LMS: ORECA at a canter in Portugal

ORECA took their first Le Mans Series victory of the season at Portimao thanks to a crushing display over an admittedly weakened field.

The Peugeot 908 HDI of Olivier Panis, Nicolas Lapierre and Stephane Sarrazin led all 215 laps of the 1000km day/night race on their way to victory by five laps over Nicolas Prost and Neel Jani’s Rebellion Racing Lola.

The Franco-Swiss pair were forced to make their way through from the tail of the field after Jani’s qualifying time was disallowed for a technical infringement, although it took less than two hours for the Swiss to claim second. 

Team mates Andrea Belicchi and Jean-Christophe Boullion could manage no better than 20th following a lengthy delay to repair a fractured fuel union, allowing the only other LMP1 entry – Signature Plus’ Lola-Aston Martin – to claim the final podium spot courtesy of Pierre Ragues, Vanina Ickx and Franck Mailleux.  

RML Lola-HPD trio Tommy Erdos, Mike Newton and Ben Collins took top spot in LMP2 after the category’s leading contenders hit trouble.

Strakka’s HPD ARX-01c suffered a suspected driveshaft failure whilst out in front, the ASM Ginetta-Zytek’s chassis was damaged thanks to Miguel Amaral spinning while the fastest of OAK Racing’s Pescarolo retired with differential failure.

That gifted the Team Bruchladdich Ginetta second in class and fifth overall, albeit eight laps down on the RML machine, with the Pegasus Courage claiming third.

Larbre Competition were the only GT1 team to show up, the battle of the Saleen team mates being won by Gardel/Goueslard/Rees. AF Course meanwhile also picked up a 1-2, Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni beating Giancarlo Fisichella, Jean Alesi and Toni Vilander to victory, with Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz’ Felbermayr Porsche third.

Jody Firth and Warren Hughes were the best of the Formula Le Mans runners on their way to sixth overall in the DAMS entry.

Tom Hornsby