Cindy Gudet battles back to ProAm podium at Le Mans in Ligier European Series

Cindy Gudet and teammate Nathan Huet produced an recovery drive at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, fighting back from a challenging qualifying session to secure a ProAm podium in the Ligier European Series support event to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Photo credits: DPPI

Cindy Gudet and teammate Nathan Huet produced an recovery drive at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, fighting back from a challenging qualifying session to secure a ProAm podium in the Ligier European Series support event to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The annual visit to Le Mans is the flagship event of the Ligier European Series calendar, with the one-day meeting on the iconic 13.6-kilometre Circuit de la Sarthe serving as one of the highlights of the season and helping launch the week of the world-famous endurance classic.

For the second consecutive round, Gudet shared the #75 M Racing Ligier JS2R with Nathan Huet in the JS2R category, having already teamed up with him at the previous event at Le Castellet. The pair entered the weekend looking to build on their ProAm podium at the previous round, in what would be a single one-hour race around one of motorsport's most demanding venues.

The weekend began on an encouraging note for Gudet. Demonstrating strong pace from the outset in practice, she placed among the overall front-runners during the sole practice session, setting a best lap of 4:24.263. The time was good enough to place her inside the overall top seven and, importantly, at the head of the ProAm category.

Qualifying followed shortly afterwards, with Gudet taking responsibility for securing the starting position.

She established an early benchmark of 5:13.604 as the session got underway. However, several Full Course Yellow periods interrupted the running and prevented drivers from building consistent momentum.

Unfortunately, her session then took an unexpected turn as Gudet herself encountered an issue, preventing her from completing the improvements she had been building toward. Unable to improve her earlier benchmark, she slipped down the order and was ultimately classified 21st in the JS2R field.

It was far from the starting position the team had hoped for after showing competitive pace in practice, leaving Gudet and Huet with significant work to do in the race.

Photo credits: DPPI

When the one-hour contest got underway, Gudet took the start from 20th position in the JS2R class and fourth among the ProAm entries - and she immediately began making progress.

A strong opening lap saw Gudet gain several positions, climbing to 16th overall as she threaded her way through the field. By the end of the first lap she had passed Bihel and also benefited from Terkildsen dropping down the order, elevating the M Racing Ligier to 15th overall while maintaining fourth position in the ProAm category.

With some clear track ahead, Gudet was able to focus on hunting down Meyer. However, Loeul was also making progress through the field and managed to move ahead on the second lap.

Contact between competitors ahead allowed Gudet to gain two further positions, moving up to 14th overall.

She quickly closed back onto Loeul, joining a tightly contested three-car battle. The trio had built a significant advantage over the cars behind, with a gap of almost ten seconds as they fought over position.

The race was then interrupted when two championship contenders became involved in a crash. The incident brought out the Safety Car with approximately 40 minutes remaining, at the end of lap three.

Gudet held 14th position when the field was neutralized.

After the Safety Car period, racing resumed with around 30 minutes remaining, coinciding with the pit stop phase. Gudet brought the #75 Ligier into the pits from 14th place, handing over driving duties to Huet for the second half of the race.

As the race returned to green-flag conditions, Huet rejoined in 12th position overall. He initially lost out to Meyer and dropped to 13th, though the crew remained in contention for a top-three in ProAm.

The race continued to be disrupted by several slow zones by lap 6; at the end of that lap, another Safety Car period was then deployed, once again bunching up the field.

The race finally returned to green with just four minutes remaining on the clock, leaving Huet with one final opportunity to gain positions before the finish.

The French driver immediately set about maximizing the closing laps and successfully gained another place when Marreiros dropped down the order. The move elevated the #75 Ligier to 11th overall.

Huet maintained that position through the final lap and crossed the finish line in 11th overall and third in the ProAm category, completing a strong recovery after the setbacks experienced earlier in the day.

A series of post-race penalties, including the disqualification of the initial race winner, reshuffled the classification and promoted Gudet and Huet to eighth overall in the JS2R category while preserving their third-place finish in ProAm.

From starting deep in the field, Gudet's strong opening stint and Huet's consistent finish enabled M Racing to secure another ProAm podium at the prestigious event on the Ligier European Series calendar. After a successful trip to Le Mans, the Ligier European Series now enters its summer break before returning to action in support of the European Le Mans Series at Spa-Francorchamps on 21-23 August.