Vincent Noël Renaud Capillaire (born 4 February 1976) is a French racing driver set to compete in the European Endurance Prototype Cup for Graff Racing.
Career
Capillaire began his car racing career in 1997, racing in Formula Renault Campus France, before racing in the main series the following year.[1] After a decade on the sidelines, Capillaire returned to racing in 2008, competing in the first two rounds of Formula Asia 2.0 for Asia Racing Team.[2] Capillaire then made a one-off appearance in the Formula Le Mans Cup the following year, before joining Hope Polevision Racing to race in the FLM class of the 2010 Le Mans Series.[3] Taking part in the first three races, Capillaire scored a best result of second at Le Castellet.[4]
A season in the Racecar Euro Series with Le Duigou Racing then ensued,[5] before returning to racing in 2013 in the V de V Challenge Endurance Series, in which he finished runner-up in points driving for TFT Racing.[6][7] Returning to the series the following year, Capillaire took four wins and one other podium to secure the Proto title with a race to spare.[8] During 2014, Capillaire also raced for Sébastien Loeb Racing in all but one race of the European Le Mans Series,[9] as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.[10] In the former, Capillaire won at Estoril and finished on the podium at Imola to end the season fourth in the LMP2 standings.[11]
Capillaire driving for SignatechAlpine at Silverstone in 2015.
In 2015, Capillaire remained in LMP2 competition as he joined SignatechAlpine to race in the FIA World Endurance Championship.[12] In his only season in the series, Capillaire raced in the first six races of the year, taking a best result of second at Fuji,[13] before being replaced by Tom Dillmann for the final two races.[14] The following year, Capillaire returned to the European Le Mans Series with SO24! By Lombard Racing to continue racing in LMP2 competition.[15] After finishing on the podium at Silverstone and racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans,[16][17] the team filed for bankruptcy and withdrew from the rest of the ELMS season ahead of the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring.[18]
Capillaire's Lombard Racing Ligier JS P2 at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans.Capillaire secured his only Le Mans podium to date in 2018 for Graff-SO24.
Returning to TFT Racing for 2017, Capillaire mainly raced in the V de V Proto Endurance Challenge,[19] taking three podiums and finishing third in the CN A standings.[20] During 2017, Capillaire also raced at the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans for Algarve Pro Racing in LMP2.[21] In which he indirectly caused the retirement of the No.7 Toyota, after giving Kamui Kobayashi the thumbs-up signal at the pit lane exit and causing him to run a red light and ultimately burn his clutch.[22] The following year, Capillaire only raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Graff-SO24,[23] in which he finished second in LMP2.[24]
Capillaire then primarily competed in the Ultimate Cup Series Prototype Challenge for Wimmer Werk Motorsport in 2019,[25] winning four races en route to the LMP3 title at season's end.[26] During 2019, Capillaire also raced for Graff in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2, in which teammate Tristan Gommendy qualified on class pole but had his laps deleted after Capillaire failed to stop for a weight check at the scrutineering light during the final part of qualifying.[27] Continuing with the French team for the following two seasons, Capillaire raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2 in both years,[28][29] as well as racing in the European Le Mans Series in LMP3 in 2020 and LMP2 Pro-Am in 2021.[30][31] Following that, Capillaire competed in select rounds of the European Endurance Prototype Cup across the following three seasons, racing in LMP3 in the first two and then making a one-off appearance in NP02 in 2025.[32][33]
The following year, Capillaire returned to the series with Graff Racing.[34]
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