The seventh and final race of the 2022 Michelin Le Mans Cup will see a 40 car grid boosted with new teams joining the series for the last event of the season, with the 110-minute race on Sunday 16 October.
With the LMP3 title already secured by the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier of Alexander Mattschull and Tom Dillmann in Belgium last month, the 32 LMP3 cars will be racing for the final victory of the season in Portugal.
While the 2022 champions are known, second place in the championship will be decided on Sunday morning with eight cars still having a mathematical chance of finishing the season as Championship runners-up.
The #76 Reiter Engineering Ligier of Freddie Hunt and Mads Siljehaug currently sits in second place on 48 points, 2 points ahead of the #29 MV2S Forestier Racing Ligier of Louis Rousset and Jérôme de Sadeleer.
Imola race winners Malthe Jakobsen and Maurice Smith are 4th on 41 points in the #69 Cool Racing Ligier, 2 points ahead of the #43 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier of Jacques Wolff and Josh Skelton and 4 points ahead of 2021 champions Tony Wells and Colin Noble in the #7 Nielsen Racing Ligier-Nissan.
The #11 WTM Racing Duqueine of Torsten Kratz and Leo Weiss is in 7th place on 31 points, 2 points ahead of Spa-Francorchamps race winners Luis Sanjuan and David Droux in the #40 Graff Racing Ligier.
The #23 United Autosports Ligier John Schauerman and Wayne Boyd is the final contender for the runner up position, the Anglo-American duo on 24 points after six races, 24 points behind Hunt and Siljehaug with 26 still to be won in Portimão.
The GT3 grid meanwhile will feature seven cars, with two new teams to the Series, Schnitzelalm Racing and Team Parker Racing, joining for the final race of the season.
The GT3 Team title, and the automatic invitation to the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans next year, has already been secured by GMB Motorsport but the drivers’ championship will be decided in Portugal between the three Honda NSXs after the Bullitt Racing Aston Martin title challenge was extinguished in Belgium
Kasper Jensen and Kristian Poulsen in the #55 GMB Motorsport Honda are currently leading with 93 points, 17 ahead of their teammates Gustav Birch and Jens Moller, who won last time out in the #44 Honda in Belgium last month.
With only five points scoring cars on the grid, Jensen and Poulsen just need to finish the race on Sunday morning to secure the MLMC GT3 Drivers title, even if Birch and Moller take the win from pole position.
The #88 Honda is only 1 point behind the #44 NSX, with Jan Magnussen taking part in his second MLMC race alongside fellow Dane Lars Pedersen. The #99 Bullitt Racing Aston Martin of Stephen Pattrick and Valentin Haase-Clot will be on the grid, with the Spanish team hoping for better luck than they had in Belgium last month to end the season on a high note.
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari will feature a revised, all-Japanese driver line up with Koizumi Hiroshi and Kei Cozzolino. The grid will also see two non-points scoring teams, the #8 Schnitzelalm Racing Mercedes AMG of American duo Gunnar Jeannette and PJ Hyett and the all British outfit Team Parker Racing, with Nick Jones and Scott Malvern in a Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Finally, the H24 Racing Hydrogen powered H24 car will make a welcome return to the series after competing in the two Road to Le Mans races in June. Stephane Richelmi will be taking the wheel of the H24 as the team continue the development programme of the hydrogen powered prototype.
The final round of the 2022 Michelin Le Mans Cup will take place on Sunday 16 October, with the race due to start at 09h00. As always coverage of Saturday’s qualifying and the Sunday race is live and free on the Series YouTube Channel with commentary from Jonny Palmer and DSC Editor Graham Goodwin.
