IDEC Sport clinched ELMS title with a victory at Algarve

IDEC Sport’s Paul Lafargue, Memo Rojas and Paul Loup Chatin are the new European Le Mans Series champions after they won the season-closing race at Algarve International Circuit.

The victory at the 4 Hours of Portimao is the second win of the season for the#28 IDEC Sport Oreca, enabling the French-Mexican trio to end G-Drive Racing’s three-year dominance in the ELMS LMP2 class.

IDEC Sport’s #28 Oreca-Gibson

G-Drive Racing’s #26 crew came to Portugal as the championship leaders but they finished in the sixth place and lost the first place in the standings. However, both IDEC Sport as champions and G-Drive Racing as vice-champions earned automatic invitations to the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Lafargue/Rojas/Chatin shared a podium at Portimao with United Autosports’ Phil Hanson/Filipe Albuquerque and Graff Racing’s Alexandre Cougnaud/Tristan Gommendy/Jonathan Hirschi.

In the LMP3 class, Eurointernational’s Jens Petersen and Mikkel Jensen became champions after finishing sixth in the #11 Ligier JS P3. Provisionaly, Inter Europol Competition’s Nigel Moore and Martin Hippe thought they were champions but post-race penalty for not respecting driving time demoted them. However, the LMP3 results remain provisional subject to the appeal by Inter Europol Competition against the stewards decision.

The LMP3 victory in Portugal went to 360 Racing’s Terrence Woodward, Ross Kaiser and James Dayson.

In the GTE class, Luzich Racing had already claimed the title at Spa last month but the Swiss team finished their season with one more victory. The drivers of the victorious #51 Ferrari 488 GTE were Fabien Lavergne, Nicklas Nielsen and Alessandro Pier Guidi. They shared a podium with Kessel Racing’s Sergio Pianezzola/Andrea Piccini/David Perel and Ebimotors’ Fabio Babini/Marco Frezza/Gianluca Giraudi.

The race was red-flagged at the end of the first lap when a multi-car accident at Turn 5 blocked the circuit. The race was suspended for 55 minutes while the track was cleared of the seven cars involved and made safe.