The 4 Hours of Portimão once again forms the season finale for the European Le Mans Series on Sunday 24 October with fans once again welcome at the popular Portuguese track.
And while the LMP2 Team and Driver titles were wrapped up at Spa-Francorchamps last month by Orlen Team WRT, there are still six titles to be decided in Portugal, LMP2 Pro/Am, LMP3 and LMGTE for drivers and teams, and a number of automatic invitations to the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours too.
Portimao is set to welcome a 41 car entry, the series again proving hugely attractive and doling out real endurance racing entertainment.
LMP2:
14 cars will form the LMP2 grid with 5 entries in the Pro/Am category.
After winning their home race at Spa last month, Orlen Team WRT have an unassailable 36-point lead, with Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Yifei Ye also securing the 2021 drivers title in Belgium by the same margin.
The battle for the runner-up position, and the automatic invitation to the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans is a four-way battle between the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus (64 pts), and a trio of Orecas, the #65 Panis Racing (62.5), #22 United Autosports (61) and #30 Duqueine Team (52)
The #25 G-Drive Racing still leads the Pro/Am category after finishing second behind the #37 Cool Racing Oreca in Belgium, with 104 points to 80 points. Gustavo Menezes will join John Falb and Rui Andrade again to help them secure the inaugural Pro/Am titles, while Le Mans LMP2 winner Charles Milesi will make his second appearance in the #37 Oreca alongside Alexandre Coigny and Nico Lapierre.
The Ultimate squad return to Pro-AM after racing in the main LMP2 class last time out, the addition of Gianluca Giraraudi provides the necessary Bronze-ranked driver to do so with Francois Heriau still recovering from the broken collar bone he suffered just before Le Mans.
Also returning to the Pro-Am class is the #39 Graff Oreca, Vincent Capillaire joined again by Maxime and Arnold Robin after the squad missed Spa.
LMP3:
17 cars form the LMP3 grid for the 4 Hours of Portimão, with a new team, Sainteloc Junior Team, joining the ELMS for the final race of the season with Fabien Michal joined by Lucas Legeret in the #42 Ligier.
The title, and an invitation to Le Mans next year, will be decided between the #19 Cool Racing Ligier and the #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine.
Three wins in a row for reigning MLMC LMP3 champion Laurents Hörr, the last two with 17-year-old Mathieu De Barbuat, has put the German on 93 points, just 5 points behind leaders Matt Bell, Nicolas Maulini and Niklas Kruetten (98 points).
Four of the five pole positions have also been secured by Laurents Hörr, the other by the ¢3 United Autosports Ligier in the opening round at Barcelona.
It’s all-change at Eurointernational for the season finale, Audi Sport factory driver Mattia Drudi is joined by Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 racers Antoine Doquin and Finn Gehrsitz in what looks a very strong line-up.
Inter Europol too have a new name in the #13 Ligier, Adam Eteki stepping over from MLMC to bolster the full-season pairing of Martin Hippe and Ugo de Wilde. Bronze driver Patryk Krupinski joins the sister #14 squad after racing this season in GT Open.
There’s a change too at Team Virage, Charles Crews is replaced by Alex Fontana in the #20 Ligier.
LMGTE:
There will be 10 cars on the LMGTE grid for the 4 Hours of Portimão with seven Ferraris, two Porsche and one Aston Martin. An additional AF Corse Ferrari, numbered #63 for an all-French line-up of Come Ledogar, Pierre Ragues and Franck Dezoteux is added to the regular full season grid.
At JMW Motorsport Andrea Fontana steps out to be replaced by ex Asian LMS LMP2 and Super GT GT300 racer Shaun Thong.
The #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari trio of Miguel Molina, Rino Mastronardi and Matteo Cressoni are leading the championship race by 20 points after securing podium finishes, including two wins, in each of the five races.
The #88 AF Corse Ferrari of Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Emmanuel Collard are on 81 points in second position, with the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Matt Griffin, David Perel and Duncan Cameron on 77 points in third spot, though Griffin has missed a race and sits behind his team-mates in the drivers title race.
There are two automatic invitations to the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans on offer for the top two teams at the end of the 4 Hours of Portimão.
The 4 Hours of Portimão will take place between the 22/24 October 2021 and is Round 6 of the 2021 European Le Mans Series. It will be the second event of the season that will welcome fans to witness some great endurance racing action in person.
