Endurance Weekly: 16th - 22nd October
- DIVEBOMB Endurance Team
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
This week on Endurance Weekly, the DIVEBOMB endurance team looks back at the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) finale at Portimão and recaps all of the news stories you may have missed during the week.
ELMS Review - Portimão
The champions of the 2025 European Le Mans Series were officially crowned at the Algarve International Circuit. VDS Panis Racing secured the LMP2 championship, AO by TF took the LMP2 Pro-Am title, and TF Sport claimed the LMGT3 crown.
Oliver Gray in the No.48 VDS Panis Racing car overtook the pole-sitter, No.9 Iron Lynx-Proton, at the opening stages with plenty of caution. VDS Panis never looked back and would go on to dominate the race and secure the long-awaited title.
No.18 IDEC Sport, VDS Panis' nearest championship rival, could only manage third in the race and, consequently, slipped to third in the final championship standings. They were leapfrogged by the No.43 Inter Europol Competition car, which secured second place in the championship.
In LMP2 Pro-Am, the No.99 'Spike the Dragon' AO by TF car secured the championship title with its second-place finish after the previous championship leader, the No.25 APR, suffered a critical issue midway through the race. This victory gave 'Spike' its second championship title in back-to-back weeks, following its success at IMSA's Petit Le Mans the week before.
LMP3 champions, the No.17 CLX Motorsport team, having already sealed the title at Silverstone, continued their fine run to finish the season with another win. The team won all races except the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, where a retirement prevented a perfect season.
No.82 TF Sport secured the title in LMGT3 after starting the race on pole. They fended off challenges from various LMGT3 rivals throughout the race. Driver Charlie Eastwood had to defend the lead from the No.23 United Autosports McLaren, which came close at the end.
Check out DIVEBOMB's full report here.
News Recap
Garage 59 take over McLaren LMGT3 WEC programme
United Autosports will step down from their LMGT3 responsibilities with McLaren after the final round of the WEC season this year in Bahrain. The team will return to the WEC in 2027 to field the new McLaren Hypercar entries.
Replacing United Autosports, Garage 59 will race two McLaren GT3 EVOs in the LMGT3 class next season. To accommodate their extra commitments, Garage 59 will move to a new 'state-of-the-art premises' in Northampton.
The driver line up is yet to be confirmed.
Antonio Felix da Costa to race for Alpine in 2026
Portuguese driver, António Félix da Costa, will make his Hypercar debut with the Alpine A424 next season in the WEC.
This will, however, not be his first appearance in the WEC, as he previously won the LMP2 Championship with JOTA. In his Championship season, his car finished on the podium in five of the six races, including a class victory at Le Mans 24 Hours.
Adding to his LMP2 success, the Portuguese won the Formula E Drivers Championship in the 2019-2020 season.
Alpine's new driver has already taken part in a test with the A424 at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit and will participate in the Bahrain Rookie Tests in November.
