ELMS entry changes
The LMP2 field has been reduced to 12 cars following the sudden withdrawal of the #37 CLX Pure Rxcing ORECA from the meeting after 2024 FIA WEC LMGT3 Champion Aliaksandr Malykin suffered an injury during the GT World Challenge Europe season finale last weekend in Barcelona.
Elsewhere, DKR Engineering’s LMP2 Pro/Am ORECA has made a late driver swap, with 2016 Le Mans winner Neel Jani confirmed to race alongside Georgios Kolovos and Laurents Horr. Jani will race in the seat previously filled by Thomas Laurent and Felipe Fraga.
The most up-to-date entry can be found HERE >>>
Big month ahead for Eastwood
Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood is in the running to win two LMGT3 titles with TF Sport over the next few weeks. His Corvettes sit third in both the ELMS and WEC championships, and his drive to do the double starts this weekend in Portugal.
Along with Hiroshi Koizumi and WEC teammate Rui Andrade, Eastwood is 14 points off the leading Ferrari in Europe. The Z06 LMGT3.R is new to racing at the Portimao circuit, but Eastwood is hopeful the #81 crew can fight for their second win of the season.
“It’s been a good start to the weekend,” he told DSC after FP1. “The car seems to be pretty good here. We seem to have the edge on Ferrari pace-wise at this stage, and that’s key because the championship leaders (in the #50 296) are running with 30 kilos of ballast after winning last time out.
“We just have to keep our heads down. This is a battle, and with so many cars in the mix for the title, it will come down to staying out of trouble, as it always does in the ELMS finale.
“The good news is that the Corvette is good here, on the slower twisty corners, and the longer ones, it suits our package and the characteristics of the car. There’s not a lot of tyre deg here, and usually that’s where we benefit late in races, but we can work with what we have.”
High Class, high expectations
Team THOR stalwart Audunn Gudmundsson is back in the paddock this weekend for a one-off appearance in the #49 High Class Racing Ligier JS P325 in the Michelin Le Mans Cup alongside 2024 ELMS LMP3 champion Gael Julien.
It’s the Icelandic racer’s first LMP3 start this year after a part-season programme in GT Open. Both drivers will look to repeat their success at the circuit from last year, when Gudmundsson won the Le Mans Cup race with Team Thor and Julien won the ELMS finale with RLR M Sport.
Elsewhere in the Le Mans Cup, there have been two withdrawals from the meeting: the #65 Motopark Mercedes (which also skipped Silverstone) and the #43 Inter Europol Ligier.
Blackthorn back
Aston Martin customer team Blackthorn is back in the Le Mans Cup for a one-off run. The team is fielding a single EVO-spec Vantage in the GT3 class ahead of its maiden Asian Le Mans Series campaign over the winter under the Écurie Écosse Blackthorn banner.
British duo Alex Martin and Charles Bateman will share driving duties for the team during the meeting.
Le Mans Cup title fights
In addition to Saturday’s ELMS title showdowns in LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, and LMGT3, the Le Mans Cup season finale sees two championship battles go down to the wire, too.
There are four cars still in the running for the inaugural Le Mans Cup LMP3 Pro/Am titles, with the top two cars both run by German team Rinaldi Racing.
Road To Le Mans winners Felipe Fernandez-Laser and Stefan Aust from Rinaldi head to Portugal on 75 points in the #71 Ligier, eight points ahead of their teammate Steve Parrow (the only full-season driver in Rinaldi’s #66 Ligier) in the driver standings.
The two Rinaldi Racing-run cars will face opposition from Spa-Francorchamps race winners Eric De Doncker and Gillian Henrion in the #98 Motorsport98 Ligier, who are on 63 points, 12 points behind the leaders.
The final car in the mix is the #84 ANS Motorsport Ligier, with French duo Julien Lemoine and Paul Trojani. The Le Castellet Round winners have amassed 55 points. A maximum of 26 points is up for grabs for pole and a win.
Meanwhile, in GT3, it’s also a four-way fight. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Cozzi and Eliseo Donno holds a 16-point lead. The duo haven’t yet won a race in 2025, and built a cushion off the back of podium finishes in five of the last six races.
The chasing pack is led by the #33 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Murat RuhiÇuhadaroğlu and David Fumanelli. The winners in Barcelona and Spa-Francorchamps are looking for their third win of the season to be in with a chance of denying AF Corse their second title in a row. Their Kessel Racing teammates Lorenzo Ferdinando Innocenti and Andrea Belicchi are three points behind them.
The final car with a slim chance of taking the title is the Code Racing Development Aston Martin Vantage, with Philipp Sager being joined by Valentin Hasse Clot for the second time this year. The French team are 26 points behind the #51 Ferrari and will need to secure the win from pole position, and a dash of good fortune, to be in with a chance of taking the title.
Tomlinson: DKR making “steady progress” with Ginetta P3
Freddie Tomlinson, fresh from a double podium in the GT2 European Series last weekend aboard Ginetta’s new GT2 car, is hopeful that he can carry that momentum over to this weekend’s Le Mans Cup finale.
With Wyatt Brichacek, Tomlinson believes that the team can achieve its best result of the season and finish in the points for a second time. It’s been a challenge, fighting as the sole full-season G61-LT-P3-Evo in a field packed with Ligiers and Duqueines, but he feels the team has made steady progress throughout the campaign.
“It’s been a tricky season, but that’s what we expected because Ligier and Duqueine have had so many cars in LMP3 for so many years,” he told DSC. “But we’ve chipped away and made improvements every weekend. It’s proven to be a reliable car; it just needs a bit more performance. DKR has been a great partner and has done well to improve the package.
“It’s been an exciting season for Ginetta to see it rejoin LMP3 and now start racing in GT2. It’s been a lot of fun.”
In the LMP3 marketplace, it’s an important weekend for Ginetta, and ADESS, for that matter. With 2026 plans coming together for teams in the ELMS and Le Mans Cup, finishing the year on a high note could go a long way in ensuring a presence in the paddock for both brands next season.
