Barcelona
2026 was a good year for Swiss team CLX Motorsport, not only did they retain their 2025 LMP3 crown but secured their fourth title, adding the 2025 and 2026 championships as CLX Motorsport to the 2022 and 2023 titles they won as COOL Racing.
Paul Lanchère also retained his ELMS LMP3 title, winning the 2026 title alongside Alexander Jacoby who he had won the 2025/26 Asian Le Mans Series title with back in February with CLX Motorsport.
Lanchère and Jacoby won three races in 2026 alongside Louis Iglesias, the ELMS Rookie of the Year joining the team in Imola to win the 4 Hours of Imola, the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and the 4 Hours of Portimão.
CLX Motorsport, Paul Lanchère and Alexander Jacoby ended the season on 110-points, 33-points ahead of Rinaldi Racing, with Louis Iglesias finishing as Vice Champion on 96-points.
The season started at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Brazil’s Bruno Ribeiro joining Paul Lanchère and Alexander Jacoby in the no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier. Ribeiro qualified the car in 7th place 1.9 seconds behind Hugo Schwarze, who claimed the first pole position of the season in the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine.
At the start the no4 DKR Engineering Ligier of Antti Rammo got onto the kerbs under braking for Turn 1, the Estonian’s car spinning across the track collecting the no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier, driven by Paul Lanchère, and the no68 M Racing Ligier, with all three cars in the gravel on the entrance to T1. This and a separate incident involving the LMP2 Pro/Am field, brought out the Red Flag to halt the race for 25-minutes.
The no17 Ligier was able to return to the pits for repairs but was 8 laps down and finished the race 8th in class. The LMP3 class was won by the no5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier of Jose Fernandes Cautela, Alvise Rodella and Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen, with the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine in second and the no13 Inter Europol Competition in third.
Round 2 of the 2026 European Le Mans Series was held at the Circuit Paul Ricard. The no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier was qualified by Alexander Jacoby, but 17-year-old driver finished the 15-minute session in 10th spot, 1.6 seconds behind pole sitter Romain Favre in the no4 DKR Engineering.
A good start saw Paul Lanchère move up the order in the no17 Ligier, with the CLX Motorsport crew eventually finishing the race in 5th place. The no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Alex Bukhantsov, Chun Ting Chou and Henry Cubides Olarte took the win in LMP3 after Wyatt Brichacek had to pit from the lead in the no4 DKR Engineering Ligier after the cockpit door wouldn’t shut. The American finished the race in third behind the no68 M Racing Ligier.
The third race of the season was held in July in Italy, with Louis Iglesias replacing Bruno Ribeiro in the no17 Ligier JS P325-Toyota for the rest of the season.
Iglesias got to work straight away, taking pole position, finishing 0.2 seconds ahead of the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine at the end of the 15-minute qualifying session.
In the race CLX Motorsport secured their first LMP3 victory since Portimao, with the reigning champions dominating the category. Louis Iglesias took the chequered flag over 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the field and was joined on the class podium by his new teammates Paul Lanchère and Alexander Jacoby. The no5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier and the no8 Team Virage Ligier completed the podium.
The second half of the season kicked off at the awesome Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Louis Iglesias once again took to the track for qualifying, with the French driver claiming third on the grid for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, 0.7 seconds behind pole sitter Pierre-Alexandre Provost in the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine.
In a dramatic race that saw six Safety Car periods in the first three and a half hours, the no5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier took the win, with Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen finishing 54 seconds ahead of the rest of the class field. However, a post-race penalty led to the car being disqualified due to non-compliance with the maximum capacity of the fuel tank. This promoted the no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier to first place, with the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine in second and the no11 Eurointernational Ligier completing the top three.
The win put the no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier to the top of the championship standings for the first time in 2026, with a 15-point lead over R-ace GP and 16-points ahead of Rinaldi Racing.
In the penultimate race of the season saw a return to the UK, with rain certainly playing a role in strategy as it had in 2025.
Louis Iglesias secured his second top spot of the year after a fantastic battle with the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine of Hugo Schwarze. Iglesias took the pole with a 1m53.144 lap, just 0.069s ahead of Schwarze’s 1m53.213 lap at the end of the qualifying session.
As predicted by the weather forecast, heavy rain fell at the halfway point that had all the teams reevaluating their strategy and providing a thrilling final part of the race.
The LMP3 class saw the debut ELMS victory for reigning MLMC Champions R-ace GP, with Fabien Michal, Pierre-Alexandre Provost and Hugo Schwarze finishing ahead of the championship leading no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier, closing the gap in the championship race to just 9-points ahead of the final race of the season in Portugal next month. The two cars were a lap ahead of the rest of the class field.
The final race of the 2026 season would see a head-to-head battle for the 2026 title between CLX Motorsport and R-ace GP. Rinaldi Racing were still in with a slim mathematical chance of taking the title but needed to take pole position to keep their title hopes alive. However, Louis Iglesias was going to dash those hopes.
Louis Iglesias took pole position for the 4 Hours of Portimão, the third pole of the season for the French driver. Iglesias posted the provisional pole time five times, finishing the 15-minute session with a 1m38.835, 0.289s ahead of the no5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier of Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen. The no85 R-ace GP Duqueine would start in 4th place.
The race saw Paul Lanchère lead the class, with Fabien Michal in the no85 Duqueine giving chase. However, a misstep by R-ace GP during a Virtual Safety Car cost them dearly. The team tried to take two long pitstops under the Virtual Safety Car, only to have a pit exit red light spoil their plans and their championship aspirations. The team went a lap down to their championship rivals and they never recovered, eventually finishing 10th and last in class.
This took the pressure off the CLX crew, but they pulled out a convincing lead and Louis Iglesias too the chequered flag a lap ahead of the no5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier in second place. The German team moved ahead of R-ace GP in the championship standings to take second place at the end of the season.
CLICK HERE to see the 2026 European Le Mans Series LMP3 championship standings.
