United Autosports celebrated victory in the 4 Hours of Algarve, the first round of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) season finale, which was influenced by rain. They beat Algarve Pro Racing, the championship leader. Marino Sato, Oliver Jarvis, and Phil Hanson were on board.
It was 11 minutes from the end when Jarvis (United Autosports #22) made the decisive overtake on Alex Lynn (Algarve Pro Racing #25). The maneuver took place between turns six and seven, at a time when Lynn was also dealing with traffic from lapped cars.
Prior to that, Jarvis had already led with a margin of around 20 seconds, which he lost due to the neutralization caused by issues with the Ligier #13 from Inter Europol Competition. The LMP3 car caught fire in the last hour with Wyatt Brichacek on board, while Miguel Cristóvão is another driver.
After that incident, during pit stops for refueling, Jarvis dropped to fifth but gradually recovered. Before overtaking Lynn, he reached second place after a touch suffered by Neel Jani (Duqueine Team/Oreca #30). With the victory, the Oreca #22 from United Autosports moves up to second in the championship. The lead remains with the Oreca #25 from Algarve Pro Racing, in which Lynn is joined by James Allen and Kyffin Simpson. The trios are separated by 20 points before the 4 Hours of Portimão, which will close the season this Sunday.
In LMP2 Pro/Am, COOL Racing achieved their second consecutive victory. In a fight that lasted until the end, Malthe Jakobsen countered a touch in the final phase of the race to win the class. A penalty imposed on Mathias Beche (Nielsen Racing/Oreca #24) helped the Danish driver, who shared the Oreca #37 with Alexandre Coigny and Nicolas Lapierre. Beche was in the lead after overtaking Matthieu Vaxivière (AF Corse/Oreca #83), in a maneuver that resulted in contact and a respective penalty. Jakobsen also managed to overtake Vaxivière and, when Beche was penalized by ten seconds, he was close enough to inherit the lead.
The top two were separated by 1.333 seconds. Vaxivière, who shared the car with Ben Barnicoat and François Perrodo, finished second. The trio will enter the final round at the top of the championship in the class, just two points ahead of Coigny, Jakobsen, and Lapierre. Also in the fight is Racing Team Turkey with Charlie Eastwood, Louis Delétraz, and Salih Yoluç. The trio finished sixth in this race.
A COOL Racing became the LMP3 champion with Adrien Chila, Alejandro García, and Marcos Siebert. Fourth place was enough for the anticipated victory in a race they started with a 46-point advantage over the Inter Europol Competition’s Ligier #13. The Polish team’s retirement meant the title for COOL Racing, their second consecutive one. WTM by Rinaldi Racing was the winner with Leo Weiss, Oscar Tunjo, and Torsten Kratz. They beat Ultimate’s Ligier #35 by 20.263s, while DKR Engineering completed the podium with the Duqueine driven by Pedro Perino alongside Alexander Bukhantsov and James Winslow. The other Portuguese driver in LMP3, Manuel Espírito Santo, saw his car (Team Virage’s Ligier #8) start from pole position but was forced to retire after approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes.
As for LMGTE, there was a Proton Competition one-two and a podium dominated by Porsches. Christian Ried matched the record of 11 victories in the category, being accompanied by Julian Andlauer and Gianmarco Levorato in Porsche #77. Andlauer secured the win after an exciting battle with Alessio Picariello in Porsche #16 during the final hour. Ryan Hardwick and Zach Robichon were with Picariello. Iron Lynx completed the podium with Porsche #60. With Rui Águas on board, AF Corse’s Ferrari #51 finished sixth, with Kriton Lendoudis and Ulysse de Pauw as his teammates.
Results:
Results by class:
