After scoring a historic victory at Silverstone last month, the #7 M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 piloted by Guy Smith, Andy Meyrick and Steven Kane finished first in the third round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France, marking the team's second victory in a row.
In the dusk light of the track at Le Castellet, Steven Kane powered his way to victory with a narrow lead of just 1.1 seconds after three hours of racing.
The fight for pole dominated the third and final hour-long stint of the race, with the gap between the #7 car and the ART McLaren of Parente, Demoustier and Lapierre varying between six seconds and less than one second.
The two Continental GT3 racers both qualified in the top ten on Saturday morning, with car #8 in seventh and car #7 in ninth. The stewards then issued a penalty for #8 for setting a fast time just as the final qualifying session was red flagged. This demoted #8 to 14th place on the grid, but elevated #7 to seventh.
Guy Smith and Antoine Leclerc started the race in their respective cars, and Guy climbed from 7th to 3rd in the space of his 32-lap stint, before handing over to Andy Meyrick. Antoine made up even more places, moving his Continental GT3 from 14th to 7th before pitting and being replaced by Jerome D'Ambrosio.
The M-Sport Bentley pit crew delivered extremely fast pit stops, including a sub 23-second tyre change that brought Andy back on to the track in 2nd place. After a number of laps, Andy overtook the leading McLaren and on lap 57 pitted from the lead, and was relieved by Steven Kane.
A slightly slower pit stop allowed the McLaren, now with Nicolas Lapierre behind the wheel, to be immediately behind Steven as he rejoined the track. The next hour was full of tense racing as the two cars traded times, with them frequently separated by less than a second - although Steven was able to hold on and crossed the dance of the chequered flags for victory.
With the victory, Smith, Meyrick and Kane take the lead in the overall Drivers' Championship standings ahead of the series' headline event at the 24 Hours of Spa at the end of July. M-Sport Bentley now looks forward to the Total 24 Hours of Spa, which starts on the afternoon of Saturday 26th July.
