Larbre Competition continued their strong Intercontinental Le Mans Cup form at Imola in Italy last weekend where the squad’s Corvette C6.R finished second in the GTE Am class to extend the team’s lead at the top of the ILMC championship standings.

Julien Canal, Gabriele Gardel and Patrick Bornhauser were re-united behind the wheel of the #50 machine for the first time since dominating the Le Mans 24 Hours three weeks ago. Hot conditions, as well as the circuit’s stop-start nature, make Imola one of the most demanding venues on the calendar. Not that it affected the French trio who all once again produced error-free performances.

Having finished third on the road, the car was subsequently promoted to second place following a rival’s disqualification. That leaves Larbre Competition a substantial 27 points clear at the top of the GTE Am points table with three rounds still remaining.

Julien Canal: “The outcome in Italy was very positive. I qualified the car for the first time this year and despite only having one lap in practice on new tyres due to the numerous red flags, I was able to set the fifth fastest time in GTE Am, running at the same speed as the GTE Pro entries at particular parts of the circuit. During the race, my two team-mates did an excellent job to hand me the car in third place. My first stint was quite difficult because the track temperature kept increasing and affected the tyre compound, which was no longer ideally suited to the hot conditions. After contacting Jack on the radio, we decided to choose a different compound which worked perfectly. That enabled me to catch the race leaders while building a solid advantage over the chasing AF Corse Ferrari behind. The team has done an excellent job to make the Corvette perfectly balanced. I had a great time driving it at Imola.”