The Murphy Prototypes squad took its first race victory in the European Le Mans Series finale at Paul Ricard with Brendon Hartley and Jonathan Hirschi.
Hartley took over the Murphy ORECA-Nissan 03 in third place, but was able to chase down Natacha Gachnang in the Morand Morgan-Judd/BMW and Simon Dolan’s Jota Zytek-Nissan to seal victory by six seconds at the end of the three-hour race.
Fourth place for the Alpine-liveried Signatech ORECA-Nissan was more than enough to give Pierre Ragues and Nelson Panciatici the 2013 ELMS title after its only real rival for the title, the TDS ORECA shared by Mathias Beche and Pierre Thiriet, hit problems.
Hartley revealed that the Murphy ORECA had been hampered by a braking problem for much of the race, which left him with no braking on the front right wheel.
“I drove it to the max over the first stint and then tried to bring it home,” he said. “That as one of the toughest races I have ever driven.”
Turvey and Dolan also had to overcome problems. They had a sticking throttle for three-quarters of the race.
Pole winner Oliver Turvey led through the first half of the race in the Jota Zytek, but the 30s advantage he gave to Dolan proved not to be enough.
Gachnang, who took over the Morand car from former grand prix driver, Christian Klien reeled in Dolan, while Hartley closed in on her.
The battle for the lead came to a head 27 laps before the finish when Hartley overtook the Morgan and the Nissan in the space of a lap.
Gachnang spun as she looked for a way past Dolan with the loss of 12 seconds, but she was able to get back to second with a dozen laps left to run.
The Ram Racing duo of Matt Griffin and Johnny Mowlem took a third GTE victory in their Ferrari 458 Italia to seal the class title.
Griffin paid testament to the efforts of a team that was only set up for the 2013 season.
“For the outside it might look easy, but a lot of work has gone into this,” he said. “It is a complete joy to drive the car every time you get in, because you know it is going to be 100 percent.”
Honours in the LMPC one-make prototype class went to Anthony Pons and Soheil Ayari, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Team Endurance team-mates Paul-Loup Chatin and Gary Hirsch from taking the title with a distant second place after a problem restarting the car.
The Franco-Russian SMP Racing squad of Kirill Ladygin, Viktor Shaitar and Fabio Babini maintained its 100 per cent record in the GTC class for GT3 machinery since joining the series at round two in Imola to clinch the class title.
Results - 93 laps: Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap 1. P2 Hartley/Hirschi Murphy ORECA-Nissan 2. P2 Gachnang/Klien Morand Morgan-Judd +6.255s 3. P2 Dolan/Turvey Jota Zytek-Nissan +21.691s 4. P2 Ragues/Panciatici Signatech Alpine-Nissan +1m24.350s 5. P2 Hartshorne/Kapadia/Al-Mudhaf Boutsen ORECA-Nissan +1m38.954s 6. P2 Mediani/Zlobin Oreca-Nissan +1 lap 7. P2 Frey/Maratteoto Race Peformance ORECA-Judd +2 laps 8. PC Pons/Ayari Endurance FLM +3 laps 9. GTE Mowlem/Griffin Ram Ferrari +3 laps 10. GTE Bertolini/Camathias JMW Ferrari +4 laps 11. GTE Ried/Bachler/Tandy Proton Porsche +4 laps 12. GTE Perazzini/Cioci/Leo AF Ferrari +4 laps 13. GTE Jeannette/Montecalvo Ram Ferrari +5 laps 14. GTE Milesi/Vernay IMSA Porsche +5 laps 15. GTC Babini/Shaitar/Ladygin SMP Ferrari +5 laps 16. GTC Markozov/Persiani/Frolov SMP Ferrari +6 laps 17. GTE Perrodo/Collard Prospeed Porsche +6 laps 18. GTC Hiesse/Mezard Villorba Ferrari +6 laps 19. GTC Millroy/McCaig/Twyman Ecosse BMW +7 laps 20. GTE Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank AF Ferrari +7 laps 21. P2 Thiriet/Beche TDS ORECA-Nissan +7 laps 22. PC Chatin/Hirsch Endurance FLM +7 laps 23. GTC Salo/Rotenberg/Ladygin SMP/Ferrari +8 laps 24. GTC Accary/Lecuyer/Enjalbert DKR BMW +8 laps 25. GTC Rizzoli/Gai/Case AF Ferrari +11 laps 26. GTC Kox/Pronk/Retera Kox Lamborghini +32 laps
