Akkodis ASP Team delivers an extraordinary performance at Le Mans
After a season of promise gone wrong in the opening rounds, the Akkodis ASP Team finally let their Lexus RC F LMGT3 machines do the talking at La Sarthe. The Jérôme Policand-led squad arrived with blistering pace, and they didn't just participate—they dominated the narrative. With Jack Hawksworth setting the tone early in FP1 and both cars showing serious teeth by qualifying for the Hyperpole 2 top ten, it was clear this was a different beast entirely.
The race itself was a masterclass in relentless pressure. Hawksworth pushed the #78 machine to a stunning second-place finish, narrowing the gap to leader Jonny Edgar to 13 seconds in the final hour. It is a beautiful achievement for a team that only months ago was haunted by reliability issues. Meanwhile, the #87 entry, steered by José María López, Clemens Schmid, and Petru Umbrărescu, battled back from a Sunday morning drive-through penalty to finish a heartbreakingly close fourth, missing the podium by a mere 1.735 seconds.
To see Hadrien David and Hawksworth post the two fastest laps in the LMGT3 class—separated by just 74 thousandths-of-a-second—was enough to make any racing fan smile. They are pushing the oldest car in the paddock to its absolute limit and coming away with hardware. If this is what happens when the machines hold together, the rest of the field in the FIA World Endurance Championship should be very, very worried.
