The 2018 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring was an

endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from an ...

sportscar racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...

event held on 22 July 2018 at the

Red Bull Ring The Red Bull Ring is a motorsport race track in Spielberg, Austria, Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race circuit was founded as Österreichring (translation: Austrian Circuit) and hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from t ...

. It was the third round of the

2018 European Le Mans Series The 2018 European Le Mans Series was the fifteenth season of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's (ACO) European Le Mans Series. The six-event season began at Circuit Paul Ricard on 15 April and finished at Algarve International Circuit on 28 Octobe ...

, and the sixth running of the

event Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of ev ...

as part of the

European Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

Background

The event was announced on 23 September 2017, with the Red Bull Ring round being a part of the calendar for the sixth conescutive time. This was the first race after a two-month hiatus for the ELMS season, with the last round having taken place at

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label= Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of M ...

, ten weeks prior.

Entry list

The entry list was revealed on 19 July 2018, and saw 42 entries: 18 in LMP2, 18 in LMP3, and 6 in LMGTE.

Schedule

Practice

There were two practice sessions held: one on Friday afternoon and one on Saturday morning. Both session ran for 90 minutes.

Practice 1

The first practice session was held at 13:00

CEST CEST or cest may refer to: * Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone * Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory * Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in M ...

on Friday.

Paul-Loup Chatin Paul-Loup Chatin (born 19 October 1991) is a professional racing driver from France who currently competes in the European Le Mans Series with IDEC Sport. He won the European Le Mans Series LMP2 class title in 2014 and 2019. Career Karting Born ...

ended up quickest in the No. 28

IDEC Sport ''Groupama 3'' is a high performance racing sailing trimaran designed for transoceanic record-setting ''IDEC SPORT'' ''Banque Populaire VII'', ''Lending Club 2'', ''IDEC 3''). She is one of the world's fastest ocean-going sailing vessels and t ...

Oreca, with a lap time of 1:20.067.

Norman Nato Norman Nato (born 8 July 1992) is a French professional racing driver who is currently driving for Realteam Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Nato is known for finishing as the runner-up in the 2010 F4 Eurocup 1.6 season and the 20 ...

was second-quickest in the No. 24

Racing Engineering Racing Engineering is a Spanish racing team founded in 1999 by Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón that currently competes in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. The team's headquarters are located in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near Jerez, where all car prepa ...

Oreca, only 0.003s off Chatin.

Matthieu Vaxivière Matthieu Vaxivière (born 3 December 1994) is a French racing driver from Limoges, France. He was the 2011 French F4 champion. In 2012 he raced in the V de V Endurance Cup, French GT, and 2e Grand Prix Èlectrique. In addition, he was 14th in t ...

finished third in the No. 33

TDS Racing TDS Racing (Top Drive Services, also known as Pouchelon Racing) is a French racing team, currently competing in the European Le Mans Series, FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. History Eurocup Mégane Trophy (2005-201 ...

Oreca. LMP3 was topped by

Matthieu Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye (born 23 November 1984, in Rennes) is a French racing driver, competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for OAK Racing. Career Lahaye's career began in karting, in which he competed between 1995 and 2001. He then took par ...

in the No. 17 Ultimate Norma, lapping the circuit in 1 minute, 26.927 seconds. He was 0.018s quicker than second-placed Matt Bell in the No. 3

United Autosports United Autosports is a sports car racing team, founded by American businessman and entrepreneur Zak Brown and former British racing driver Richard Dean. In 2020, United Autosports became the first ever team to win the prestigious 24 Hours of ...

Ligier. GTE was topped by Miguel Molina in the No. 66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari, with a lap of 1:28.829, 0.570s quicker than the second-placed No. 88

Proton Competition Proton Competition (also known as Team Felbermayr-Proton) is a German auto racing team founded by Gerold Ried. The team is based in Ummendorf, Baden-Württemberg. They currently operate a Porsche 911 RSR sports car in the FIA World Endurance ...

Porsche. * Note: Only the fastest car in each class is shown.

Final practice

The second and final practice session took place at 09:15

on Saturday, and ended with Chatin and the No. 28 Oreca topping the time sheets in a largely wet practice session. He lapped the circuit in 1 minute, 19.616 seconds. He was 0.134s quicker than

Andrea Pizzitola Andrea Pizzitola (born 19 June 1992) is a professional French racing driver. He is best known for finishing as the runner-up in the 2011 French F4 Championship season. Career Karting Born in Montpellier, Pizzitola entered karting in 2008, rac ...

in the No. 26

G-Drive Racing G-Drive Racing is a Russian sports car racing team. It is named after the commercial fuel distributed by Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of oil giant Gazprom. They made their debut in the LMP2 class of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship in ...

Oreca, with Nato third-quickest.

Job van Uitert Job van Uitert (born 10 October 1998 in Dongen) is a racing driver from the Netherlands. He is currently racing in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series with Panis Racing. Early career Beginnings and Mazda MX-5 Cup Having come from a ...

was quickest in LMP3 in the No. 15 RLR MSport Ligier: 1:27.176. David Droux was second-quickest in LMP3, 0.604s slower than Van Uitert. GTE was topped by Matt Griffin in the No. 55

Spirit of Race AF Corse is an Italian auto racing team founded by former racing driver Amato Ferrari in 1995 in Piacenza. Strongly linked to the Maserati and Ferrari brands, AF Corse currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, GT World Chal ...

Ferrari, with a lap of 1:29.845. Dennis Olsen was second-quickest in the No. 77

Porsche, lapping 0.177s slower than Griffin, with

Fabio Babini Fabio Babini (born 3 November 1969) is an Italian professional racing driver. Born in Faenza, Babini competed in the FIA GT Championship from 2000 until 2004 and in one race of the American Le Mans Series each year from 2001 to 2003. From 1990 ...

completing the top three in the No. 80 Ebimotors Porsche. * Note: Only the fastest car in each class is shown.

Qualifying

Qualifying started at 13:40

on Saturday, and was split in to three sessions: one for LMGTE, one for LMP3, and one for LMP2. Each session lasted fifteen minutes.

continued his strong practice pace and claimed overall pole position in his No. 28 Oreca. He shared the front row with

Nico Jamin Nicolas Jamin (born December 5, 1995) is a French racing driver who currently competes in the European Le Mans Series with United Autosports. Open Wheel Racing F2000 Jamin made his professional debut in the 2014 U.S. F2000 National Championshi ...

in the No. 29 Duqueine Engineering Oreca, who was 0.019s slower than Chatin. The No. 9 AT Racing Ligier originally claimed pole position in the LMP3 class, but saw its fastest lap deleted after a track limits violation. This handed LMP3 pole position to the No. 17 Norma of

, with a lap time of 1:26.519. The No. 19 MRacing - YMR Norma of Lucas Legeret qualified second, 0.064s slower. Molina took pole in LMGTE in the No. 66 Ferrari, ahead of

Matteo Cairoli Matteo Cairoli (born 1 June 1996) is an Italian racing driver who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Career Junior formula Cairoli began his single-seater racing career in 2012, competing in the Italian Formula Renault C ...

in the No. 88 Porsche, with

Andrea Bertolini Andrea Bertolini (born 1 December 1973, in Sassuolo) is an Italian professional racing driver currently driving for AF Corse in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He is the official test driver of the Maserati factory. Bertolini began racing ...

in the No. 83

Krohn Racing Krohn Racing is a professional sports car racing team based in Houston, Texas. The team competes in the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Prototype class, and has competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Intercontinental Le Mans ...

Ferrari in third.

Qualifying results

Pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

winners in each class are in bold.

Race

Class winners are in bold and .

Notes

References

External links

* {{Sportscar Race Report , Year_of_race = 2018 , Sportscar_Series = European Le Mans Series , Previous_race_in_season =

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, Next_race_in_season =

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4 Hours of Red Bull Ring 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest co ...

2018 in Austrian motorsport