G-Drive, Vergne disqualified from Le Mans, lose LMP2 win

G-Drive Racing's LMP2 class-winning #26 Oreca 07 Gibson has been disqualified from the 24 Hours of Le Mans due to a technical infringement after an investigation by the stewards following the race.

Jean-Eric Vergne, Roman Rusinov and Andrea Pizzitola led all but 10 laps of the 24 hours at the Circuit de la Sarthe in LMP2, eventually finishing two laps clear of the field to take a convincing class victory.

However, following a review of the car following the race by the technical delegates, it was deemed that the team had breached the technical regulations as "an additional machined part not featuring in the drawing is inserted into the flow restrictor, changing the wetter restrictor surface described by the regulatory drawing."

Following a hearing on Monday, and despite arguments from G-Drive that the restrictor still strictly complied with the drawing, and that there was no detail in the regulations prohibiting the addition of other parts, the stewards disqualified the entry from the race.

As a result, class victory now goes to the Signatech Alpine Matmut's #36 Alpine A470 Gibson, shared by Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Pierre Thiriet, with the Graff-SO24 #39 Oreca now moving up to second place in LMP2.

The stewards also confirmed that the #28 TDS Racing entry has been disqualified for the same infringement, handing the final podium position in class to United Autosports' #32 Ligier JS P217 Gibson shared by Juan Pablo Montoya, Will Owen and Hugo de Sadeleer.

Both G-Drive Racing and TDS Racing have been reminded of their right to appeal, with the results of the race remaining provisional.

UPDATE 2336 BST - VERGNE CONFIRMS INTENTION TO APPEAL

In the wake of the stewards' ruling, Vergne has confirmed via Twitter that G-Drive does intend to appeal the decision, calling their reasoning "unfounded".

1/3 After 1 year of work & commitment from @GDrive_Racing we have been disqualified from @24hoursoflemans for a reason that we believe was unfounded however we intent to appeal the decision and get back the Victory we all fought for and deserved. #JEV #LeMans24 #GDrive #WEC pic.twitter.com/gIQM20tZWo

— Jean-Eric Vergne (@JeanEricVergne) June 18, 2018

2/3 in any case working with them was absolutely incredible & I can’t thank them enough for such a hard work and success we had so far!!!#JEV #LeMans24 #WEC #GDrive pic.twitter.com/9yAmycWZn7

— Jean-Eric Vergne (@JeanEricVergne) June 18, 2018

3/3 This is part of Motorsport, sometimes you have to run another race to prove we did the right things & keep moving forward never giving up! Thank you all for the amazing support last week, you are fantastic #LeMans24 #TeamSpirit #DareWinCelebrate #JEV #Mumm pic.twitter.com/DAvWYFeNiB

— Jean-Eric Vergne (@JeanEricVergne) June 18, 2018