Title Contender Masson Again Quickest in Portimao FP2

Reigning European Le Mans Series champion Esteban Masson continued to set the pace in final practice for this weekend’s 4 Hours of Portimao season finale.

The No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca 07 Gibson again ended the session on top of the timesheets, after Masson also topped FP1 on Thursday, with the Frenchman this time clocking a 1:31.913.

Again it was the points-leading No. 22 United Autosports machine in second place as the two cars in overall title contention again highlighted their superiority.

This time Gregoire Saucy finished up 0.046 seconds adrift of Masson, while Job van Uitert was third fastest in the No. 28 IDEC Sport machine on a 1:32.065.

Fourth fastest was the sister No. 18 IDEC Sport entry of Valerio Rinicella while the top-six was completed by Vladislav Lomko in the No. 10 Vector Sport Oreca and Bijoy Garg in the No. 34 Inter Europol machine.

Quickest of the Pro-Am crews was the No. 21 United Autosports entry with Marino Sato’s time good enough for tenth overall.

The other classes were also topped by the same cars as in FP1 with Louis Iglesias again quickest in LMP3 for the No. 17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 Toyota in which Alexander Jacoby and Paul Lanchere lead the class standings.

Iglesias’ 1:39.652 time was some half a second faster than that crew’s title rival, the No. 85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 Toyota of Pierre-Alexandre Provost, while Daniel Nogales was just a tenth slower in the No. 8 Team Virage Ligier in third.

Then it was Daniel Serra who again set the pace in the LMGT3 division aboard the No. 57 Kessel Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo with a 1:42.579.

He finished up exactly one-tenth quicker than Valentin Hasse-Clot in the No. 59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, while Lilou Wadoux was nearly three-tenths further back in third at the wheel of the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari.

While there were no major interruptions during the session, there were a flurry of stop-and-hold penalties issued for repeated track-limits abuses.

These included four sanctions for Sebastian Gravlund aboard the No. 35 Ultimate Ligier, while Louis Rousset in the pace-setting No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca picked up three.

Attention now turns to qualifying, which is due to begin at 3:15 p.m. WEST (10:15 a.m. EST) on Friday afternoon.

RESULTS: Free Practice 2