United Autosports Crew Dominates Finale to Take Title

United Autosports drivers Griffin Peebles, Gregoire Saucy and Ben Hanley dominated the 4 Hours of Portimao European Le Mans Series season finale to secure the title.

The No. 22 Oreca 07 Gibson led from pole and was never seriously threatened en route to taking a first ELMS championship for United Autosports since 2020.

Hanley ultimately crossed the line 12.089 seconds ahead of the No. 18 IDEC Sport Oreca of Jamie Chadwick, Valerio Rinicella and Laurents Hoerr.

The only car that could prevent the United Autosports crew from taking the title was the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis machine that reigning champions Oliver Gray and Esteban Masson shared with Louis Rousset.

But this trio could only finish fourth, although have also secured an automatic invitation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the team.

Peebles enjoyed a brilliant opening stint, building a lead of 4.7 seconds in the first three laps but his advantage was then eradicated not long after when the virtual safety car was deployed when Ameerh Naran’s Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was stranded in the Turn 12 gravel after being spun by the No. 88 Proton Oreca of Horst Felbemayr.

All of the field took advantage of this to make a first pit stop, but Peebles then continued where he left off upon the resumption as he extended a 2.3-second lead over Rousset after just one lap.

Saucy was therefore able to take over with a comfortable advantage inside the second hour as the crew’s title hopes were looking good and he continued to maintain a clear gap.

Hanley climbed aboard with an 8.6-second lead, and although Hoerr did briefly get the gap down to fewer than six seconds, Hanley then pulled clear again to secure a comfortable triumph.

Behind the top-two, the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Jakub Smiechowski, Nick Yelloly and Tom Dillmann finished third after the latter passed Masson with 15 minutes to go and then closed on Hoerr at the flag.

The top-six was completed by the No. 10 Vector Sport Oreca of Ryan Cullen, Vladislav Lomko and Pietro Fittipaldi, while Alex Lynn finished sixth on his return to competition aboard the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing car he shared with Matthias Kaiser and Jake Hughes.

There was late drama in the Pro-Am class, however, as the No. 14 TDS car of Scott Huffaker, Sami Meguetounif and Steven Thomas missed out on the title after Thomas was handed a drive-through penalty on the last lap for exceeding track limits.

The TDS crew took the checkered flag first, but the No. 20 APR machine of Michael Jensen, Enzo Trulli and Malthe Jakobsen inherited the win and the title.

The class was initially led by the No. 30 Duqueine Team Oreca of Giorgio Roda, until he was spun by John Falb aboard the No. 19 Rossa Racing by Virage machine at Turn 5.

Falb was later penalized for this and for an early overtake off the track, which seemingly put TDS into the box seat until its late woe.

It was a day to forget for the No. 83 AF Corse entry that arrived in the points lead when it suddenly slowed in the third hour and had to make an extra pit visit, dropping Francois Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Antonio Fuoco out of contention.

CLX, TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Claim Class Crowns

The No. 17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 Toyota of Louis Iglesias, Paul Lanchere and Alexander Jacoby won the LMP3 race to ensure the latter pair claimed the title in style.

It was a second consecutive crown for the squad with Iglesias extending a nine-second lead to a comfortable victory in the final stint.

The early stages of the race were led by the No. 13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Alexander Bukhantsov but the squad’s race then unravelled as it picked up a trio of drive-through penalties in quick succession, two for repeated track-limits abuses and one for an unsafe pit release.

This put the No. 17 CLX crew back in the lead, and although it fell behind the No. 31 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier during the middle phases of the race, Lanchere took the lead back with an hour to go to ensure he and Jacoby won the title with a victory.

The No. 31 machine fell down the order as it served one of its two mandatory longer stops in the final pit sequence, therefore meaning the podium was rounded out by the No. 5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier of Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen, Jose Cautela and Alvise Rodella and the No. 4 DKR Engineering Ligier of Antti Rammo, Romain Favre and Gillian Henrion.

It was a miserable race for the sole crew that could stop CLX taking the title: the No. 85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 Toyota.

The Duqueine ran fourth in the early stages but the team attempted to take its mandatory two long pit stops during the early VSC but ended up getting trapped in the pit lane on the second of these with the safety car deployed and this dropped it a lap down and out of contention, ultimately finishing tenth and last in class.

The TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Blake McDonald, Alec Udell and Charlie Eastwood claimed the LMGT3 title after finishing second behind the No. 75 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, but Eastwood endured a nervy conclusion to the race when under intense pressure from the No. 54 High Class Porsche and No. 57 Kessel Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

The challenge for the No. 62 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Abdulla Al-Khelaifi, Julian Hanses and Ralf Aron that arrived in Portimao in the points lead was dented by a 15-second stop-and-hold penalty for pit lane speeding.

The No. 75 Proton Competition Porsche of Matt Kurzejewski, Richard Lietz and Tom Sargent had enjoyed a lead battle for much of the race with the Mercedes-AMG and Corvette in what was a thrilling fight.

Kurzejewski jumped into the lead on the first lap but Al-Khelaifi then moved back ahead after the VSC.

It continued to look good for the Iron Lynx squad until the pit lane speeding penalty in the third hour and, as the Mercedes-AMG ultimately finished eighth, it reduced the lead battle and title fight to a two-horse race.

Udell was all over the back of Sargent for a time before the Porsche pulled clear and prevailed by 21 seconds, while runner-up spot was enough for Eastwood and TF to secure back-to-back titles by just two points.

But Eastwood had to resist Benjamin Paque in the High Class Porsche in the final half-hour as, had the 911 GT3 R Evo got ahead, it would have handed the No. 75 the glory.

The Kessel Ferrari finished third on the road after Mathys Jaubert passed Paque late on, but was penalized for pitting during a Full-Course Yellow, meaning Paque, Max Moritz and Klaus Bachler inherited third.

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Portimao