The Portimão track hosted round two of the FIA World Endurance Championship, which ended with a second place for the Ferrari 488 GTE of Richard Mille AF Corse, crewed by Wadoux-Rovera- Pérez Companc. The number 54 and 21 cars of AF Corse were fourth and fifth, respectively, at the chequered flag, while the Ferrari of Kessel Racing finished tenth.
Alessio Rovera, 488 GTE #83: “It was a maximum intensity 6 Hours for us. After Sebring, we knew not to make a single mistake, and the team was perfect. We found a good setup in practice and the work performed enabled us to manage tyre wear well in the race. We were able to attack. Obviously, you have some regrets when you come that close to victory. More than anything, it’s a shame that the safety car cut short our comeback in the last hour. We’ll try again at Spa, but the second step earned on a circuit as technical as the Portuguese one is worth valuable points. They are an injection of confidence.”
Davide Rigon, 488 GTE #54: “I expected better because the car was fantastic today and fun to drive. Starting from free practice, we allowed Thomas to drive more to gain confidence with the car. I also thank the entire team for their work, which was truly impressive. As we know, it’s difficult to overtake during the race, given the technical characteristics of Portimão, where we have less speed than Corvettes and Porsches. However, we can make a difference when cornering. A podium finish would have been fantastic.”
Lilou Wadoux, 488 GTE #83: “I am delighted with my second place in Portugal thanks to the tremendous work of the team and my teammates. After the tricky debut at Sebring, we gained our first crucial championship points. Of course, we would have preferred to climb the top step of the podium, also because we were in contention for victory until the very last stages of the race: we came close, and we’ll try again at Spa, where we’ll target our first win. We leave the Algarve knowing that we have a very competitive car, so we hope to continue improving and try to win a first race alongside Luis and Alessio.”
Diego Alessi, 488 GTE #21: “I am happy with how I drove today in the race, taking advantage of a perfect car. The team’s strategy was excellent, while personally, I think I performed well and was lucky on the first lap when I had to disentangle myself from the traffic. At that stage, I used the experience gained in sprint races. I managed the tyres better in the second stint when I was able to push until the session’s very last laps. When the competitors’ performances are so closely matched, traffic management also becomes crucial, considering that there are cars with very different characteristics on the track.”
Daniel Serra, 488 #57: “Unfortunately we had some problems in the beginning of the race, we lost a bit of time, and from that moment was more about just arriving until the end bringing the car to the chequered flag and see if we can score some points. Now we start to prepare Spa and let’s see if we can improve a little bit”.