Bethonie WaringAurelien Panis takes the 2024 Andros eTrophy title in the final round of the season at Super Besse.
The Team Sainteloc Racing driver continued his consistent season with a second place finish in the finale, placing him comfortably ahead of Jean-Baptiste Dubourg in the championship standings.
Panis qualified second overall after topping the second qualifying session. His time of 2m05.620s put him P5 in the session, but he was still a second slower than the time set by Dorian Boccolacci in Q1.
Boccolacci was again faster in the Super Pole session, lapping 0.376s quicker than Panis who was third quickest in the session.
Theophile Nael seperated the duo, but P2 in the slower qualifying session meant he would only start third on the grid.
Nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb qualified fourth ahead of Jean-Baptiste Dubourg and Julien Febreau.
As Panis was 14 points ahead of Dubourg coming into the finale, the extra six point gap extension from qualifying meant Dubourg wouldn’t be able to overtake Panis in the race, even with a victory and fastest lap.
The race was a relatively simple affair for Panis. Boccolacci held the lead off the line and built a comfortable gap to Panis. The two were separated by a handful of seconds throughout the six lap race and Boccolacci was four seconds clear at the chequered flag.
Nael was closing in on Panis late on but was still more than a second behind the champion by the end of lap six.
Loeb, Febreau and Dubourg engaged in an intense battle for P4 throughout the race. A slow moment for Loeb late on brought Febreau onto his tail, but there was no where to make a move and no positions changed after the opening lap.
In the other Final, Olivier Pernaut led from start to finish. The celebrations seemed to start early when he span across the line to start the final lap, dislodging the bonnet of his DA Racing car. Despite the incident, Pernaut extended his lead to 10 seconds over Yann Ehrlacher, with Nathaneal Berthon a further four seconds back.
Image courtesy of Bruno Bade
