Portimao Friday Notebook

***Porsche’s factory LMDh director Urs Kuratle reckons it will be easier for the German manufacturer to get the most out of its LMDh cars at Portimao than at the 1000 Miles of Sebring. “I do think so, yes,” he said. “First of all, because of the track characteristics. Second reason, and the bigger influence, hopefully is the testing [at Spa] and all the analysis we did on the car. There is not much to say after Free Practice 1, but the driver comments give us hope.”

***The customer Porsche 963s for Hertz Team JOTA and JDC-Miller Motorsports are set to be shaken down and handed over to the teams at Weissach next week, according to Kuratle. Proton Competition’s handover is expected to occur slightly later, due to the German team’s more lenient race debut schedule.

***Daniil Kvyat tested an Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 at Sebring earlier this year. When asked if the ex-Formula 1 driver could make a GT3 race appearance in the future, Lamborghini’s head of motorsport Giorgio Sanna, who is at Portimao, said: “It is not the priority, but if there is a chance then why not?”

***Sanna also clarified that Lamborghini is open to having different driver lineups in the WEC and IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup next year. In the announcement of Kvyat’s signing, Lamborghini stated that Kvyat will help to develop the car “with which he will contest” both series. Sanna told Sportscar365: “In this moment, we are looking to have decided drivers for the WEC and dedicated drivers for IMSA.”

***With Ben Hanley’s substitution for Filipe Albuquerque aboard the No. 22 Oreca 07 Gibson, United Autosports is fielding WEC’s first all-British lineup since the 2021 round at Portimao. That event saw Alex Lynn share United’s No. 23 car with Paul di Resta and Wayne Boyd.

***Former GTE-Am race winner Dylan Pereira is at Portimao this weekend, driving a Porsche 991 GT3 Cup in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Iberica which is the only support series in action.

***During one of the support series practice sessions, a Porsche crashed at Turn 1 and cleared the barriers, ending up in a spectator seating area. In a statement provided to Sportscar365, the FIA said that it is “currently in the process of gathering information” and that “a review by the FIA Circuits Commission will follow.”

***The statement also confirmed that the grandstand where the car landed will be closed until further notice, as the FIA conducts analysis with circuit staff and event organizers. The driver, Alex Areia, later posted on social media that his car “ran out of brakes” at the end of the main straight, and that “luckily” no spectators were in the stand when he breached the barriers.

***Peugeot has unveiled a Lego Technic version of its LMH car. The 1:10 scale build-it-yourself model consists of more than 1,700 pieces and has an estimated build time of nine to 10 hours. Peugeot drivers attended the product’s launch and were presented with Lego portraits of themselves.

***Paul Dalla Lana has a busy schedule in the short gap of less than two weeks between Portimao and Spa. “I’ve got some business in London early next week and then Canada through Sunday and then off again to Singapore,” he said. “And then come back through Europe after that.”

***Porsche driver Michael Christensen expressed concern about the potential for tire blistering during Sunday’s race, something he previously encountered in GTE-Pro during the 8 Hours of Portimao two years ago. “We blistered a lot and there you drop like a stone,” he told Sportscar365. “We didn’t have that yet. We didn’t see that yet here. We will do everything we can not to produce the blisters but this can be a threat for us.”

***The Dane added it will likely not be possible for Porsche to simulate the trait in practice. “I feel like it’s a difficult situation because we really want to improve our setup and our baseline and performance. So it’s hard to just go out for a double stint on the tires because you can’t change any setup if you do that. I guess the answer is no.”

***United Autosports stand-in Giedo van der Garde says he’s not actively looking out for a permanent return to the WEC, having spent the last two seasons racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. “I’m sure if they call me up, I want to have a conversation with them and see what the opportunity is,” he said. “But on the other hand, it needs to be a good package, a good deal, good drivers, that you really can fight for it. And if not, I prefer to stay in IMSA.”

***Van der Garde is linking up with his WeatherTech Championship co-driver Josh Pierson. “I think the way he raced in Sebring, he was doing really, really good,” said the Dutchman. “So, it’s nice to be back with him. I think that was also a very clever choice from the team, but also from Josh and the people around him to have me in the car.”

***Floyd Vanwall Racing Team has gone through “structural changes” after Sebring, according to team owner Colin Kolles who described it as a ‘terrible weekend’ and said: “Obviously we were somehow restricted in testing and obviously the operational side did not work as it should work and there were too many human errors, which resulted in a worse result than possible.”

***Kolles hinted at an intensive testing schedule for the Vanwall Vandervell 680 Gibson before Le Mans: “We are planning to go testing obviously because now the car is in Europe and we will test as much as possible. I think that we have a very strong basis of the car and we have to work on setup and improve the performance. But to be able to improve the performance of the car, mistakes have to be minimized within the team. This is the biggest target or issue.”

***Ferrari’s Hypercar team has been awarded ISO 20121 certification, confirming its adherence to the international standard for sustainable event design and management.

***Goodyear was encouraged by the results of a recent test with several LMP2 teams at Spa-Francorchamps, where multiple Oreca 07 Gibsons ran without tire warmers at a circuit that has a tendency to experience cold conditions.

***The LMP2 tire supplier’s endurance racing program manager Mike McGregor told Sportscar365: “As long as the drivers are sensible and manage the tires in the right way, we see no level of risk. Depending on how drivers leave the pit and that initial out-lap onto the circuit is where we may see some of the gents managing in a different way to the others.”

***The 60-minute Free Practice 3 session takes place at 11:15 a.m. (6:15 a.m. ET) on Saturday. Class-by-class qualifying comes later in then day, starting with GTE-Am at 3:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. ET).

Davey Euwema contributed to this report