Albuquerque Snatches Pole For United, GRAFF Knocked Out Of Title Race

The grid is set for the final ELMS race of the season and it’s the Michelin-shod #22 United Autosports ORECA which will start from pole. Hometown hero Filipe Albuquerque was aboard for the session and set a 1:31.244 at the death to leapfrog Ben Hanley who looked a shoe-in for the top spot in the DragonSpeed ORECA.

Albuquerque’s performance, taking pole by 0.068, puts United in the driving seat for a second win in as many races to end the season with its pair of new ORECAs.

“It’s such a tricky track, with blind corners, the first lap was nothing special because I had traffic, my second lap was much better. It was so marginal but I’m super happy about pole position,” Albuquerque said after the session. “I’m thrilled.”

Behind Hanley, Will Stevens took third and put a Dunlop runner on the second row of the grid. The Briton’s 1:31.419 will boost the confidence of those in the Panis Barthez Competition camp, who are searching for their first win of the season.

Alex Brundle and the #32 United Autosports crew will line up fourth after a strong performance from the Briton.

As for the title contenders, it was a tough session. The quickest of the three cars in with a chance was the #31 IDEC Sport ORECA, which moved up to fifth at the very end thanks to a late charge from Paul Loup Chatin.

G-Drive Racing meanwhile, which leads the points standings, will start from eighth. The team sent Jean-Eric Vergne out with just four minutes remaining in the session, in order to preserve tyres, and he was unable to challenge for pole. His best time was a 1:32.505.

Crucially though, the third title contender, the GRAFF ORECA, is now mathematically out of the running. It will start from 11th after Alex Cougnaud had a spin on his final flying lap. The French team needed to take pole, win and hope for bad luck to strike their rivals to take the title.

Two LMP2 cars didn’t set times in the session, the #24 Panis Barthez and #34 Inter Europol Ligiers. The latter was involved in a collision with the #31 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA, Mathias Beche diving up the inside of Henning Enqvist, turning him round.

M Racing took pole in LMP3, Lucas Legeret setting a 1:39.179 in the opening flurry of times at the start of the session which was good enough to stand as the fastest time, scoring the team its third pole of the year.

“It’s amazing, we have a super fast car. I enjoyed taking pole again here at Portimao. We are hoping for the best, we haven’t snatched a podium this year, we hope to end the season with a podium,” Legeret said.

David Droux came close, an improved time of 1:39.460 late in the session put the Realteam Racing Norma second. Making it a Norma 1-2-3 was the Ultimate team, Matthieu Lahaye aboard for the session and setting a 1:39.496.

Best of the Ligiers was Eurointernational’s example, which ended up fourth in the times. The performance from Mikkel Jensen in the session gave the team a slight hand in the title race over its rivals in the #13 Inter Europol Ligier which could only manage ninth after Nigel Moore’s efforts. It’s set to be a real showdown in the class tomorrow, with neither Ligiers taking pole. The two contenders head into tomorrow’s race still equal on points.

The Nielsen Racing Norma of Tony Wells and Colin Noble ended up fifth. Noble’s best lap, a 1:39.955, was 0.776 off the best time in the class from Legeret.

In GTE, it was a tight session. Matteo Cairoli took pole for Dempsey Proton Racing, with a 1:41.121 early in the session. The lap proved untouchable, even after the field came in for fresh tyres before a final dash for times. It was an impressive performance considering the car is carrying 20kg of success ballast.

“That was a really good lap. I put everything together. I wasn’t able to improve with the second set of tyres but the car felt great, it suited me perfectly,” Cairoli said, after scoring his fourth pole of the year.

In the end Thomas Preining came closest – within two tenths – in the #88 Proton Porsche, making it a front-row-lockout for the German team. His best time was a 1:41.241 which was set right at the end of the session, moments after Andrea Piccini briefly moved up to second in the #60 Kessel Racing Ferrari.

But Piccini’s 1:41.253 wasn’t enough for a front-row spot, and instead the Kessel 488 GTE will start third ahead of the Ferrari of class champion Luzich Racing. The JMW Ferrari completed the top five.

Tomorrow’s ELMS season finale in Portimao is set to get underway at 12:30 local time.