4H Portimao Start Delayed After Support Race Red Flag

The start of the 4 Hours of Portimao has been pushed back by 30 minutes due to a red flag that caused the end of Sunday morning’s Michelin Le Mans Cup race to be delayed.

A heavy accident on the main straight for LMP3 driver Jerome de Sadeleer caused the 1-hour, 50-minute Le Mans Cup contest to be halted while barrier repairs took place.

The clock ran down until it was stopped with 32 minutes to go. Cars returned to the track at 10:50 a.m. which was the original checkered flag time.

The delayed conclusion to the race has moved the start of the four-hour ELMS enduro back from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. ET).

An ELMS spokesperson confirmed that de Sadeleer was conscious after the accident and taken to the hospital for further evaluation.

The Swiss driver’s MV2S Forestier Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan was running fourth as the field approached a safety car restart.

De Sadeleer lost control and spun hard into the right-side barrier on the straight as he tried to avoid the first two cars which had slowed coming out of the final corner.

“The start of the #4HPortimao [sic] has been delayed to 13:30 local time due to barrier repairs following a crash in today’s Le Mans Cup race,” read an ELMS statement.

The Michelin Le Mans Cup usually holds its races on the Saturday of ELMS weekends, however the final round of the season was moved to Sunday morning so that competitors remained on-site for the end-of-season awards ceremony after the four-hour race.