Continuing our look at how things stand in the championship points’ tables, here is a look at the compact but hotly contested LMP2 category. There were winners and losers, thanks to the double points awarded for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams/Drivers
SMP Racing has the advantage going into the fourth round in Austin, Texas, following its finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans where its rivals faltered. The team, which is operated in association with AF Corse, has 77 points – a 25-point lead over fellow Russian entry G-Drive Racing which won the first two rounds of the 2014 championship. In third is the Hong Kong based KCMG team, which has 37 points but there is all to play for in the five remaining rounds.
A combination of misfortune for the previous points-leading cars, plus the driver reshuffle at SMP Racing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, left the championship tables looking very different now to how they were prior to the French round.
Russia’s Sergey Zlobin now leads the standings for the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers courtesy of a full, Le Mans accounting for 50 of his current 77 points total. A podium at the 6 Hours of Silverstone and fourth place at Spa were where he scored his other points.
Zlobin’s SMP Racing team mate, Anton Ladygin, is second with 65 points thanks to a lower pre-Le Mans points haul in the sister ORECA 03R Nissan.
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The Silverstone and Spa race-winning G-Drive Morgan Nissan crew of Roman Rusinov, Julien Canal and Olivier Pla sit a full 25 points back from Zlobin after scoring just a single point at Le Mans (for LMP2 class pole position), while SMP Racing’s Mika Salo is close behind in fourth place with his 50- point Le Mans tally.
The KCMG duo of Richard Bradley and Mark Howson suffered the same fate as G-Drive with a zero-points race tally at Le Mans, and sit on 37 points fifth in the tables thanks to second places at the first two rounds of the season plus a pole position point for Spa. Having not competed in the opening round in the UK, Alex Imperatori is in seventh place in the points, 8 points behind SMP Racing’s Nicolas Minassian and Maurizio Mediani who hold 27 points.
Having opened up its point account in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Viktor Shaitar and Kirill Ladygin will be keen to add to it in the coming races.
Next week…LMGTE Pro.
Fiona Miller
Photos: CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES (LE MANS, SARTHE, FRANCE), 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, 9-15 JUNE 2014. 1) SMP Racing's ORECA 03R Nissan, 2) G-Drive Racing's Olivier Pla, Julien Canal and Roman Rusinov at the Drivers' Parade the evening before the race, 3) KCMG's ORECA 03R Nissan in the pit lane.
