The 2012 6 Hours of Castellet (6 Heures du Castellet) was the opening round of the 2012 European Le Mans Series season. It took place at Circuit Paul Ricard on 1 April 2012. Previously known as the Le Mans Series, it was the first race in the series' history where LMP1 was not contested in as LMP2 has taken over as the top prototype class. The Formula Le Mans (FLM) spec class has been renamed to Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC), the same name used in the American Le Mans Series. A new Grand Touring class was meant to participate in the opening round which was Grand Touring Challenge (GTC), but lack of entrants meant it did not participate.

Qualifying

Qualifying result Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.

Pos Class Team Driver Lap Time Grid 1 LMP2 No.46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Mathias Beche 1:48.171 1 2 LMP2 No.17 Status GP Yelmer Buurman 1:48.482 2 3 LMP2 No.1 Greaves Motorsport Tom Kimber-Smith 1:48.882 3 4 LMP2 No.24 OAK Racing Guillaume Moreau 1:48.977 4 5 LMP2 No.10 Pecom Racing Pierre Kaffer 1:49.068 5 6 LMP2 No.18 Murphy Prototypes Warren Hughes 1:49.122 6 7 LMP2 No.19 Sébastien Loeb Racing Stéphane Sarrazin 1:49.157 7 8 LMP2 No.38 JOTA Sam Hancock 1:49.687 8 9 LMP2 No.11 Race Performance Michel Frey 1:50.193 9 10 LMPC No.40 Boutsen Ginion Racing Massimo Vignali 1:55.338 10 11 LMPC No.42 CURTIS Racing Technologies Phil Keen 1:55.410 11 12 GTE-Pro No.83 JMB Racing Jaime Melo 1:57.630 12 13 GTE-Am No.75 Prospeed Competition Marc Goossens 1:58.388 13 14 GTE-Am No.67 IMSA Performance Matmut Nicolas Armindo 1:58.428 14 15 GTE-Pro No.66 JMW Motorsport James Walker 1:58.517 15 16 GTE-Am No.69 Gulf Racing Stuart Hall 1:58.532 16 17 GTE-Am No.60 AF Corse Marco Cioci 1:58.803 17 18 GTE-Pro No.61 Kessel Racing Philipp Peter 1:59.082 18 19 GTE-Am No.99 JMB Racing Alain Ferté 2:00.182 19 20 LMP2 No.44 Extrême Limite ARIC No Time 20 21 LMP2 No.45 Boutsen Ginion Racing No Time 21

Race

Race result Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Tyre Laps Engine 1 LMP2 46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Pierre Thiriet Mathias Beche Oreca 03 189 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 2 LMP2 19 Sébastien Loeb Racing Nicolas Marroc Stéphane Sarrazin Nicolas Minassian Oreca 03 188 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 3 LMP2 17 Status GP Alexander Sims Dean Sterling Yelmer Buurman Lola B12/80 188 Judd-BMW HK 3.6 L V8 4 LMP2 1 Greaves Motorsport Alex Brundle Tom Kimber-Smith Lucas Ordoñez Zytek Z11SN 188 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 5 LMP2 11 Race Performance Michel Frey Jonathan Hirschi Ralph Meichtry Oreca 03 186 Judd-BMW HK 3.6 L V8 6 LMP2 24 OAK Racing Jacques Nicolet Guillaume Moreau Dominik Kraihamer Morgan LMP2 185 Judd-BMW HK 3.6 L V8 7 LMP2 10 Pecom Racing Luís Pérez Companc Pierre Kaffer Gianmaria Bruni Oreca 03 183 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 8 LMPC 42 CURTIS Racing Technologies Phil Keen John Hartshorne Alex Kapadia Oreca FLM09 177 Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 9 LMGTEPro 66 JMW Motorsport Jonny Cocker James Walker Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 176 Ferrari F136 4.5 L V8 10 LMGTEPro 83 JMB Racing Jaime Melo Marco Frezza Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 176 Ferrari F136 4.5 L V8 11 LMGTEAm 75 Prospeed Competition Marc Goossens Maxime Soulet Porsche 997 GT3-RSR 175 Porsche M97/74 4.0 L Flat-6 12 LMP2 44 Extrême Limite ARIC Fabien Rosier Philippe Thirion Norma M200P 175 Judd-BMW HK 3.6 L V8 13 LMP2 38 JOTA Sam Hancock Simon Dolan Zytek Z11SN 174 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 14 LMGTEAm 67 IMSA Performance Matmut Anthony Pons Nicolas Armindo Raymond Narac Porsche 997 GT3-RSR 174 Porsche M97/74 4.0 L Flat-6 15 LMGTEPro 61 Kessel Racing Michał Broniszewski Philipp Peter Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 174 Ferrari F136 4.5 L V8 16 LMGTEAm 99 JMB Racing Alain Ferté Philippe Illiano Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 172 Ferrari F136 4.5 L V8 17 LMGTEAm 69 Gulf Racing Roald Goethe Stuart Hall Aston Martin Vantage GT2 160 Aston Martin AJ37 4.5 L V8 18 LMGTEAm 60 AF Corse Piergiuseppe Perazzini Marco Cioci Matt Griffin Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 144 Ferrari F136 4.5 L V8 DNF LMPC 40 Boutsen Ginion Racing Thomas Dagoneau Jean-Marc Merlin Massimo Vignali Oreca FLM09 111 Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 DNF LMP2 18 Murphy Prototypes Warren Hughes Jody Firth Luca Moro MG-Oreca 03 64 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 DNF LMP2 45 Boutsen Ginion Racing Bastien Brière Jack Clarke Sébastien Buemi Oreca 03 27 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8

References

External links