Vaxiviere: “We need a bit of everything” to hold on for LMP2 Pro/Am crown
AF Corse’s Matthieu Vaxiviere and François Perrodo, who share the #83 AF Corse ORECA 07 – Gibson with Antonio Fuoco, enter this weekend looking to win a record-extending third LMP2 Pro/Am Drivers’ Championship.
For the first time, however, the pair enter the finale at the top of the standings, with them heading a tight battle which features the top four crews covered by only six points. The close nature of this fight means that Vaxiviere’s approach is no different to his prior triumphs, with a focus on beating instead of necessarily defeating their rivals.
“We are the leader, but to be honest, we take it as we are in the fight with the others,” he said.
“I think there is realistically four cars to fight for the for the title. So we need a bit of luck, a bit of everything, and we’ll try to put everything together.”
The early running for AF Corse hasn’t been smooth sailing, with issues affecting them at the start of the weekend.
“It’s been a complicated start of the weekend for us at the moment because we have some issues with the engine and the car,” Vaxiviere admitted. “But when it starts like this, I think we finish on high, so I hope all the best for us.”
Traffic management set to be key at “narrow” Portimão
LMGT3 championship leader Julian Hanses is expecting a chaotic race, with the #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 pilot highlighting balancing safety and speed in traffic as one of the challenges of the 4 Hours of Portimão.
“I think it’s going to be a chaotic race in general,” the German said. “At Portimão, you get a few corners where it’s quite narrow, especially with traffic management so it’s going to get interesting.
“I think the most important thing for us is to drive predictably, so that the fastest cars know where we go, but at the same time you have to try to lose as little time as possible with the traffic. The traffic can work in your hands or against you in the end. Also with the blind corners, it’s quite difficult to manage, but let’s see what we all can do.”
Henrion aiming for ELMS step with Motorsport98
Gillian Henrion enters this weekend looking to defend the Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 Pro/Am titles he won 12 months ago with Eric De Doncker.
The pair currently lead the class by 14 points aboard their #98 Motorsport98 Ligier JS P325 – Toyota.
“I would like to say that we don’t think about the championship,” Henrion said.
“We still have it in mind, but we’ll try to do our best during the race and try to avoid all the accidents or the issues we can have on the race. If we need to finish fourth to win the championship, we’ll not take any risk and do it. But we’ll do the race as we normally do, and we will see where we end up.”
For Henrion, the title would be a fourth in five years on the European Le Mans Series support bill, adding to his 2022 Ligier European Series JS P4, 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 and 2025 Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 Pro/Am success.
The 23-year-old is hoping that a successful title defence would help offer Motorsport98 the chance to step up to the ELMS, where he is racing for DKR Engineering this weekend in a one-off outing. Of note, unlike as in LMP3 and GT3, winning the LMP3 Pro/Am title does not grant a team priority entry to the following year’s ELMS.
“Now I will try to to have this third title in the Le Mans Cup, and hopefully I can go to to ELMS with Motorsport98,” Henrion said. “It would be a super opportunity.”
VSF goes Gold
VSF Sports’ #41 Ligier JS2 R has competed in a gold livery in the Ligier European Series this weekend, in celebration of the team having already won the 2026 JS2 R Drivers’ and Teams’ championships.
Both VSF Sports entries have carried stickers in tribute of Dominique Peyrache for the second half of the 2026 campaign. Peyrache was the co-founder of VSF Group, the team’s parent company.
Therbo wins Race 1 as Ligier European Series title battles close up
M Racing’s August Therbo scored his first Ligier European Series victory of the season in Race 1 at Portimão, after post-race penalties of 56 and 49 seconds respectively for the #1 Team Virage and #6 ANS Motorsport Ligier JS P4s for a pit exit red light infringement.
Therbo’s #57 Ligier won by 10.257 seconds from the #20 Trajectus Motorsport and #44 ASM Motorsport efforts. The #6 JS P4 of title protagonists Ethan Pharamon and Mika Abrahams – who has his mentor Anthony Hamilton on-site this weekend – dropped to sixth, whilst their main rivals, the #14 Team Virage entry of Alex Gardner and Simon Schranz, ended up 11th having started from the back row of the JS P4 field.
This provisionally means that Pharamon/Abrahams enter this afternoon’s decider with a three-point advantage over Gardner/Schranz, with pole sitter Therbo currently 18 points in arrears in what is set to be a three-way fight for the JS P4 title.
JS2 R honours went to the #18 VSF Sports of Maxime Aparicio and Andrea Frizza, which has reduced its deficit to the #84 Trajectus Motorsport JS2 R in the JS2 R Pro/Am standings to only eight points.
Filomena Cautela to wave green flag
Portuguese TV presenter, and one-time Eurovision host, Filomena Cautela has been announced as the official starter of Saturday’s four-hour race.
Cautela is the sister of Rinaldi Racing driver Jose Cautela, who enters this weekend in contention for the European Le Mans Series LMP3 title.
TNT Sports to broadcast finale
The European Le Mans Series race will once again be broadcast on TNT Sports in the UK. Both qualifying and the race can also be viewed globally, with no georestrictions, on FIAWEC+.
Images courtesy of David Lord and Ligier European Series
