The opening session of the ELMS Grand Season Finale weekend in Portimao. The 3-hour practice took place in far from ideal weather conditions and on a damp track, with strong winds and a short shower during the session.
There was a red flag after just 10-minutes of running when the no51 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Aguas went off at T1. The Portuguese driver was OK, and the marshals worked hard to recover the car and repair the damage to the barriers after just 15-minutes.
The championship leading no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson topped the time sheets, with James Allen posting a 1m33.898, 0.125s ahead of the no21 United Autosports USA, with the 1m34.023 lap set by Nelson Piquet Jr being the best LMP2 Pro/Am time of the 180-minute session.
The no22 United Autosports USA Oreca was the third fastest car on track and second in LMP2 after Phil Hanson set a 1m34.075, just 52 hundredths behind his teammate. The no28 IDEC Sport and the no30 Duqueine Team were fourth and fifth fastest overall and third and fourth in LMP2, with the no81 Dragonspeed USA of Sebastian Montoya in sixth and second in LMP2 Pro/Am.Just over 0.5 seconds split the top nine cars overall.
The LMP3 category was headed by Championship contenders Inter Europol Competition, with the no13 Ligier of Wyatt Brichacek posting a 1m38.649 lap, nearly half a second ahead of the no12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine driven by Oscar Tunjo and a further three tenths ahead of the no15 RLR MSport Ligier.
The no95 TF Sport Aston Martin was the quickest of the 12 LMGTE contenders, despite a five-minute stop and go penalty for abuse of track limits. Jonny Adam set a lap time of 1m42.409, which was equalled exactly by the no60 Iron Lynx Porsche of Matteo Cressoni, with the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Matt Griffin third quickest, just 0.04s behind. In fact the top five cars were split by just 0.085s at the end of the 3 hour session.
The next ELMS session will take place tomorrow with qualifying for the 4 Hours of Algarve at 09h50 for LMGTE. The race will then take place at 14h45 tomorrow afternoon. After that a further 150-minute Free Practice session (FP2) will be held on Saturday morning. Qualifying for the 4 Hours of Portimão on Saturday afternoon, followed by the final race of the 2023 season on Sunday at 13h00.
CLICK HERE for the result from FP1.
