Alpine Hypercar driver Charles Milesi ran fastest overall in Free Practice 2 for the ELMS runners at Portimão for Panis Racing with a 1:31.743.
That was an improvement of almost a second over yesterday’s overall FP1 best. IDEC Sport finished two-tenths back, 1:31.989 being Job Van Uitert’s best, with the #43 Inter Europol car third in LMP2, a 1:32.031 set by Tom Dillmann.
Best of the LMP2 Pro/Am times went to Nick Yelloly in the #24 Nielsen Racing ORECA, 1:32.673 placing the car 11th overall. Team Virage also fared better in this session, Tristan Vauthier’s 1:32.773 a tenth off in second. Richard Mille by TDS retained pace to end the session third, 1:32.871 posted by Gregoire Saucy.
At the tail end of the LMP2 times the #9 Iron Lynx Proton car spent much of the session in its garage, times a full second off the class best. A persistent issue resulted in a change of the front-right brake system.
RLR M Sport’s #15 entry went quickest in LMP3, Gael Julien doing the honours with a 1:39.334, the field not quite matching yesterday’s FP1 pace. 1:39.741 was good enough for second for Racing Spirit of Leman’s #31 Ligier, with the #17 Cool Racing entry third, 1:39.850.
In LMGT3, a 1:42.564 and a new Course Record was set by Valentin Hasse Clot in the #59 RSL Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 before it caused the red flags later on. “The car feels great,” the French Gold told DSC, “It’s all to play for out there, but we have everything in a good place and have worked hard. It would be great for us to be able to do something special this weekend to end our season on a high.”
Ben Tuck hauled the #66 JMW Ferrari up into contention, his 1:42.798 good enough for second best time. Similarly, Julian Andlauer gave the #60 Proton Competition Porsche some much needed presence, the factory driver posting a 1:43.025 for third in class. The #50 Formula Racing LMGT3 Ferrari ended the session under investigation for ignoring the pit exit red light as the session was halted.
The second and final 90-minute ELMS practice session was curtailed with four minutes to go, an incident involving Casper Stevenson’s Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin at Turns 10 and 11 bringing out the red flag in the #59 after it set the fastest lap in class. Stevenson told DSC there was no issue with the Aston Martin, he simply stopped on track in avoidance of another car.
Track Limits messages prevailed as times were pushed ahead this afternoon’s qualifying runs, the worst offender being the #47 Cool Racing ORECA LMP2 which received a Stop and Hold penalty.
Qualifying gets underway at the Autodromo Do Algarve at 14:45 local time today.
