COOL Racing’s #37 ORECA of Malthe Jakobsen, Lorenzo Fluxa and Ritomo Miyata claimed the overall victory in this afternoon’s action-packed 2024 European Le Mans Series season finale at Portimao.
The winning margin for Cool Racing’s crew was just 2.5 seconds over the Championship-winning #14 AO by TF which took second and less than a second over the #37 car which completed the podium after a thrilling final hour.
With second place, AO by TF and its driver Robert Kubica, Jonny Edgar and Louis Deletraz claimed the 2024 European Le Mans Series LMP2 Drivers’ and Teams’ title, and an automatic invitation to enter the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours.
The second invitation for Le Mans went to send place in class Inter Europol Competition, their #43 crew coming home fourth on the day but, controversially, were dealt, and served, a 10 second penalty that was later rescinded – they finished 4 seconds away from the race – and title – wins!!
Elsewhere in the other classes, Proton Competition won LMP2 Pro/Am with a pass on the very last lap on the #20 Algarve Pro racing car. Alex Quinn on an extreme fuel-saving run that fell just short of securing the race and Championship wins.
The Turn 5 last lap pass by Bent Viscaal who took 15 seconds our of the #20 in 3 laps also handed the title to the fourth placed #83 AF Corse car of Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Matthieu Vaxivière after their race-long tormentors Richard Mille by TDS Racing fell back in the wake of two late race penalties.
Cool Racing made it two wins on the day with the #17 Ligier of Manuel Espírito Santo and Miguel Cristavao taking a clear race win in LMP3.
Behind though there was a three way battle for the title which was taken in another last gasp charge by the #15 RLR Sport Ligier, Gael Julien racing back from a mid-race delay to catch and overhaul the #11 Eurointernational car of Adam Ali, he and Matthew Bell losing out to the young French/ Indonesian as the race entered its final minutes.
Michael Jensen and Nick Adcock completed the title winning crew in a stunning run to the title after the top three crews had entered the weekend just two points apart, the luckless Team Virage outfit dropping back and then nerfed out of contention in the final stages.
A ding dong battle in LMGT3 saw nine cars come into the weekend with a mathematical shot at the title.
The latter part of the race saw the Iron Dames Porsche head the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, but with the #57 Kessel Ferrari coming in the mathematics involved were changing all the time.
With the Porsche leading, a win for the #85 would see the Ferrari need a 6th place finish to take the title, Daniel Serra climbing aboard with he car in ninth. A late caution though saw the field bunched up ad Serra was making progress.
He was up to fifth in the final laps and that was enough to mean that even with a win the pink Porsche could not take the crown.
Into the final turn and the Porsche pulled off line to see Andrea Caldarelli power through to the lead, the race and Championship win.
He, Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Axcil Jeffries taking a first ever ACO rules title for Lamborghini, a first LMGT3 title in the ELMS and, we believe a first title too for a crew formed for drivers from three different continents!
The Automatic invitations then for the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours go to AO by TF, and to Inter Europol Competition for first and second in the LMP2 Championship, to AF Corse for the LMP2 Pro-Am win, to RLR Sport for LMP3 and to Iron Lynx via LM GT3!
(Much) More to follow…
