4H of Portimão – United Autosports wins, DKR Engineering and Iron Lynx title

The first hour of racing in Portimão was marked by a spectacular accident involving an LM P2 and an LM P3 half an hour after the start. As Memo Rojas entered the start-finish straight, the Mexican saw the left rear wheel of his Oreca 07 – Gibson number 30 (Duqueine Team) break away towards the outside of the track. The prototype sped across the road towards the pit wall, causing chaos among the pursuers. Andreas Laskaratos, at the wheel of the Ligier JS P320 – Nissan number 18 of 1 AIM Villorba Corse, violently hit the entrance to the pit lane while trying to avoid the car from the Luxembourg team. Both drivers escaped unscathed and the red flag was raised after around ten minutes under Safety Car.

In the standings, COOL Racing still occupied first position after Charles Milesi's pole the day before, ahead of Algarve Pro Racing (Bradley, Habsburg, Floersch) and Team WRT (Délétraz, Kubica, Ye). The final race of the 2021 seasonELMS resumed under Safety Car with 2h55 still to go. This second hour of racing marked the start of pit stops and driver changes. As in the previous round at Spa, the Swiss team lost the lead at that point, leaving the two United Autosports to lead the way ahead of G-Drive and Panis Racing. Number 22 (Hanson, Aberdein, Gamble) thus occupied first position ahead of number 32 (van Uitert, Jamin, Maldonado). One hour from the finish in Portimão, the suspense remained total for the final second place in the championship. The Aurus 01 – Gibson of G-Drive Racing was thus installed at the head of the race with Franco Colapinto at the wheel. The Oreca 07 – Gibson number 22 from United Autosports was in second place while that of Panis Racing (Canal, Stevens, Allen) was in fifth place. 

The Russian team, however, made a fifth stop in the last hour of the race. This returned Nyck de Vries in fifth place, leaving United Autosports to take control of the race which Tom Gamble retained until the checkered flag. WRT and Algarve Pro Racing completed the podium. Richard Dean's men leave Portimão with the second invitation ticket for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022 in their suitcase.

DKR Engineering titled in LM P3, Iron Lynx in LMGTE

Deprived of pole position for the first time since the inaugural event of the year, DKR Engineering (Hörr, de Barbuat) rose to first place in LM P3 under the leadership of the French driver from the first moments of the race, ahead of United Autosports number 2 (Boyd, Wheldon, Cauhaupe) and Inter Europol Competition number 13 (Hippe, de Wilde, Eteki). If an intense fight took place against the Ligier JS P320 – Nissan of the English team during the second hour of the race, it gave way during the third hour, letting the Franco-German duo race towards victory and the title in this LM P3 category. Third in the race for a long time, the number 13 of Inter Europol Competition (Hippe, de Wilde, Eteki) finally finished in second place.

While victory seemed to have been won by DKR Engineering, the Luxembourg team and its Duqueine D08 #4 was ultimately relegated to 4th position, after receiving a penalty of one minute and five seconds for faulty left rear lighting. Despite this change of position, DKR Engineering retains its ticket for the 24 2022 hours of Le Mans and also its LMP3 title this season. Behind the victorious team (Inter Europol Compétition #13), it was the #2 United Autosports car and the #9 Graff which completed the podium in Portimão.

Starting in first position in LM GTE, theAston Martin Vantage AMR number 95 of TF Sport (Hartshorne, Gunn, Hancock) quickly fell to last place. The spectacle mainly took place during the second hour of the race with the duel between Sarah Bovy (Iron Lynx number 83) and François Perrodo (AF Corse number 88), the two drivers giving up places and even following each other into the pit lane . After an hour of a fierce battle, it was the Belgian who got the better of the Frenchman to occupy second place. Finally third on the checkerboard, the Iron Dames (Frey, Bovy, Gatting) won a second podium in a row here after Spa-Francorchamps. At the head of the race, the championship leaders (Cressoni, Mastronadri, Molina) were never really worried and won the championship title with their Ferrari 488 GTE EVO in Iron Lynx colors. 

Find the complete classification of the 4 Hours of Portimão HERE