4 Hours of Portimao LMP2 and LMP3 Races
Due to heavy rain, autograph session, pitlane walk were canceled and the race procedure of the 4 hours of Portimao was delayed by 1,5 hours.
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. After 1,5 hours delay initial start procedure was triggered still with rain poring. LMP2 grid.
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. LMP2 Por-Am, LMP3 and LMGTE grid at initial start procedure.
The race started with Safety Car (SC) during 3 laps but, considering the wet conditions, was red flagged during 45 minutes.
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. Red flag during 45 minutes where drivers had to stay in their car in a continuous line following qualifying ranking.
As the sky was clearing, the safety car got the field going for a couple of laps to release the cars on a wet track with three hours left.
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. #22 United Autosport USA Oreca.
Phil Hanson with United Autosports’ #22 Oreca overtook IDEC Sport’s pole-sitter Paul Lafargue into Turn 3 and demonstrated his talent on wet track by distanciating the pack with more than 30 sec. Together with Oliver Jarvis and Marino Sato they dominated the last race of the European Le Mans Series at Portimao by leading 86 of the 97 laps raced.
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca LMP2 Champion and invitation to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Alex Lynn, James Allen and Kyffin Simpson with #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca secured the LMP2 titles (drivers and team) after a cautious race which always saw them in the top 4. During the last stint, Lynn benefitted from a drive through penalty for Jani with Duqueine #30 to take P2 (5.785 seconds behind Jarvis) and resisted to van Uitert pressure with #65 Panis Oreca.
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. Panis Racing #65.
Podium for #65 Panis Racing with Van Uitert, Manuel Maldonado and Tijmen van der Helm.
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. #30 Duqueine Team.
#30 Duqueine Team Oreca was the major contender of #22 United’s Oreca after a strong drive by Rene Binder during the first stint in wet conditions. The team dropped to fourth after the first pit but Nico Pino got his Oreca back to second handing over to Neel Jani who made pressure on the leader until he tipped van Uitert into a spin and took a drive-through penalty ending 10th overall.
Win and title for AF Corse #83 in LMP2 Pro-Am
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. #83 AF Corse Oreca LMP2 Pro-Am Champion.
#83 AF Corse Oreca took fourth overall with Ben Barnicoat, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Francois Perrodo clinching the Pro-Am title by winning the class in the final round.
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. #37 COOL Racing Oreca.
Alexandre Coigny, Malthe Jakobsen and Nicolas Lapierre with #37 Cool Racing were only 0.6 seconds from the lead and could have clinched the championship, but Barnicoat held off Jakobsen’s pressure during the last stint.
LMP3 title for Cool Racing
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. Inter Europol Competition #13.
Matthew Richard Bell and Adam Ali in the #11 Eurointernational Ligier JS P320 Nissan won the LMP3 class.
📷 Luc Warnotte at 4 Hours of Portimao. #17 COOL Racing LMP3 Champion.
#17 COOL Racing driven by Adrien Chila, Alejandro Garcia and Marcos Siebert finished second. They had already secured the LMP3 title in Friday’s penultimate round of the campaign for the second year in a row.
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