Portimão
A drama filled 4 Hours of Portimão provided a fitting end to the 2026 European Le Mans Series season, with the no22 United Autosports Oreca taking the chequered flag for the second time this year to secure the LMP2 title for the first time since 2020 and the drivers crown for Griffin Peebles, Grégoire Saucy and Ben Hanley.
Starting from pole position Peebles controlled the race from the front, with his teammates also leading the race. Hanley took the flag 12 seconds ahead of the no18 IDEC Sport and the no43 Inter Europol Competition Orecas. 2025 champion Esteban Masson finished 4th, which secured the second automatic invitation to the 2027 24 Hours of Le Mans for the Forestier Racing by Panis team.
In LMP2 Pro/Am the title looked to be going the way of TDS Racing, with Scott Huffaker leading the race in the final hour, with the no20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Malthe Jakobsen closing on the leader in during the final stages but the Dane did not have enough time to complete the job.
However, in a dramatic twist, Huffaker was penalised for track limits and given a drive through penalty on the final lap of the race. This was converted into a time penalty, which dropped the no14 car back to third behind the no47 CLX Motorsport Oreca.
The win for the Algarve Pro Racing Oreca was enough for Michael Jensen, Enzo Trulli and Malthe Jakobsen to claim the LMP2 Pro/Am title for themselves and the Portuguese team.
The no83 AF Corse was leading the championship going into the final race but a technical issue forced the car into the pits and the Italian team finished 11th in class.
The LMP3 title was won by the no17 CLX Motorsport Ligier for the second year in a row with a convincing victory from pole position for the Swiss team. 2025 ELMS LMP3 Champion Paul Lanchere claimed his second title in a row, with Alexander Jacoby adding the ELMS crown to the ALMS LMP3 title he took last February with Lanchere and CLX. Louis Iglesias had missed the first two races of the season and finished the season as Vice Champion.
The no17 Ligier finished a lap ahead of the rest of the class field led by the no5 Rinaldi Racing Ligier with the no4 DKR Engineering Ligier finishing third.
The pressure had been taken of the no17 crew earlier in the race when their only challengers for the title, the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine, went a lap down when they 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 LMGT3 title battle proved to be ‘edge-of-the-seat’ stuff, with the no75 Proton Competition Porsche of Tom Sargent leading the race by a big margin but needing the TF Sport Corvette to finish lower than second place for the German team to take the championship.
2025 LMGT3 Champion Charlie Eastwood was running in second place in the no33 Corvette but was having to defend his position from the determined challenge of the no54 High Class Racing Porsche of Benjamin Paque and the no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Mathys Jaubert. For lap after lap the three cars battled, with the no57 Ferrari getting past the Porsche, but Eastwood was holding on to his place using every trick in his extensive playbook.
As the final lap approached, Jaubert was given a 3 minute stop and go penalty for pitting under a Full Course Yellow and this took the pressure off Eastwood and the Irish driver crossed the line 21 seconds behind the no75 Porsche to claim the 2026 LMGT3 title for the second year in a row for himself and TF Sport, with his American teammates Blake McDonald and Alec Udell claiming their first ELMS crown. The no54 High Class Racing Porsche took the final podium position.
The championship leading no62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG had started from pole position but a mid race penalty for speeding in the pitlane dropped the Qatari flagged car out of contention for the race win and the title, eventually finishing in 8th place.
CLICK HERE for the final result from the 4 Hours of Portimão.
CLICK HERE for the championship positions after Round 6.
