Garner Motorsport	John Hartshorne Steve Keating Phil Keen	Oreca FLM09		157
					Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8
25	FLM	99	JMB Racing	Manuel Rodrigues Jean-Marc Menahem Nicolas Misslin	Oreca FLM09		142
					Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8
26 DNF	GTE Pro	86	Young Driver AMR	Tomáš Enge Alex Müller Christoffer Nygaard	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2		140
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
27	GTE Am	67	IMSA Performance Matmut	Raymond Narac Nicolas Armindo	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR		137
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
28 NC	GTE Pro	79	JOTA	Simon Dolan Sam Hancock	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2		105
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
29 NC	LMP1	009	Aston Martin Racing	Stefan Mücke Darren Turner Harold Primat	Aston Martin AMR-One		96
					Aston Martin 2.0 L Turbo I6
30 DNF	FLM	91	Hope Polevision Racing	Nicolas Marroc Luca Moro Zhang Shan Qi	Oreca FLM09		93
					Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8
31 DNF	LMP2	46	TDS Racing	Mathias Beche Pierre Thiriet Jody Firth	Oreca 03		91
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
32 DNF	GTE Pro	76	IMSA Performance Matmut	Patrick Pilet Wolf Henzler	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR		2
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
33 DNF	GTE Pro	75	Prospeed Competition	Marco Holzer Marc Goossens	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR		0
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
34 DNF	GTE Pro	77	Team Felbermayr-Proton	Marc Lieb Richard Lietz	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR		0
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6

Notes and References

1. Web site: LMS Paul Ricard Qualifying . PDF . . 2011-04-02 . 2011-04-02.
2. Web site: Start Chaos 2011 Le Mans Series at Le Castellet . MT89Motorsport2 . 2011-04-03 . 2011-04-03.
3. Web site: LMS Paul Ricard Race . PDF . . 2011-04-03 . 2011-04-03.