Kessel Racing to defend lead at Portimão

The scene is set for the final round of the 2020 season of the European Le Mans Series this weekend, with David Perel and Michael Broniszewski currently topping the class in the Ferrari 488 GTE.

Leader. Niki Cadei will again join the Kessel Racing crew which will be defending a seven-point lead from the Porsche of Proton Competition trio Christian Ried, Michele Beretta and Alessio Picariello. Victory in the championship brings with it automatic entry for the next 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Swiss team has two wins, a second and a third-place so far against one victory, two seconds and a third-place for its rivals.

Spectacular track. Motor fans will return to the Portuguese track, which has hosted the final round of the series since 2014, after the Formula 1 Grand Prix held last weekend. However, the splendid Portimão circuit seems better suited to the technical characteristics of the Porsche than those of the Maranello cars, as confirmed by the Proton team's victories in 2017 and 2018. Nevertheless, the Ferrari of Luzich Racing with Alessandro Pier Guidi, Nicklas Nielsen and Fabien Lavergne triumphed in 2019. Indeed, the time of 1:42.733 set by the Italian driver on that occasion is still the track record for GTE class cars.

Crews. Six other Ferraris will be on track along with the Kessel Racing car. AF Corse will field the trio of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Alessio Rovera alongside Christoph Ulrich, Alexander West and Steffen Görig. Iron Lynx, for its part, will be represented by the crews used in the series so far, lining up Claudio Schiavoni, Sergio Pianezzola and Andrea Piccini in car no. 60 and the all-woman trio of Manuela Gostner, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey in no. 83. Duncan Cameron, Matthew Griffin and Aaron Scott will fly the flag for Spirit of Race, while Gunnar Jeannette, Rodrigo Sales and Finlay Hutchison will take the wheel of the 488 GTE of JMW Motorsport.

Programme. On Saturday, at 12:15 pm local time, the LMGTE class competitors will battle it out for pole position while on Sunday at 11 am, the decisive race for the titles at stake sets off.