Down to the Wire for European Titles in Estoril

Once again the 4 Hours of Estoril will provide the venue for a grandstand finish to an exciting season where six of the eight European Le Mans Series titles will be decided. With a maximum of 26 points still available to win on Sunday 18 October anything can happen on track in the LMP2, LMGTE and GTC classes and the new champions won’t be known until the chequered flag drops on the final race of 2015

LMP2

With just a slender 1-point advantage the crew of the no38 JOTA Sport Gibson Nissan, Filipe Albuquerque, Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell, will have to go all out in Portugal to secure the 2015 Team and Drivers titles. With four podiums, including one victory in Austria, and three pole positions from the first four races, the n°38 crew know what it takes to win and they know they must finish ahead of their nearest rivals, the no41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson-Nissan of Jon Lancaster, Bjorn Wirdheim and Gary Hirsch. However the Greaves crew have secured two victories so far in 2015, including last time out at the Circuit Paul Ricard, and they will be equally determined to secure the European crown.

The dark horse in this race for the 2015 title is the no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05, with its all French crew, who are just 10 points behind the leaders. Pierre Thiriet and Ludovic Badey know they can still triumph but they will need to add a second victory in Estoril to the one they took in Italy back in May and get pole position without a better result from Greaves Motorsport and JOTA Sport than 3rd. Their teammate Tristan Gommendy is replaced by LMP2 24 Hours of Le Mans Champion Nicolas Lapierre for the final race of 2015 and while Lapierre can’t take the drivers title, he will be doing his best to help his new teammates onto the top step of the podium.

LMGTE

In the LMGTE class there are six contenders for the 2015 class titles but with a 19-point advantage thanks to wins in the last two races in Austria and France, the no60 Formula Racing Ferrari 458 of Andrea Rizzoli, Mikkel Mac and Johnny Laursen is in pole position to take both the driver and team titles.

However nothing can be counted on until the final lap is completed and the no52 BMW Team MarcVDS BMW Z4 of Henry Hassid, Jesse Krohn and Andy Priaulx has been getting better and better as the season has progressed. The Belgian team, which just announced the end of it’s GT history, need to take their first win of 2015 in Portugal and the Formula Racing Ferrari to finish lower than 8th in class if they are to take the title so nothing less than the top step will do on Sunday. If the Marc VDS trio take the pole position and finish second, and the no60 crew fail to finish, the two teams will be tied on points but Rizzoli, Mac and Laursen would still be champions thanks to the two wins.

With the Formula Racing team on 73 points and the Team BMW MarcVDS on 54 points, and with a maximum of 26 points still available, there are four more teams that are mathematically still in the hunt for the 2015 title. These are the no55 AF Corse (51 points), the no88 Proton Competition (50 points), the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari (49 points) and the no56 AT Racing Ferrari (47 points).

While these teams know their chances are slim, it is not unheard of for a major upset to happen on the race track and they will all be chasing the glory on Sunday afternoon in Portugal.

GTC

While BMW are chasing Ferrari in the LMGTE class, it is Ferrari chasing BMW in GTC with the TDS Racing BMW Z4 of Franck Perera, Dino Lunardi and Eric Dermont 13 points ahead of the chasing pack. The French trio have taken two victories in 2015, at Silverstone and at Le Castellet, the same as their nearest rivals Stuart Hall and Francesco Castellacci in the no62 AF Corse Ferrari, who currently hold 69 points against the 83 accumulated by leaders. The TDS Racing crew need to finish in third place at the end of the 4 Hours of Estoril to be sure of lifting the 2015 ELMS titles .

LMP3

The LMP3 titles were decided at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet with Team LNT and Sir Chris Hoy and Charlie Robertson securing the first ever LMP3 driver and team class titles. With the championship decided it will be a race for glory in Portugal and with the debut of the new Ligier JS P3 to rival Ginetta, the 4 Hours of Portugal will set the scene for an even more exciting 2016 season.

The 4 Hours of Estoril will take place on Sunday 18 October in Portugal and is the final of five races held on some of the top circuits in Europe to decide who will be 2015 European Le Mans Series Champions.