The 2022 European Le Mans Series is down to the final two races, with the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (23-25 September) attracting a 41 strong entry.
With a maximum of 52 points still to be won in the final two races, the LMP2 and LMGTE titles could be decided in Belgium.
LMP2: 16 cars
After securing their third victory of the season in Barcelona, Louis Deletraz and Ferdinand Habsburg will be joined in the #9 Prema Racing Oreca-Gibson by American Juan Manuel Correa, who is replacing Lorenzo Colombo. Correa then joins for the first time this season after opting to concentrate on the FIA European Championship so far in his recovery season following serious leg injuries in the F2 accident at Spa that claimed the life of racer Anthoine Hubert in 2019.
Deletraz and Habsburg (85 points) have a 21-point advantage in the drivers’ championship over the #65 Panis Racing trio of Job Van Uitert, Julien Canal and Nico Jamin (64 points) and as long as they finish at least five points ahead of their French rivals they will secure the team and driver titles at Spa-Francorchamps.
The chasing trio of cars, #22 United Autosports (48 pts), #28 IDEC Sport (47pts), and #37 Cool Racing (44pts), also have a mathematical chance of challenging for the 2022 titles but will need to win in Belgium and hope the top two cars have a bad weekend.
Belgian team Mühlner Motorsport will be looking for their second podium finish of the season at their home race.
There is a change of driver in the #19 Algarve Pro Racing and in the #34 Racing Team Turkey.
Sophia Floersch will be replaced by Romanian driver Filip Ugran and Jack Aitken will not be in Belgium to race alongside Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood in the LMP2 Pro-Am championship leading car. Aitken’s replacement will be announced by the team in due course though the teams plans are understood to have changed in recent days!
The #30 Duqueine Team Oreca will again see a driver change too with Reshad de Gerus stepping away before the last round at Barcelona, replaced in Spain by locally based Anders Fjordbach. The team will announce their third driver for Spa shortly.
The race for the LMP2 Pro-Am titles is very close, with the top 3 cars split by just 15 points, with 52 points still available. Racing Team Turkey are on 80 points, ten ahead of the #24 Nielsen Racing Oreca, with the 4 Hours of Barcelona winners, #88 AF Corse, on 65 points.
LMP3: 13 cars
The battle for the LMP3 titles couldn’t be closer, with Monza and Barcelona winners Charles Crews, Guilherme Oliveira and Nico Pino in the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier closing the gap to just five points to the championship leading #17 Cool Racing Ligier of Malthe Jakobsen, Michael Benham and Maurice Smith.
The #5 RLR MSport Ligier of Alex Kapadia, Michael Jensen and Nick Adcock is just 12 points behind the leading Cool Racing Ligier and just 7 points in front of the 4th placed #6 360 Racing Ligier of Terrence Woodward and Ross Kaiser.
The #7 Nielsen Racing Ligier returns after missing Barcelona and there is a further driver change in the #11 Eurointernational Ligier as Spanish Silver-ranked racer Santiago Concepcion Serrano steps in.
LMGTE: 12 Cars
With a 28-point advantage over their nearest rivals Christian Ried, Lorenzo Ferrari and Gianmaria Bruni travel to Belgium knowing a good performance in the #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 will secure the 2022 ELMS LMGTE Driver and Team titles.
After taking the wins in Monza and Barcelona, Proton Competition is currently on 69 points, with the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of Duncan Cameron, David Perel and Matt Griffin on 41 points after securing their second podium of the season in Spain.
The battle for the second and third places in the championship standings, which both come with a coveted invitation to the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, is very tight.
The #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari (which sees Connrad Grunewald replace Takeshi Kimura for this round) is on 40 points, the #32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari on 38, the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari (which sees Matt Payne return after missing Barcelona) on 36 and the #95 Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin on 33, just 3 ahead of their teammates in the #69 Aston Martin.
The #33 Rinaldi Ferrari returns after missing Barcelona.
In fact, only 17 points splits the 2nd to 11th place cars, with a maximum of 52 points still to be won.
The 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps is Round 5 of the 2022 European Le Mans Series and will take place on Sunday 25 September.
