United Autosports dominate 4 Hours of Portimão to seal ELMS title, as LMP2 Pro/Am and LMGT3 titles go down to the wire
The No.22 United Autosports crew of Griffin Peebles, Gregoire Saucy and Benjamin Hanley have won the 4 Hours of Portimão in dominant fashion, subsequently sealing the championship title in LMP2 and overall in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) finale.
In LMP2 Pro/Am the No.14 TDS Racing car of Steven Thomas, Sami Meguetounif and Scott Huffaker II won the race on the road, but a last lap track limits penalty dropped them off the top spot. That handed both the race win and championship title to Enzo Trulli, Malthe Jakobsen and Michael Jensen in the No.20 APR car.
In LMP3, after some ebbing and flowing with other cars in the class, the No.17 CLX crew of Paul Lanchere, Alexander Jacoby and Louis Iglesias took victory and the LMP3 title. Iglesias joined the crew in Imola, so does not win the drivers title alongside Jacoby and Lanchere.
In LMGT3 the No.75 Proton Porsche of Matthew Kurzejewski, Richard Lietz and Thomas Sargeant won the race, but Charlie Eastwood put in a defensive final stint to seal the title for himself, Alec Udell and Blake MacDonald in the No.33 TF Sport Corvette.
As it happened
Hour 1
Griffin Peebles in the No.22 United Autosports championship leading car took the field to green at 14:30 local time, getting a brilliant getaway, leading into turn 1.
From there the Australian racer pulled out a three second gap to the rest of the field after just one lap of racing. He continued to grow that gap as the laps ticked on, and the LMP2s reached LMGT3 traffic for the first time.
Louis Rousset in the No.29 Forestier Racing by Panis car set off from third, looking to chase down Peebles on track and for the title. He was able to work his way past Mathias Kaiser in the No.25 Algarve Pro Racing (APR) on the opening lap, but couldn't quite catch Peebles early on.
In LMP2 Pro/Am the No.3 DKR Engineering of Jean Glorieaux got away well, but couldn't keep Giorgio Roda in the No.30 Duqiene car behind him. The Italian took the lead, but was spun around a few laps later by the No.19 Rossa Racing by Virage car of John Falb.
Falb missed his braking point in traffic at turn 5, and found the inside corner of the Duqiene car, spinning Roda around. Falb subsequently took the lead of Pro/Am. Falb got a 10 second penalty for that incident, and a further 10 seconds for overtaking off the track.
Further behind, PJ Hyett was having some trouble in the No.99 AO Racing car. He got a five second penalty for a start infringement, and then hit a spinning No.74 Kessel Ferrari, who was in turn spun by the No.63 Iron Lynx Mercedes.
Hyett came off the worst of the three, losing lots of time but also taking some heavy bodywork damage in the right hand side of the car. He came into the pits, and didn't come back out as the damage was terminal. That was AO Racing's first ever DNF in the ELMS.
In the GT class, it was the pole-sitting No.62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx that led away from the start, leading away an LMGT3 grid that contained one less car. The No.55 Ferrari didn't take to the grid after a driveshaft issue on the laps to the grid. The team got it fixed though and they started from the pit lane, however, their punishment was a 60 second penalty at their first green flag stop.
Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi in the leading Mercedes wasn't alone, with Matthew Kurzejewski in the No.75 Proton Porsche keeping him honest. The Porsche went for a move up the inside of turn one and took the lead.
The No.62 re-took the lead during subsequent Virtual Safety Car (VSC) pit stops, but on the restart the Porsche took advantage of an LMP2 up the inside of the Mercedes, and took the lead once again. Al-Khelaifi got the lead back though, and began to open up a gap that grew to almost five seconds at the end of the first hour.
The aforementioned VSC was caused by an incident between the No.88 Proton Competition LMP2 Pro/Am and the No.63 Iron Lynx Mercedes. The Proton car went up the inside of the GT at turn 11, making contact and sending Ameerh Naran off into the gravel, ending their race.
The VSC was most important for those in the LMP3 class, who had to make two 'long pit stops' during the course of the four hours. The No.13 Inter Europol that led the way was the first to take one, followed by the rest of the field, including the pole sitting No.17 CLX Motorsport car which had fallen to fourth.
Also falling down the order were the No.4 DKR and No.8 Virage cars which both had spins off the road early on in the race.
Two cars attempted to do both long pit stops back to back, the No.85 R-ACE GP (in championship contention) and the No.11 EuroInternational car.
The No.85's first stop was a 1:49 second stop, but the mandatory time for a long stop is 1:50. On their second attempt the next lap, they made the time but missed the pit exit light. The light was red and the entire queue of cars passed them before they could leave, meaning they lost the lead lap.
The No.11 had no such issues though, getting both of their stops done and giving them an advantage over the rest of the LMP3s for the rest of the race, although they did sacrifice track position.
Hour 2
At the beginning of the second hour, the LMP2 Pro/Ams began to make their second pit stops. The one hour drive time for their bronze drivers had expired so they all took the opportunity to pit and re-emerge with new drivers.
The No.19 held the lead, with the 10 two second penalties hanging over them, but a 30 second lead which Rik Koen continued to grow over the next part of his stint.
Behind him Marlon Hernandez in the No.3 DKR Engineering car was fending off Lorenzo Fluxa in the No.7 Vector Sport car for second place. Those two were nose to tail, but Fluxa couldn't find a way past.
Before their next set of stops, Fluxa did get by, but despite the penalties for the No.19 dropping them to fifth, they couldn't take the lead. Sami Meguetounif in the No.14 TDS Racing car took over the lead, pulling out a seven and a half second gap by half distance.
With two hours and 45 minutes remaining, the entire LMP2 field came in for their second set of stops, and first set of driver changes. Peebles handed over to Gregoire Saucy who resumed the lead. Then came Jake Hughes in the No.25 APR car and the No.34 InterEuropol of Bijoy Garg who had worked his way up from the back of the field.
The No.18 IDEC Sport car was fourth, with the No.29 falling all the way to fifth. Oliver Gray took over in that car, and got to work getting back up the order. He soon got by the IDEC Car, and then Garg. When the next round of pit stops came towards the end of the hour, he was in second, 15 seconds behind Saucy in the lead.
The sister IDEC car, the No.28 had an issue too. The car ran over the kerb at turn 2, breaking the front-left suspension of the car. Paul-Loup Chatin didn't get the car back out of the pits.
In LMGT3, it was their turn to get the bronzes out of the car after 90 minutes of racing. The No.62 retained the lead, now with Julian Hanses in the lead, being chased down by Alec Udell in the No.33 TF Sport Corvette. The two championship rivals were nose to tail towards the halfway mark, chased by Richard Lietz in the No.75 Porsche.
In LMP3 the No.17 CLX car was leading, but the No.5 Rinaldi Racing entry got down the inside of turn 1 just before the classes next set of stops. Unfortunately for them though, CLX re-gained the lead in the pit lane.
Hour 3
In LMGT3 the battle at the front heated right up after a set of pit stops for the field. Lietz gave way to teammate Thomas Sargeant, who emerged in the lead after staying out two laps longer than the Mercedes and one lap more than the Corvette.
The trio reversed positions after the stops, with the Porsche leading from the Corvette and the Mercedes. Udell was putting big pressure on Sargeant at the beginning of the stint, but couldn't quite find a way by.
Behind that battling duo, it was disaster for the Mercedes. Hanses was caught speeding in the pit lane, and was given a 15 second stop-go penalty for the infringement.
During LMP2 pit stops, the No.22 of Saucy held the race lead, now ahead of Valerio Rincella in the No.18 IDEC Sport car. That gapped ebbed and flowed between 10 and 15 seconds, but Saucy was quick enough to hold off the Italian.
Their penultimate pit stops came soon after, with Saucy giving way to Benjamin Hanley. Laurants Horr was given the final stint duties in the No.18, while Esteban Masson was chosen to give chase to the duo.
In LMP2 Pro/Am, the championship leaders coming into the race struck trouble. Antonio Fuoco hit the exit kerb of the final corner, and the car lost all power. He eventually came to a stop on the outside of turn 3, but recycled the engine and was able to continue slowly around the track and back to the pits.
Just before the turn of the final hour, Alexander Jacoby in the No.17 CLX car managed to get his car back into the lead ahead of Oskar Kristensen - nephew of Mr. Le Mans, Tom Kristensen - in the No.31 Racing Spirit of Leman car.
Hour 4
The LMP3 battle made it's way into the pit lane at the top of the hour, with Louis Iglesias being plugged into the No.17 for the final stint. The youngster quickly got up to speed, setting the fastest laps of the race and pulling out a 15 second gap with 45 minutes to go.
Meanwhile both the LMP2 and LMGT3 classes were cycling through their final pit stops of the race.
In LMP2 Pro/Am, Scott Huffaker II led in the No.14 TDS Racing car but was on his final track limits warning, giving the No.7, No.20 and No.47 cars behind a sniff of a win and podium finish.
In LMP2 it was Hanley still leading in the No.22, as that car had done for the entire race. Behind, Horr was busy defending from Masson in second and third, the Frenchman in the No.29 looking to push on and take the win and title at the last minute.
Masson was slightly struggling though, he lost position to Tom Dillmann in the No.43 Inter Europol car, which went into third position ahead of the Forestier car.
Dillmann kept pushing, and caught Horr for second place in the final 10 minutes of the race, putting pressure on the German.
In LMGT3 it was split strategy from the No.33 Corvette, who installed pro driver Charlie Eastwood. The Irishman was trying to chase down Sargeant in the No.75 Porsche, who was 12 seconds ahead.
With 25 minutes remaining, race control called a Full Course Yellow (FCY) was called for debris at turn 1. It was a very brief yellow, marshalls working quickly to get the track clear once again.
All eyes were on LMGT3 in the final 20 minutes. Eastwood had the No.33 in second place, behind the No.75 Porsche of Sargeant. Behind the Irishman though, Benjamin Paque in the No.54 High Class Racing Porsche was putting massive pressure on him.
If the Belgian in the Porsche got by the Corvette, that would give the title to the No.75, but if Eastwood could hold on, he would seal the title for TF Sport.
Paque tried to go around the outside of turn 5, getting the inside for 7, and going through. But Eastwood got the switchback and took second place back in turn 8. As the two fought, that gave time to the No.57 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Mathys Jaubert who pulled right up to the back of the fight.
Jaubert gave Eastwood a bit of a helping hand, getting stuck in a battle with Paque and getting by the Belgian. But that gave the Corvette man a second or two of a gap ahead of the fight. Jaubert was also under investigation for pitting under the most recent FCY, entering a closed pit lane.
He got handed a 3 minute stop-go penalty for the incident, and Eastwood was able to hold second place on the track to seal the title for TF Sport and Corvette, despite the Porsche winning the race.
The track limit infringement came back to bite Huffaker in LMP2 Pro/Am, giving the win and the championship title to the No.20 APR of Enzo Trulli, Malthe Jakobsen and Michael Jensen.
In LMP3, Iglesias was able to seal the win and title for CLX, while Hanley done the same for United Autosports in the overall class.
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