The qualification for the 4 Hours of Portimão, the final round of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) season, took place this Saturday, and IDEC Sport obtained the absolute pole position in the LMP2 category. The sessions for all classes took place on a wet track.
Paul Loup Chatin qualified in the IDEC Sport Oreca #28 and completed his best lap in 1m36.153s. He was one of two drivers to go below 1m36s, surpassing Oliver Jarvis (United Autosports/Oreca #22) by 0.573s. The Panis Racing Oreca #65 finished third, and the championship leader, Algarve Pro Racing, will start in fourth thanks to James Allen, who was 1.121s slower than Chatin in the Oreca #25.
Proton Competition and their Oreca #99 dominated the LMP2 Pro/Am qualification, with Giorgio Rueda beating Salih Yoluç (Racing Team Turkey/Oreca #34) by 0.137s. DKR Engineering finished third with the Oreca #3, while AF Corse and their Oreca #83, who lead the championship, will start in seventh in the category. François Perrodo completed the qualification in this car.
Moving on to LMP3, the pole position was taken by RLR M Sport. Gael Julien, driving the Ligier #15, beat the already crowned champion Marcos Siebert (COOL Racing/Ligier #17) by an impressive 0.446s. The Ligier #13 from Inter Europol Competition, in which Miguel Cristóvão is competing, was driven by Kai Askey and finished in sixth. Manuel Espírito Santo was unable to replicate his pole position from Thursday in the Team Virage Ligier #8, finishing only ninth.
In LMGTE, Proton Competition once again proved superior after their one-two finish in the 4 Hours of Algarve. This time, Ryan Hardwick secured the pole position for the championship-leading Porsche #16 by beating Takeshi Kimura in the Kessel Racing Ferrari #57 by 0.263s. The Proton Competition Porsche #77 will start in third. Also in the title fight is the Iron Lynx Porsche #60, but Claudio Schiavoni qualified in 12th and last place in the class. Immediately ahead of him was Rui Águas in the AF Corse Ferrari #51, whose teammate Kriton Lentoudis drove in the qualification.
Results:
