[ELMS Race] ELMS 4 Hours of Portimao

[Akrapovic]

ELMS Portimao Resources

• Official Website
• Spotter Guide
• Entry List
• Timetable
• Live Timing
• Live ELMS Stream
• Live Le Mans Cup Stream

» The names Portimao and Algarve are interchangeable for this circuit. The circuits actual name is the Autodromo Internacional Algarve (AIA). Algarve is the southern most region of Portugal, whilst Portimao is a municipality.

» The last European Le Mans Series event at this circuit was in 2010. The series has changed drastically since then. The name was the Le Mans Series, and the class structure was LMP1, LMP2, FLM, GT1, GT2. We've since lost LMP1, FLM and GT1, gained LMP3, and renamed GT2 to GTE.

LMP2

» Panis Barthez start pole, with DragonSpeed lining up alongside. Championship leading #22 G-Drive Racing start third, and their rivals United Autosports starting 5th.

» The pole for Panis Barthez is not only their first of the year, it's the first of the year for a Ligier chassis.

» The LMP2 pole time was 1:33.575. The 2010 LMP2 pole time was a 1:33.489 by Strakka Racing, using an HPD ARX-01C. The LMP1 pole time was 1:30.7, by Nico Lapierre in an Oreca run Peugeot 908 HDI.

» G-Drive Racing lead the LMP2 championship, with a comfortable 18 point gap to the United Autosports Ligier. Rojas and Roussel are backed up by Hirikawa in the #22 G-Drive car. Should the #23 take home the title, Hirikawa will not be champion after missing Paul Ricard and Red Bull Ring.

» Algarve Pro caused a red flag after going off on the outside of the final corner. The bumps on the apex are causing problems for the Ligier teams. The session resumed with 7:09 remaining. Pizzitola was given a thank you from*Eduardo Freitas for depositing the gravel on the run off, rather than racing surface.

» Andrea Roda is sitting out the race due to injuries sustained in the accident at Spa. Although not serious, damage to Roda's foot will make the race too uncomfortable to participate in.

LMP3

» AT Racing took pole, but the real story was the championship contending #2 United Autorsports starting 14th in class. The #2 had it's only qualifying time removed for track limits.

» LMP3 qualifying was punctured by red flags. After the second red flag, only 3 cars had managed to set a time. With only 3:31 left on the clock, and a pack of cars waiting at the end of the pit lane to do a lap, most cars would only have time for a single flying lap.

» The championship leading #2 United Autosports Ligier was the biggest casualty in the red flag mess. The team managed a single qualifying lap, which was good enough for second on the grid, which was removed for track limits. Their rivals, M.Racing YMR, lineup 4th on the grid.

» #10 Oregon Team caused a red flag in qualifying after a spin ended with the Norma stuck in the turn 5 gravel. To make make matters worse, the driver ignored Eduardo Freitas instructions and drove the car back to the pits, spreading a nice layer of gravel around the circuit.

» #7 Duqueine Engineering cause second red flag. The Norma found itself in the same gravel trap as the #10 Oregan can before it. This time the car was placed on a flatbed, to stop a second gravel layer being added to the racing surface.

» #2 United Autosports car of Ralb and Rayhall leads the LMP2 championship. The pair have a 19 point gap over the M.Racing YMR car of Cougnaud, Jung and Ricci. The gap is 19 points, which is not insurmountable, especially after qualifying.

» The LMP3 pole time was a 1:40.6. The Formula Le Mans pole time in 2010 was a 1:39.2.

GTE

» Ferrari locked out the front row, with the #55 Spirit of Race taking the point for pole. Matt Griffin put in an incredible lap to snatch pole, closing the gap in the championship to 10 points

» #66 JMW Ferrari 488 lines up second after a superb lap by Will Stevens in the final moments of qualifying. The #66 sits just a single point behind the championship leading TF Sport Aston Martin.

» As predicted, Aston Martin struggled during qualifying. The championship leading #90 TF Sport Vantage was 1.5 seconds off of pole, and the Beechdean car was 1.6 seconds off.

» #90 TF Sport leads the championship by 1 point over the #66 JMW Ferrari. Further back, but still in contention, is the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 10 points behind, the the sister #51 Ferrari 17 points off.

» Immanuel Vinke substitutes for Ross Gunn in the #99 Beechdean Aston for Portimao. With Beechdean looking at expanded efforts for 2018, Vinke will be looking to put himself in contention for those seats.

» The GTE pole time was 1:42.657. In 2010, the GT2 pole time was 1:43.3, set by Gianmaria Bruni in an AF Corse Ferrari F430. The GT1 pole time was a 1:43.9 by a Saleen S7-R. A GT1 Corvette C6.R did manage a 1:42.0 in 2009, which puts the current GTE class almost on par with the old GT1 monsters.

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No thread yet, so here we are. Formatting might be a little off because it's designed for a different text editor, but hey.

[skycafe]

Great job!

[rich07]

Awesome OP Akrapovic!

Hoping to watch some of this before I inevitably fall asleep (it starts in the evening here in Aus)

[Akrapovic]

Cheers guys.

Rich, if it's not too late for you, the Le Mans Cup race is about to start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1ETkwe2jbY

[Akrapovic]

ELMS race started.

Crazy so far. LMP3 Championship might be an upset, United Autosports are throwing it away right now.

[silente]

G-Drive coasting before each braking point in this last part of the race

[Akrapovic]

Some would call this a race report. I like to think of it more like, I mashed the keyboard and this happened.

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Two in a row for the G-Drive brand

G-Drive by DragonSpeed Racing are the 2017 European Le Mans Series LMP2 Champions. The title is the second in a row for the G-Drive name, having won last year with a Jota run Gibson. Full time drivers, Memo Rojas and Leo Roussel also took the LMP2 Drivers Championship

G-Drive entered the weekend with a seemingly comfortable 18 point lead, but the race was complicated by penalties and full course yellows. The multiple investigations made the title battle more tense than it otherwise would have been. Title rivals United Autosports fell foul of one of the investigations and a 55 second stop and go for pit lane speeding dented their title hopes.

The race victory went to the #40 Graff Oreca 07, who played the full course yellow situations to their advantage to put themselves in a comfortable position for the last hour. Graff also overcame a fuel tank issue, which prevented them from using the full capacity of the tank, requiring an extra stop compared to the rest of the field.

SMP put in another strong performance, but it could have been more. An odd strategy call not to put with the rest of the field under FCY dropped the Russian squad back early. The #27 recovered to second, but pitted with over 45 minutes until the end of the race. The fuel saving run dropped Isaakyan back into the clutches of local hero Filipe Albuquerque. With 5 minutes remaining, Albuquerque made a daring pass into the final corner to move United Autosports up to second. SMP were third, and champions G-Drive followed home in fourth.

Cetilar Villobra Corse equalled their best result of 2017 with 5th, whilst pole sitters Panis Barthez Competition finished a disappointing 6th. Front row starters DragonSpeed came home 9th, 2 laps down, after amateur driver Henrick Hedman beached the Oreca in the gravel during an incident with the #28 IDEC Sport Ligier.

Whilst United Autosports will be disappointed with the runner up spot, it is their first year of LMP2 competition. Their position will only strengthen in 2018, with the Ligier granted a joker update by the ACO. With SMP are set to move to the World Endurance Championship, it looks like the 2018 LMP2 fight will be between United Autosports, Graff, and G-Drive Racing, if Roman Rusinov continues the branding in Europe.

United Autosports Dominates LMP3

United Autosports made up for the disappointment of missing out on the LMP2 title with a dominant display in the LMP3 class. The #3 car took its first victory of the year and was followed home by the #2 in a convincing one-two finish, clinching the LMP3 Teams and Drivers Championships.

The comfortable 18 point gap that the #2 car entered the weekend with was almost lost completely. With qualifying being split by red flags, the #2 only managed 14th on the grid. To add insult to injury, the #2 spun the #12 Euro International car within the first 20 minutes. The #2 also made contact with #18 M.Racing YMR car, causing a spin. Fortunately, luck was on their side and the team avoided a penalty for contact on both occasions.

As problems begun to hamper the rest of the LMP3 field, the United Autosports pair made their way to the front. The #3 car crossed the line with the #2, a minute clear of the closest rival. M.Racing YMR rounded off the podium in third, securing second in the championship.

JMW Finish 2017 With a Championship

After a 2016 which could only be described as ‘character building’, JMW made amends in 2017 with Le Mans 24 Hours GTE-Am class victory, and the European Le Mans Series GTE-Am Championship.

TF Sport led the title race heading to Portimao, but the Aston Martin Vantage V8s struggled on the fast circuit. The Ferrari 488 looked much more at home, but retirements for the #51 and #55 Spirit of Race cars bumped the TF Sport Aston up the order. Unfortunately for Aston Martin, this wasn’t enough to overcome the Ferrari advantage. TF Sport finished one place behind JMW, giving the title to the #66 Ferrari.

The race victory went the way of the #77 Proton Competition Porsche, in what is expected to be the last outing of the previous generation Porsche GTE car. The #77 overcame an incident with the LMP3 Oregon Norma, which spun it out of the lead, and track limits warnings to come home around 10 seconds ahead of the JMW Ferrari.

After missing out on a 2016 Le Mans entry and the 2016 ELMS Championship, to claim both in 2017 is a significant achievement for the Jim McWhirter and JMW Racing.

[Adam43]

Excellent. Much better than the Autosport story I've just read

[TheMightyM]

And, of course, it just won’t be an ACO racing weekend without an exclusion. This time it was the winning car in the Le Mans Cup race that was disqualified. Per DSC here:

News has just reached DSC that the #3 DKR Engineering Norma M30 has been excluded from the final round of the 2017 Le Mans Cup season at Portimão, Jean Glorieux and Alexander Toril as a result, losing their win.

The Luxembourg-based team, in Stewards Decision #8, were found to be “not in compliance with respect to the fuel analysis” in the post-race technical checks.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Excellent. Much better than the Autosport story I've just read

Thank you very much.

Here's some more stuff to think about. Formatting may be off again, but you get the idea.

» The extremely bumped nature of the circuit had the Dallara P217 bouncing around in a fashion similar to Spa. The Dallara seems particularly prone to this 'porpoising' phenomena. Despite this, it wasn't a bad result for the Dallara runners. SMP finished third, and Cetilar Villobra Corse were fifth. The bouncing doesn't seem to affect the lap time much.

» Although not as bad as the Dallara, the Ligier JS P217 could also be seen bouncing over the bumps. The only car seemingly unaffected was the Oreca 07.

» The high speed corners of Portimao appeared to increase tyre wear. Dunlop brought a "Medium Plus" GTE tyre to the race, but the LMP2 class used the standard compounds. The Dallara suffered a significant degradation in lap times towards the end of the stint. The Dallara may be light on fuel useage, but it appears to be heavy on tyre wear.

LMP2 - Another G-Drive title, different team

» United Autosports had to overcome an 18 point deficit to G-Drive by DragonSpeed Racing. The gap was large, but not impossible. United Autosports had the outright pace to win, but it appears G-Drive did not. Fourth was enough to take the title, but it wasn't as comfortable as expected.

» United Autosports made their intentions clear right from the green flag. Hugo de Sadeleer went from 5th to 1st within the first 2 minutes and immediately set about building a lead. United's only chance to take the title was win, and they knew it.

» The chance of a United victory was ended by a 55 second stop and go for speeding in the pit lane. United were not the only team to receive penalties throughout the weekend.

» DragonSpeed continued with the experiment of starting Henrick Hedman, their amateur driver, in the car for the first stint. Unfortunately Hedman made contact with the #28 IDEC Sport car and became beached in the gravel. The car had lost two laps by the time it was recovered.

» Graff overcame issues with the fuel tank on their way to victory. The team were unable to use the last 20 litres of the tank, reducing the 75 litre capacity to 55 litres. This forced the team to run flat out to make up the time required for an extra stop. Good strategy and well timed FCY periods assisted this.

» During the first FCY period, the majority of the lead LMP2 cars pitted. The one major exception was the SMP Dallara which stayed out. SMP made a green flag stop 10 minutes later, costing a significant chunk of time. Did this decision cost them the race?

» Track limits played their part in the race. The #39 Graff Racing Oreca received a drive through, whilst the #49 High Class Racing Dallara racked up two. Others, including the #32 United Autosports car, received black and white warning flags.

» 2017 is the second ELMS LMP2 title in a row for the G-Drive brand, but not for the current team. The 2016 ELMS G-Drive entry was run by Jota Sport, and the 2017 entry by DragonSpeed. To make things a little more confusing, the 2017 WEC G-Drive entry is run by TDS Racing. Who knows what Roman Rusinov will do for 2018?

LMP3 - All about United

» Despite the bad qualifying, United Autosports dominated the LMP3 class. The #3 took its first victory of the year, and the #2 finished second, easily enough to secure the LMP3 championship. United claim their second LMP3 title in a row.

» No other LMP3 team appeared to be able to challenge the United Autosports pair. AT Racing had a turn leading, and M.Racing YMR were always near the front. But once United had cleared the majority of the field, they were untouchable at the head of the class.

» #10 Oregon had the roughest time in LMP3. Toni Forné spun the GTE leader, receiving a penalty for his troubles. A couple of offs then followed, before ending up stopped on circuit with 2 hours to go.

» Like the Dallara P217, the Norma M30 appeared most affected by the bumpy circuit. The car was visibly difficult to drive, suffering the most in corners that had a bumpy apex. It is the first time in a while that the Norma was unable to challenge the Ligier JSP3.

GTE - What a turn around

» Perhaps the biggest fairy tale of the year is the JMW team. In 2016, Jim McWhirter's team had his Le Mans entry and classic #66 number given to the Ford factory team. At ELMS finale, an almost certain title was cruelly snatched away by a rare Ferrari 458 gearbox failure. For 2017, JMW returned to Le Mans and took a class victory. They continued on to take the ELMS GTE title, securing two automatic entries to Le Mans 2018.

» Proton Competition recovered from an early race incident to a race victory. The #77 was tipped into a spin by the #10 Oregon LMP3 in the opening hour of the race. The #77 had no issue climbing back up the order, eventually taking a comfortable lead.

» Despite Dunlop bringing a harder set of tyres, Aston Martin were uncompetitive all weekend. It was suspected the new Dunlops would suit the Vantage, but they weren't able to make up the difference. Nicki Thiim put the lack of pace down to high speed corners and lack of top speed.

» Spirit of Race suffered an uncharacteristic double retirement at Portimao. The #51 suffered a puncture, caused in an incident with an LMP3 Ligier. The #55 stopped with smoke emanating from the right bank of cylinders. Both cars would eventually retire.

[silente]

very nice analysis!

The Dallara bouncing like crazy is most probably a setup issue, with the teams wanting to run with certain settings that make the car nearly uncontrollable on the bumps.

The idea behind these settings is to control body heave motions "better", helping the aero side a bit. But it is arguable that this really helps, as the car doesn't jump anymore on its suspensions, but on its tyres making the movements uncontrollable.

On some tracks, these extreme settings could help in heating the tyres up, but i guess they really didn't need it in Portimao...

[Ospi]

That bouncing is usually 1 of 2 things. Either running too little front bump rubber gaps or too low on the ride height which puts the car into a constant state of bursting and reforming underbody vortices. All setup.

Grats to the 40, that lineup could be successful in WEC.

[old man]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Excellent. Much better than the Autosport story I've just read

What Autosport story? I couldn't find it, print version?

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by old man

What Autosport story? I couldn't find it, print version?

https://www.autosport.com/other/news...at-the-algarve

Listed under "other" series.

[Akrapovic]

That's remarkable that it's not even listed under Sportscar, and it didn't come up when I searched for ELMS.

I personally am not a fan of that type of report. I don't like reading a blow by blow report of how the race panned out. I personally think a report should give you the big points and overall story. Other points that don't fit into the report can be brought up in a separate article later. That's just my preference, not saying it's right or wrong or if it's even any good. It's how I've done mine for this thread, and it seemed to go down well.

[silente]

Hi guys,

i published my ELMS - Portimao race analysis. Any feedback or remark is appreciated!


https://drracing.wordpress.com/2017/...race-analysis/