The 2011 6 Hours of Castellet (6 Heures du Castellet) was the opening round of the 2011 Le Mans Series season. It took place at Circuit Paul Ricard on April 3, 2011. It was also the first Le Mans Series race with the two new GT classes, GTE Pro and GTE Am, contesting the event after the demise of the GT1 class.
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold. [1]
Note: the No. 16 Pescarolo Team was demoted to the back of the grid due to a ride height infringement in qualifying.
The race got off to a controversial start when the pace car did not return to the pits when the green lights came on. The front running LMPs slowed down but some of the GT cars could not react fast enough, resulting in all three GTE Pro class Porsches getting heavily damaged and retired. The GTE Am class IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche and GTE Pro JOTA Aston Martin were also caught in the carnage. [2] The race was won overall by Pescarolo Team after their first race since 2009 after their financial troubles in 2010. LMP2 was won by Greaves Motorsport, Pegasus Racing took the FLM victory. JMW Motorsport took GTE Pro victory after a hard fought battle with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari towards the end. Team Felbermayr-Proton won in the GTE Am class.
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC). [3]
The Circuit Paul Ricard is a French motorsport race track built in 1969 at Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille, with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard. Ricard wanted to experience the challenge of building a racetrack. The circuit has hosted the FIA Formula One French Grand Prix intermittently from 1971 to 2022.
Nicolas Armindo is a race car driver born in Colmar, France. He is of Portuguese descent.
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The 2010 8 Hours of Le Castellet was the inaugural round of the 2010 Le Mans Series season. It took place at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France on 11 April 2010. It was the first Le Mans Series race that is longer than the standard 1,000-km distance the LMS use since the 2007 Mil Milhas Brasil. Audi Sport Team Joest won the race overall in their first use of the Audi R15 TDI in the Le Mans Series, with drivers Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello. Aston Martin Racing and Rebellion Racing completed the overall podium five laps behind the winning Audi. Strakka Racing also brought Honda Performance Development a win on their debut in the LMP2 category, leading the OAK Racing Pescarolo by 33 seconds. Applewood Seven won the Formula Le Mans category, the first event in which this class participated in the Le Mans Series. Team Felbermayr-Proton dominated the GT2 category by finishing in the top two positions, ahead of the first of the AF Corse Ferraris.
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Charlie Eastwood is a racing driver from Northern Ireland who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for TF Sport. Having been an Aston Martin factory driver, Eastwood was signed by Corvette Racing in 2023.
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