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Gillian Henrion
French racing driver (born 2003) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Gillian Henrion (born 23 March 2003) is a French racing driver. He is the 2022 Ligier European Series champion in the JS P4 category, champion of the 2023 Le Mans Cup and winner of the Pro-Am class of the 2025 Le Mans Cup.[1][2]
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Early career
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Karting
Born in Nancy, Henrion started his karting career in 2014. His only title came in the French Karting Championship in the Cadet class in 2015 against future Formula Renault Eurocup champion Victor Martins.[3] Henrion moved into international karting in 2016, racing in the European and World Championships with his father's team. The Frenchman remained in karts until 2017, where he finished second in the WSK Champions Cup to Ilya Morozov in the OKJ-class.[4]
Lower formulae
In 2018 Henrion made his single-seater racing debut with an appearance in the final round of the French F4 Championship at Le Castellet. He finished all races in the top ten, however due to him being a guest driver Henrion didn't score any points.[5]
The next year the Frenchman continued racing in French F4.[6] Despite only winning one race at the Hungaroring, Henrion stayed very consistent throughout the campaign, finishing in the points in all races he contested. With four third-placed finishes the Frenchman finished fifth in the FFSA standings.[7] Due to Victor Bernier's classification as a rookie Henrion ended up fourth in the FIA Formula 4 standings, earning him five FIA Super Licence points.
Formula Regional European Championship
2020
In 2020 Henrion announced that he would drive for the family-run team Gillian Track Events GTE in the Formula Regional European Championship.[8] He scored points at every event and got one podium in the rookie championship. The most notable moment of his season came at the second race in Mugello, where, due to a strategy gamble, Henrion found himself in the lead by almost half a minute, and finished the race in fourth place, which ended up being his best result of the year.[9] Henrion finished tenth in the overall standings.[10]
2022
Henrion made a substitute appearance for G4 Racing in 2022, replacing the injured Axel Gnos at the Red Bull Ring.[11]
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Sportscar career
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2022: First endurance success
After a year-long hiatus from racing, Henrion announced that he would be driving for Team Virage in the 2022 Ligier European Series.[12] He would start out the campaign in brilliant fashion, as two pole positions were converted to two lights-to-flag victories at the season opener in Le Castellet.[13][14] This became the start of a dominant season for Henrion, as he would take both wins in Imola,[15] a pair of victories at Le Mans,[16] which came as part of the support races for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and another two wins at Monza.[17] Henrion failed to win Race 1 at Spa-Francorchamps, finishing second, before crowning himself as the champion prematurely by winning Sunday's race.[18][19] He ended the season in style, taking both victories in the final weekend at the Algarve International Circuit.[20]
2023: Le Mans Cup glory
In 2023, the Frenchman teamed up with Julien Gerbi, returning to Team Virage - this time in the Michelin Le Mans Cup. The season began positively, as Henrion and Gerbi managed to keep their cool during a chaotic opening race in Barcelona to take their first victory of the campaign.[21][22] Having experienced a disappointing Road to Le Mans weekend, the pairing bounced back at Le Castellet, winning with a 4.9-second gap to the runners-up.[23] Although the next round at MotorLand Aragón saw Henrion being overtaken by Matt Bell following the pit stop phase, the Frenchman managed to extend Team Virage's championship lead by ending up second and would keep the advantage going into the final round despite contact for Gerbi at the start of the race in Belgium.[24] At the season finale held in the Algarve, the team took one further point as a result of Gerbi's maiden pole position in qualifying, and although the Algerian would be hit into the gravel by Torsten Kratz whilst in the lead of a rain-intensive race, with Henrion being unable to make up the lap lost thanks to the car's recovery from the sand trap, a second place for title rivals CD Sport meant that Henrion and Gerbi had taken the championship with a margin of four points.[25]
2024: ELMS debut
Remaining with Virage for the third year running, Henrion was able to step up to the European Le Mans Series, once again partnering Gerbi and being joined by Bernardo Pinheiro.[26] At the season opener in Barcelona, Henrion and his teammates performed flawlessly to take victory.[27][28] After finishing seventh in Le Castellet, Henrion made a late pass on Matthieu Lahaye at Imola to secure second.[29] A closely-fought Spa race then yielded sixth place for the Virage squad.[30] Mugello turned out to be Henrion's standout performance of the campaign, as he narrowly beat Gaël Julien to victory by stretching his car's fuel for almost 80 minutes, thus saving himself to make a final pit stop.[31] Though this moved Team Virage into the championship lead going into Portimão, Henrion and his teammates only finished sixth, a result which dropped them to third in the standings.[32] In spite of that, Henrion was named the series's Rookie of the Year.[33] He also drove the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Manthey Pure Rxcing in the FIA World Endurance Championship rookie test in November, having been selected by the series's organisers.[34]
2025: Second Le Mans Cup title
Henrion contested a double campaign in 2025, driving alongside gentleman driver Eric De Doncker at Motorsport98 in the Pro-Am class of the Le Mans Cup, as well as partnering bronze-ranked Nick Adcock and Michael Jensen at RLR MSport in the ELMS.[35][36] Though the latter started with a promising runner-up finish at Barcelona, retirements from the next two races — one after Henrion collided with an LMGT3 car in Le Castellet, the other caused by a mechanical issue in Imola — quickly ended any title ambitions.[37][38][39] The team then finished second at Spa, 22 seconds behind winners Team Virage, despite having had to change the chassis during the weekend.[40][41] Henrion narrowly missed out on pole to Griffin Peebles at Silverstone, but a collision for Adcock caused by two LMP2 cars caused the car to fall back to ninth with heavy damage.[42] At Portimão, Henrion initially claimed pole position, before being disqualified for a non-compliant diffuser.[43] With Henrion being mandated to start the car by the sporting regulations after its laptimes had been deleted, the team was forced into an additional early pit stop which put them a lap down; Henrion charged up to fifth later on.[44] Henrion set the fastest lap of the race and finished eighth in the drivers' standings.[44][45]
The Le Mans Cup season began discretely, as Henrion and De Doncker finished 12th at Barcelona following a lap 1 puncture and broken rear mount which lost them multiple laps.[46] Henrion charged through to pass Paul Trojani for the lead at Le Castellet and crossed the line first in class, but was demoted to second post-race due to a Full-Course Yellow speeding penalty for De Doncker.[47][48] Henrion finished third in race 1 of Road to Le Mans, passing Terrence Woodward on the final lap, before taking fourth in race 2.[49] After the summer break, Henrion overcame a FCY penalty caused by himself to this time win at Spa.[50][51] Unfortunately for the team's title hopes, Silverstone only yielded an eighth place, as De Doncker had to be recovered from the gravel following a spin at Vale.[52] The title fight came to its conclusion in the Algarve: Henrion charged through to second in class during his stint, narrowly missing out on the on-track win and the eventual Pro-Am title by a point.[53] However, due to a post-race penalty for the winning Inter Europol entry, Motorsport98 were promoted to the race win which gave Henrion and De Doncker the necessary points to snatch the title away from Rinaldi Racing.[54]
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Karting record
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Karting career summary
Complete CIK-FIA Karting European Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete Karting World Championship results
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Racing record
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Racing career summary
† As Henrion was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.
‡ Teams' standings
* Season still in progress.
Complete French F4 Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
† As Henrion was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.
Complete Formula Regional European Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
† As Henrion was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.
‡ Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Complete Ligier European Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete Le Mans Cup results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
* Season still in progress.
Complete European Le Mans Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
* Season still in progress.
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References
External links
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