{"id":9534,"date":"2025-04-08T17:55:27","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T15:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/?p=9534"},"modified":"2025-04-08T18:26:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T16:26:31","slug":"michelin-le-mans-cup-r-ace-gps-three-lmp3s-in-the-top-10-at-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/2025\/04\/08\/michelin-le-mans-cup-r-ace-gps-three-lmp3s-in-the-top-10-at-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelin Le Mans Cup: R-ace GP&#8217;s three LMP3s in the top 10 at Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-nobi-blocks-media aligncenter\"><div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/08\/photo-lmc.jpg\" alt=\"Michelin Le Mans cup Barcelone R-ace GP #86 Duqueine D09\" width=\"1282\" height=\"641\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/08\/photo-lmc.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/08\/photo-lmc.jpg 2560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 90vw\"\/><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>April 5, Barcelona &#8211; The R-ace GP squad, which entered three Duqueine D09s, got off to a rocky start this weekend at the first Michelin Le Mans Cup meeting of the season. Despite good progress and encouraging qualifying, a podium finish slipped through the team&#8217;s fingers. The #86 and #85 finished 5th and 8th overall, while the #88 finished 6th in the PRO\/AM category.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Free practice and qualifying<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Friday April 4, the #85, #86 and #88 showed a clear progression after the results from official testing earlier in the week. The #85 and #86 finished in the top 6 overall, and the #88 in the top 3 of the PRO\/AM category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This progress was confirmed in qualifying the following day, with Hadrien David (#85) securing 3rd place and Joel Granfors (#86) 5th. On the PRO\/AM side, Romano Ricci (#88) achieved the best qualifying result of his career with 6th place. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/2025\/03\/25\/michelin-le-mans-cup-2025-who-are-the-six-r-ace-gp-drivers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">The three LMP3s<\/a> were therefore serious contenders for the podium, both overall and in the PRO\/AM category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The race<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the start, Hugo Schwarze in the #85 took the lead. But his manoeuvre resulted in a contact with a competitor which led to a drive-through penalty, relegating him to the top 15. In the #86, Joel Granfors maintained his position in the top 5. Romano Ricci in the #88 climbed up to third place in the PRO\/AM category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After more than an hour of racing and the mandatory pit stop, the race was interrupted by a red flag. On the restart, Fabien Lavergne (#88) was 4th in the PRO\/AM category. In the overall standings, Edgar Pierre (#86) continued to defend his 4th place, while Hadrien David (#85) was 8th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The #86 finally crossed the finish line in 5th place, ahead of the #85, still 8th. In the PRO\/AM category, the #88 finished 5th but a penalty dropped it back to 6th place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A fightback expected at Paul Ricard<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More work needs to be done before the new Duqueine D09 reaches its full potential. That&#8217;s the conclusion of the R-ace GP team after this first weekend. \u2018We&#8217;re now focused on the upcoming tests at Paul Ricard, where we&#8217;ll have to assess and develop our performance as a team,\u2019 commented R-ace GP boss Thibaut de M\u00e9rindol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second round of the season will take place at Le Castellet on May 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To watch the race,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UEX419l57Bk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">click here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 5, Barcelona &#8211; The R-ace GP squad, which entered three Duqueine D09s, got off to a rocky start this weekend at the first Michelin Le Mans Cup meeting of the season. Despite good progress and encouraging qualifying, a podium finish slipped through the team&#8217;s fingers. The #86 and #85 finished 5th and 8th overall, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"class_list":["post-9534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-michelin-le-mans-cup-en"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9536,"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534\/revisions\/9536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.r-ace-gp.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}