The next race of the ILMC (Intercontinental Le Mans Cup) and LMS (Le Mans Series) championships is in Silverstone. The ILMC championship has three rounds to go and there's everything to play for, but in the LMS there are only two races left. As a result, some of the class championships in LMS are close to a resolution.

In this blog entry, I will attempt to summarise the championship situation in each class. This will serve the dual purposes of explaining what is needed for given competitors to win their class championships and giving a summary that will enable a newcomer to pick up what's where. 

LMP1

It's a tight championship at the moment:

Tinseau/Collard/Jousse (#16 Pescarolo) lead on 28 points (other points in this list relative)

Belicchi/Boullion (13 Rebellion) -3 points

Jani/Prost (#12 Rebellion) -3 points

Piccini/Cortes (#23 MIK Corse) -26 points 

In theory, everyone entered for the LMS can still win because there are more points on the table (30) than the leading drivers possess (28). However, some teams have withdrawn from Silverstone. These teams' drivers (Hope's and Quifel's Pla/Amarel) are too far away to catch up the gap in a single race and therefore are not included in the above list.

Incidentally, all of these cars are petrol entries - Hope was the sole hybrid entry and all the diesel entries are ILMC-only (they'll be in the race for ILMC things and can deny points to LMS entries by finishing ahead of them, but they don't compete for the LMS themselves). 

It is theoretically possible for Tinseau, Collard and Jousse (the Pescarolo trio) to take the title at Silverstone. However, if they win and get pole, they still need both Rebellions to finish in 9th place or below for that to happen. This is in a class with only 10 cars total, so really that's saying the Rebellion drivers need to retire or have a total disaster of a race if the title is to be settled in Silverstone. Tinseau, Collard and Jousse look good to get the title because they've been consistently slightly better than the Rebellions, but in Imola the tables were turned, so it would be foolish to bet on any of the three driver combinations taking the trophy. Better to enjoy the fight unfold and, most likely, continue into Portugal.

Silverstone is likely to be a low-scoring round for all 4 because the big points are likely to be taken by the diesel cars. This is bad news for Piccini and Cortes, who need to win in order to stay in the title hunt. It would take a bizarre set of circumstances for that to happen.   

Teams 

Rebellion has two cars in their team while the other contenders have only one. This puts Rebellion in a strong position for the team title because it is matching Pescarolo for points. All they need is to have one of their cars ahead of Pescarolo in both races. If it's #12 in one race and #13 in the other, the Rebellion will take the team title but Tinseau, Collard and Jousse will have the driver title. 

LMP2 

Drivers

The LMP2 class has been riven with conflict all year due to a cost-cutting formula running alongside the previous unrestricted spending regime. Hopefully the fact that 2012 will make the cost-cut method mandatory will reduce the arguing that has overshadowed a tightly-fought season.

Ojjeh/Kimber-Smith (#41 Greaves Motorsport) 35 points (other points relative)

Watts/Kane/Leventis (#42 Strakka Racing) -5

Kraihamer/Crem (#45 Boutsen Energy Racing) -10

Firth/Beche/Thriet (#46 TDS Racing) -12

Companc/Russo/Kaffer (#39 Pecom Racing) -13

Gates/Garoffel/Phillips (#43 RLR Motorsport) -18

Lombard (#41 Greaves Motorsport) -20 

Rosier/Basso (#44 Extreme Limite) -21

Frey/Meichtry (#40 Race Performance) -22 

Collins/Newton/Erdos (#36 RML) -27 

Half of the LMP2 field is likely to be out of the running for the title at the end of Silverstone. Collins, Newton and Erdos require 3rd to keep their chances going, while Frey and Meichtry "merely" need 7th and pole or 6th without pole to stay in. Silverstone is likely to be a low-scoring round due to the presence of the ILMC LMP2 entrants Signatech and OAK, even if the problem is not as pronounced for the LMP1s.

Rosier and Lombard need  8th place (or 7th and pole) to stay in. Gates, Garoffel and Phillips merely need to finish because there are only 11 cars and 11th yields 2 points.

It would take a pretty remarkable set of circumstances for Ojjeh and Kimber-Smith to win the title here. Even if they won and got pole, they'd need OAK and Signatech to share the podium with them and for Watts, Leventis and Kane to finish 8th or worse in class.

Lombard is a special case. He joined the #41 Greaves car in Imola, so short of his longer-standing team-mates getting injured before the race without making the car unraceable (which is virtually impossible), he cannot gain the title due to Ojjeh and Kimber-Smith scoring many points before his arrival. He'll definitely be able to contribute to the team title though.

Teams 

All the teams have only one car in LMP2, so the team fight is as above.

GTE-Pro 

Drivers

This is arguably the most complicated of the five championships to explain. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, this is one of the series for which there are bonus points for making an engine last 15 or more hours. The 15 hours do not all need to be in a race but they do need to be in ACO-sanctioned events (which in practise means Sebring and Le Mans count towards engine timings). The other classes have them, but in LMP1 hardly anyone runs an engine long enough to get the bonus point, LMP2 has only had 2 cars get the bonus points so far and in GTE-Am, virtually everyone is going to get the same points at the same race because the cars are nearly all synchronised in terms of engine hours. The GTE-Pro drivers will all get an engine point barring mechanical failures, but some are due to get it in Silverstone and others in Portugal. The effect on the title fight is subtle. 

Secondly, GTE-Pro, and only GTE-Pro, has a "dropped score" system for this year. Originally, all scores were meant to count, but at the start of the first race at Paul Ricard, a "Safety" Car caused a crash that took out nearly all the Porsches... and affected hardly anyone else. In an attempt to make up for this huge mistake, the "dropped-score" rule was put in. For championship purposes, the Porsches could pretend Paul Ricard was just a bad dream. 

Currently, the GTE-Pro title chase stands thus:

Fisichella/Bruni (AF Corse #51) have 44 points (other points given are relative to this)
Melo/Vilander (AF Corse #71) -16 points
Simonsen/Farnbacher (Hankook #89) -17 points
Walker/Bell (JMW #66) -22 points
Lieb/Lietz (Farnbacher #77) -26 points
Goosens/Holzer (Prospeed #75) -27 points
Hancock/Dolan (JOTA #79) -30 points 

Granted, some of the gaps are larger than in either prototype class. However, the "dropped score" system means that there is still plenty of opportunity for a fightback, even without relying on retirements.

Fisichella and Bruni are due to get an engine point in Portugal and currently would drop their second-place-with-pole at Le Castellet - a rather hefty 14 points. The latter is why the championship is nowhere near a done deal. Had all scores counted, scoring more points than Melo and Vilander would have almost been sufficient to take the title (other people would also have needed to be not too far ahead) - and only once so far this season has that happened. For Silverstone to be guaranteed to count towards their score it would be necessary for Fisichella and Bruni to win. Sealing the title in Silverstone would take some major misfortune for their competitors.

Vilander, Melo, Simonsen and Farnbacher are their closest rivals. They are due to get their engine point in Portugal. Vilander and Melo would currently drop 1 point from Spa and Simonsen and Farnbacher would drop a non-score. To guarantee staying in the title chase, they all need seventh with pole or sixth without. For each race which any of the four has finished, they have been at least fourth.

Walker and Bell are due to get their engine point in Portugal and would drop a non-finish at Imola. They need third place to guarantee staying in the title chase.  They've been quite unlucky this year but also fast, so it is possible for this to happen.

Lieb and Lietz, the defending champions, are due to get their engine point in Portugal and would drop the non-finish in Le Castellet.  To guarantee staying in the title fight, they need to score second with pole and not need an engine change, which is a pretty tall order.

Goosens and Holzer are due to get their engine point in Portugal and would drop the non-score at Le Castellet. To guarantee remaining in the title chase, they need to come second, get pole and hope Fisichella and Bruni don't win.

Hancock and Dolan cling to the title chase by the skins of their teeth on account of getting their engine point at Silverstone. They also drop a non-finish at Le Castellet. They need to either get second and pole, or win and hope Fisichella and Bruni do not get pole, in order to stay in the title fight. 

Teams   

AF Corse 46 points - to drop 14 points at Le Castellet (other teams' points relative)

Hankook -21 points - to drop 0 points at Imola

JMW -24 points - to drop 0 points at Imola

Felbermayr -30 points -  to drop 0 points at Le Castellet

AF Corse are likely to win this one, simply because they have two cars in the LMS (compared to everyone else's one) as well as a points lead of which Red Bull in F1 would be jealous, proportionally speaking. Given that an AF Corse car has only retired once out of 6 LMS entries, it would be asking a lot for anyone to take the team title off them at this point.

GTE-Am

Drivers

Armindo/Narac (#67 IMSA) 41 points (other points relative) 

Cioci/Perrazini/Lemeret (#61 AF Corse) -2 points

Felbermayr Jr (#88 Felbermayr) -17 points

Christodolou/Quaife (#82 CRS) -23 points

This is the tightest class battle in the series. Unless Armindo and Narac win their class and get very lucky with opponents' results, the battle will go to Portugal. Felbermayr Jr needs to finish the race or get class pole to stay in the title fight in Portugal, while Christodolou and Quaife must get seventh with pole or sixth stay in the title fight.

Teams

All four teams have one car apiece, so the team battle is in the same state as the driver one.

Warning! Long entry alert!

I spent quite a lot of the weekend attempting to find out information about Giancarlo Fisichella's latest adventure. Considering that it was an international sportscar race (link in Italian), this proved surprisingly difficult.

The race was the 6 Ore di Vallelunga (link in Italian), an endurance race slightly longer than a typical Le Mans Series race (because there is no maximum distance) for GT2 and lower. GT2 is the level Giancarlo races at in sportscars and the race is an independent one, so initially my reaction to him being on the entry list was excitement. Especially since, at fewer than 80 miles from Fisico's home district, it would definitely be his home race.

Then I spotted a slight problem. Coverage.

Sportscar racing is challenging to follow at the best of times. Pit stop counts that sometimes enter double figures, safety cars that pick up whoever happens to be convenient, high entry counts leading to multiple simultaneous incidents... At least the multiple classes would be a minimal complication this time. Usually Giancarlo races in ACO-sanctioned events these days, where GT2 is the slowest class, but in Vallelunga GT2 is the fastest permitted class. So winning the class would surely require a race win.*

Usually the way round all this confusion is to load up a live timing screen. By necessity more complex than any single-seater enthusiasts use for F1, the versions supplied by LMS, ALMS and the 24H Le Mans official websites all offer reasonable means to follow what's happening (when they load and update correctly). The Vallelunga organisers... ...didn't.

There was some news available on the official site, but as far as I could tell (with admittedly limited Italian language skills) there was no live timing. Or broadcasting. Which brought me to the second problem.

To a certain extent, it's possible to follow a sportscar race even without live timing if you have a decent commentary team. Having established there was no official version, my next port of call was Radio Le Mans. Having a commentary team I'd grown to enjoy in the past season (covering four different rulesets and three different continents) explain the complexities of this race (under a fifth ruleset) in my native language would be helpful. Alas, they appear to have gone on a well-deserved off-season break from commentating.

Bereft of alternative ideas, I asked my friends for help.  At the Fisichella Forum suggested half-a-dozen possible sites that could be used. One of them worked, and I looked forward to attempting to understand the race using the likely-sounding Italia-Racing.it (and secretly hoping everyone stopped for ice creams mid-race, since I'd just covered that topic in class!).

On Sunday morning, I duly tuned in... ...and heard "although no-one understood, we-were-holding-back-the-flood..." While I usually like that particular Take That song, I didn't think it was a good sign that I was hearing it 3 minutes before the start. Ah well, maybe it's one of those stations that thinks starting and ending 30 seconds the show either side of the flags is slick and efficient use of time.

The Shakira song that followed made me worried.

The Elvis song that started as the race was due to start made me very worried. "Suspicious Mind(s)", even...

By the end of the next song, I was ready to panic. I'd been checking my social networking services while listening to the radio and seen a photo proving the race had started during the song. It was some Italian pop track, but I was past caring who'd sung it as it was now at least 5 minutes into the race. The way the presenter was talking made it clear I shouldn't expect the station to be covering any racing today. Even if a station called Italia-Racing might be expected to do so.

I'd previously checked through the other 5 links I'd been offered and found that they didn't work or were Internet TV sites requiring registration. Checking against the official site, I noticed something buried deep in the qualifying report (link in Italian) - official broadcast rights were with Sky and they were showing it next week (or possibly the week after - by that stage I couldn't be bothered to get the calender out).

The next hour was spent rambling through every Italian internet radio station I could remember or research in case anyone was unofficially broadcasting the race. Highlights included a lovely club cover of Queen's "You Don't Fool Me". But all the synths in the world weren't going to tell me how Giancarlo was doing in his home race...

After scanning through my social networking, blog and fora contacts (and finding a few photos of practise), I concluded that nobody else I knew had any further information on the race. By this point, I elected to take out my frustration in a game of Worms.

An hour later, logging back in hope more than expectation, I searched on Twitter and found Laura Bonetti tweeting about the race in progress! I knew she was at the track, but I'd assumed that her lack of tweets since the start meant that she was concentrating 100% on what was in front of her. I was pleased to be wrong and even more pleased when I read Giancarlo's car was in the lead. That must have been an exciting couple of hours...

So that, eventually, proved to be my one source of live information - a spectator who was generous enough to spend a little time not looking at the cars in order to post little updates. There's a certain excited tension about following a race via short occasional messages - you start imagining everything that could have happened, refresh, decide nothing's happened, refresh a few minutes later... ...and find that everyone's lined up behind a safety car because of someone else going off.

I probably should have seen an omen in that particular tweet. Just over hour prior to the chequered flag, it started raining. Nearly everyone stayed on slicks. It was on this awkward combination that Giancarlo went off-track. Vallelunga doesn't feature the acres of tarmac run-off that adorn the average Tilke-drome, so it ended Giancarlo's race. The classified position of 7th does not show that he and his team-mates  Perrazzini and Cioci had led the majority of the way without much trouble from opponents.

AF Corse still won the race with a different car (the #10 - they'd sent 4 to the race), followed by the pole-sitting #7 Kessell Racing and the #26 Porsche, which was a GT3.

The race was an interesting and sounded quite exciting, but would have been better with a little more... ...something. A bit like my viewing experience of it, really. Hopefully when the organisers turn this event into a 4-race series the coverage will improve.

* - Just don't tell the LMP1 teams at the LMS at Hungary this year that. The fastest of them was beaten by 5 ostensibly slower LMP2s...