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A couple of hours after yesterday’s Le Mans Series 1000KM of Spa several cars were still in the parc fermé area at scrutineering. Late in the evening the scrutineers confirmed what some people already feared: cars #26, #29, #32 and #77 were excluded from the results.

Team Felbermayr-Proton’s #77 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR was the biggest victim of the scrutineers decision. Having been on the top step of the podium it was a big deception for the team to be excluded from the race.

During the race the #77 Porsche was hit by an Aston Martin and suffered damage to the right rear wheel arch as wellas a puncture After the race the scrutineers checked the car decided that the team had deliberately acted outside the regulations by finishing with a damaged, non-compliant car rather than making a pit stop to fix the problem.

It is quite strange though that a team is allowed to run a large number of laps after being in for a pit stop to fix a part of the damage, but is then excluded afterwards for running a damaged car. A clear signal to teams is given that if you run an illegal car during the race but make a pit stop in the penultimate lap to solve the ‘problem’ you can get away from it, as long as it is legal as it enters parc fermé.

As a result of excluding the #77 car it was the #84 Team Modena Ferrari F430 that moved up to inherit the win. JMW Motorsport and the #90 FBR Ferrari completed a Ferrari F430 clean sweep in GT2.

With the exclusion of the #26 Bruichladdich-Bruneau Radical SR9, the #29 Racing Box Lola Judd and the #32 Barazi-Epsilon Zytek 07S the result in the LMP2 category also completely changed.

As the chequered flag was shown the #29 Racing Box Lola was in third place, while fourth place went to the #32 Barazi-Epsilon Zytek. As a result of the exclusion the #35 OAK Racing Pescarolo-Mazda moved up to third, taking the first podium of the season. The Bruichladdich-Bruneau finished in sixth place, but its exclusion meant Pegasus Racing moved to fourth place, with KSM and WR taking fifth and sixth.

Like in GT2 the reason for the exclusion of at least one the cars was questionable. The Racing Box Lola #29 suffered puncture in the final stages of the race, damaging the rear body work (including the lights) as well. The car pitted for tyres, but the bodywork was not changed. Not really surprising as the sister car was an early retirement after losing its rear bodywork in the opening lap and not being allowed back out by LMS officials after its pit stop.

However the #29 seemed to have no option as its incident happened right towards the end. Changing the bodywork, had there been some, would have cost much time and with only a handful of laps left would likely have meant a DNF for the team as the LMS regulations state that a car needs to be on the track in order to be classified. Racing Box did stay out, but was excluded for not having a working rear light and therefore having an illegal car…

Let’s just hope that drivers and teams will not use this ‘loophole’ and hit a rival team right towards the end of a race, knowing that their opponent is now running an “illegal” car, even if the non-conformity might have a negative influence on the car and therefore already penalizing it.

Of course the result of the 1000KM of Spa will remain provisional for a while as all teams involved can appeal the decisions made by the stewards.

UPDATE:

Below the text of the steward’s decision regarding car #77.

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It is the duty of the competitor to finish the race with the technical regulations.

Instead of stopping in the pits few laps before the end of the race to repair, keeping the hope of finishing second or third, the competitor took the decision to cross the finish line with an illegal car, in order to maintain its leading place.

This strategic choice will not be considered as a justification of the non-conformity of the car at the end of the race.

Decision: Car #77 is excluded from the race

Markopolo schreef:Pesies, waarom geeft de wedstrijdleiding dan niet aan dat de Felbermayr gerepareerd over de finish moet komen, daar zit de grootste
Nee wachten tot de finish, wagen in Parc Ferme droppen, huldiging en dan alsnog de botte bijl door het verhaal

Krijg een beetje een déjà vu

Ferrari10flrb schreef:Maar om nu weer de FIA erbij te gaan betrekken gaat me wel erg ver. Geloof dat de FIA en de ACO ook niet elkaars grootste vrienden zijn.

Markopolo schreef:

Ferrari10flrb schreef:Maar om nu weer de FIA erbij te gaan betrekken gaat me wel erg ver. Geloof dat de FIA en de ACO ook niet elkaars grootste vrienden zijn.

Eehhhh...., oud FIA medewerkers zitten nu onder de vlag van de ACO te knoeien, dus zo erg ver gaan we niet

Khut Fia!

1:18 24/7 schreef:Hou je mij d'r ff buiten?! Ik zat slechts te stoken: