The European Le Mans Series made its debut at Motorland Aragon in Alcañiz, hosting the third round of the series and the fourth round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup & Ligier European Series during the last weekend of August. The scorching heat during the week pushed track temperatures close to 60 degrees.
The race weekend kicked off on Friday with the LMC qualifying session. Julien Gerbi / Gillian Henrion and Oscar Bittar / Alessandro Bracalente secured the fourth and fifth positions respectively. However, despite a promising start in the race, the 59 car of Bittar and Bracalente finished in 18th place. In contrast, their teammates in the 16 car managed to clinch another podium spot, finishing in second place.
Friday held more excitement as Bernardo Pinheiro achieved his first pole position in Q1 in the LES category. In the subsequent qualifying sessions, all three cars secured top two positions for the races scheduled for the following day.
The following day brought mixed results with two LES races remaining. The first race was disappointing as George King faced a fuel problem just meters from the finish line, preventing him from winning the race, and Mihnea Stefan finished in 6th place. However, Lance Fenton and Kevin Madsen secured a class podium finish, taking second place. The second LES race had a better outcome, with all our drivers reaching the podium and Mihnea Stefan scoring his 5th win of the season.
Regarding the main event, ELMS featured both qualifying and a night race on the same Saturday. Alexander Mattschull secured fifth place in the LMP2 Pro/Am category, while Manuel Espirito Santo set the third fastest laptime with his LMP3.
Despite the promising qualifying results, the race didn’t go as smoothly. Michael Jensen encountered a broken exhaust while running the LMP3, forcing the team to retire the car. Meanwhile, in LMP2 Pro/Am, the trio of Mattschull, Rodriguez and Calderon achieved their best result of the season, finishing sixth and briefly holding second place in the first hour of the race.
