ELMS: Jamie Chadwick misses out on points in incident-filled 4 Hours of Silverstone
Jamie Chadwick and her IDEC Sport teammates were denied another strong European Le Mans Series result at Silverstone after an unfortunate 4-hour race saw the #18 Oreca fall outside the points despite a great charge up the field by British racer after a first lap incident.
Jamie Chadwick and her IDEC Sport teammates were denied another strong European Le Mans Series result at Silverstone after an unfortunate 4-hour race saw the #18 Oreca fall outside the points despite a great charge up the field by British racer after a first lap incident.
Racing at her home circuit, Chadwick recovered impressively from an opening-lap spin to climb from 22nd overall and 11th in class back into contention for the LMP2 Pro positions, but the worsening weather and a puncture later created further difficulties for Valerio Rinicella and Laurents Hörr, with the trio eventually finishing 11th in LMP2 Pro after running as high as the top five during the race.
Chadwick arrived at Silverstone on the back of her first European Le Mans Series podium of the 2026 season at Spa-Francorchamps. Following a highly encouraging rookie LMP2 campaign in 2025, the British driver returned to the championship alongside Rinicella and Hörr, with the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca becoming one of the most consistent crews at the sharp end of the LMP2 field.
Chadwick and her teammates had finished fourth in each of the opening three rounds at Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Imola, with Chadwick herself producing a particularly strong performance at Paul Ricard to help recover the car from the back of the LMP2 grid after a qualifying penalty. Their consistency was finally rewarded at Spa, where the #18 finished fourth on the road before post-race penalties promoted the crew to third in the LMP2 classification, giving Chadwick, Rinicella and Hörr their first podium of the season.
Silverstone represented an important home event for Chadwick, who had also produced a particularly strong performance when the ELMS returned to the British circuit the previous year. The weekend initially suggested that IDEC Sport would again be a contender, with Hörr placing the #18 Oreca fourth fastest in the opening practice session with a 1:45.139 before improving to 1:44.815 in FP2 on Saturday morning, although that time was only good enough for seventh in the session. The German driver was subsequently entrusted with qualifying duties, taking advantage of the rules allowing LMP2 Pro crews to nominate their qualifying driver.
Hörr's first representative lap in qualifying was deleted for track limits, but he quickly recovered with a 1:54.644 before finding considerably more time on his next run. His 1:43.649 moved the #18 up to fifth position in the LMP2 class, only around three tenths of a second away from provisional pole, and despite being unable to improve further in the closing stages, the result gave IDEC Sport a solid fifth-place starting position for the four-hour race.
Overnight rain left Silverstone extremely wet on Sunday morning, and although conditions had improved for the race start, the track remained damp and highly unpredictable. Chadwick took the wheel for the opening stint and made a clean launch from fifth, carefully negotiating the opening corner before encountering trouble through the Becketts complex. The tricky conditions resulted in a contact and a spin, dropping all the way to 11th in LMP2 and 22nd overall.
The incident, however, did little to discourage Chadwick, who immediately switched into recovery mode. She began attacking the cars ahead and rapidly worked her way through the LMP2 ProAm runners, passing Lentoudis, Schneider and Perrodo before clearing Felbermayr on lap two. Chadwick was immediately demonstrating a substantial pace advantage over the ProAm cars, recording a 1:48.3 and running around two seconds per lap quicker than the LMP2 ProAm contenders around her.
She continued her charge by passing Michael Jensen and then John Falb, with a 1:48.0 lap allowing her to catch Jens-Reno Moller and PJ Hyett. By lap seven she had completed another important move on the #7 Vector Sport Oreca to move into 15th overall, while her next target was Ryan Cullen's #10 Vector Sport car, the first of the LMP2 runners ahead.
Chadwick's progress required some patience as she encountered traffic and a group of LMP2 ProAm cars battling among themselves, but she picked her way through the fight without taking unnecessary risks. She overtook Roda's Duqueine on lap nine before passing Glorieux one lap later to move to 13th overall and 11th in class, then cleared Steven Thomas in the #14 TDS Racing Oreca.
That left only Kolovos's LMP2 ProAm car between Chadwick and the leading LMP2 runners, and on her first lap free of traffic she immediately produced a 1:47.8. She completed the pass on Kolovos on lap 15 to climb to 11th overall and began closing on Cullen, although Kolovos was able to reclaim the position temporarily when Chadwick became boxed in by traffic. The IDEC Sport driver responded immediately, demoting him again on lap 17.
With the first round of pit stops approaching, IDEC Sport opted to bring Chadwick in early on lap 20 in an attempt to gain track position through strategy. The decision allowed the team to undercut some of its rivals, with Chadwick rejoining 11th in class before immediately making another strong move on Jonas Ried's #9 Proton LMP2. She settled into a consistent 1:49 pace and, once the first sequence of stops had played out, was running 10th and only around six seconds behind Cullen.
Chadwick continued to close the gap and was back behind the Vector Sport car by lap 33. The pair encountered an LMP3 car while attempting to make progress, and Chadwick tried to take advantage of the situation, moving to the inside around the old pit-lane section. Cullen closed the door and squeezed her, forcing Chadwick to back out of the move, but she avoided contact and remained in 10th.
The battle continued for several laps, with Chadwick repeatedly looking for an opportunity while both cars also closed on Paul Lafargue in the second IDEC Sport Oreca. Eventually, contact between Cullen and an LMP3 car opened the door, allowing Chadwick to complete the pass and take ninth overall on lap 38. Rain was beginning to return by this point, adding another complication to an already difficult race.
Chadwick completed her second pit stop on lap 39 from ninth and handed the #18 over to Valerio Rinicella, having produced an impressive recovery from the opening-lap setback. Rinicella emerged in ninth and initially continued the fight forward, but the conditions were rapidly deteriorating. The Inter Europol Competition car of Nick Yelloly suffered a wheel problem and limped back to the pits, prompting the first Full Course Yellow of the race just as the rain intensified.
The situation quickly became even more difficult. Rain began pouring over Silverstone, while the #29 Forestier Racing car of Oliver Gray spun into the gravel and the #74 Ferrari was involved in an unrelated incident after spinning and being collected by the Iron Lynx Mercedes, resulting in a Virtual Safety Car period. Rinicella made another pit stop on lap 42 following a puncture, and fell to 17th overall.
Under caution, Rinicella moved to 12th in class before the race went behind the full Safety Car. As conditions continued to worsen, Rinicella found himself the first of the cars a lap down and was eighth in LMP2 when racing was finally set to resume with one hour and 51 minutes remaining.
The restart immediately demonstrated just how difficult the grip level had become. Rinicella was setting purple sectors and pushing hard to recover the lost lap, producing 2:04 laps in the extremely wet conditions before improving into the 2:03s. His pace was strong enough to unlap himself, although he still faced a gap of more than 50 seconds to the next car. As rivals made additional pit stops, Rinicella was promoted to seventh and continued closing on the pack ahead.
The rain, however, became increasingly intense, with cars struggling simply to remain on the circuit. Rinicella's remarkable recovery was ultimately interrupted on lap 69 when he got stuck into the gravel while on his in-lap, as he and Hörr had been preparing for the next driver change. The incident triggered another Full Course Yellow, and although marshals recovered the IDEC Sport Oreca and Rinicella was able to continue, the car had now fallen three laps behind the leaders.
When the FCY was removed with one hour and 14 minutes remaining, Rinicella finally brought the #18 into the pits and handed the car over to Hörr, who rejoined 10th in class and 22nd overall, three laps down. The conditions remained extremely challenging, with another FCY triggered with one hour and nine minutes remaining after the Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin went into the gravel at Stowe.
Hörr settled into a consistent 2:05 pace during his final stint, but the deficit created by the earlier incidents and the worsening weather left the German driver with little opportunity to recover further. With 15 minutes remaining, he made the team's final pit stop from 10th, rejoining in the same position, but was subsequently passed by Tom Dillmann's Inter Europol Competition car after the final sequence of stops.
The #18 IDEC Sport Oreca ultimately crossed the line 11th in LMP2, bringing an end to a frustrating home round for Chadwick and her teammates. After four consecutive fourth-place finishes followed by their podium at Spa, Silverstone became the first round of the season in which the crew finished outside the top four, while the absence of points was particularly costly given the strength of their championship campaign to that point.
Despite the setback, IDEC Sport remains fourth in the championship standings with 52 points heading into the final round of the season. The ELMS campaign will now conclude at Portimão on October 9-10.
