The Michelin Le Mans Cup season finale at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve this weekend will feature a grid of 39 cars and a title showdown in the LMP3 class.
In terms of the title battle, of the 28 P3 cars on the grid, five remain in contention for the championship following the race at Mugello last month.
The race winners in Italy – Fabien Michal and Hadrien David in the #85 R-ace GP Duqueine – have moved into the points lead and sit 5.5 ahead of David Droux and Adrien Chila in the #97 COOL Racing Ligier. And barring any major drama, it will be these two crews fighting for the title during the race.
Beyond the duos from R-ace GP and COOL, who have stood out throughout the campaign, the Ligiers from Barcelona winner High Class Racing and Spa-Francorchamps winner Bretton Racing, as well as COOL Racing’s sister car, are also in with a chance.
However, they each need to win the race and hope their rivals fail to score in order to pull off the upset as they are all more than 20 points off the lead.
In the GT3 ranks, AF Corse’s championship victory with its American duo of Alessandro Balzan and Matt Kurzejewski last time out means the pressure is off. Their dominant romp through the year has seen them pull 35 points clear of the chasing pack with a race to spare after three wins and three second-place finishes.
The focus is therefore on the fight for second in the standings, which could also go AF Corse’s way if Custodio Toledo and Riccardo Agostini in the #88 Ferrari finish the season with a strong performance.
The field for the finale is 11 cars strong in GT3, with Aston Martin, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche all represented.
Here’s hoping that like Mugello, the final chapter of the 2024 campaign is another entertaining one.
All too often, this year’s Le Mans Cup races have been marred by incidents and penalties before, during and after races. If the current crop of teams and drivers deliver another clean, enjoyable race, it would serve as a real boost for the championship’s organisers and its loyal teams ahead of the shift to a three-class structure with the new turbo-powered Gen III LMP3 cars in 2025.
Round 6 of the 2024 Michelin Le Mans Cup will be in Portimão on Saturday, October 19th, after Qualifying on Friday, October 18th. Both can be streamed for free on the Le Mans Cup YouTube channel with English commentary.
Featured image courtesy of Le Mans Cup
