A lap of Estoril with Filipe Albuquerque

Filipe Albuquerque knows the twists and turns of Estoril like the back of his hand and he talks us around a lap of the 4.183km track.

“Heading into corner number one we arrive at around 280kph in the JOTA Sport Gibson-Nissan and brake at the 100m board. Its tricky braking because it is very bumpy, dropping from 6th down to 2nd gear and we hit the inside kerb. Then we are flat out and let it go until the outside kerb.

“Next up is corner two, which is a fast turn which you arrive at in 4th gear.  Just lift off, no brake, touching the inside kerb a little bit and letting the car go to the outside.

“For corner number three we come from 4th gear down to 2nd gear, braking hard.  It is very important to hit the apex because the corner is going away to the right and it is very tricky to put the gas on.  It’s off camber at the exit and there is a tendency to oversteer all the time.

“We head to corner 4 and you can do two lines here. Normally I prefer to go straight into the apex, open a little bit in the middle of the corner and prepare a good exit because we then head onto the second longest straight in Estoril and it is very important to have a good exit.

“Next is Parabolica, which is corner 5.  You brake hard again from 6th down to 3rd.  it is very important to keep it smooth and let the car roll because the corner is long and you don’t want to go really wide because you are onto the marbles.  It is once again very important to have a steady car, very stable on the rear, so you can get on the gas early and carry all the speed through the exit of this long Parabolica corner.

“You approach corner 6 in 5th gear, dropping down to 2nd, and depending on the gear you are using for 2nd, 3rd is possible.  On the entry you always have some understeer but never mind because at the exit there is a compression and the car will grip in at the front as you go to the outside kerb.  You want to stay to the outside because you need to open this corner a lot because the next one is very fast and this one you don’t want to be as open because you need to prepare for the Chicane.

“You go from 3rd to 2nd gear, you touch the inside kerb on the left, you go to the right – you don’t touch the inside kerb so much there – let it roll to the outside and make a nice and easy line because you have really low gears and the engine is very strong there. Once again it is very tricky to put the power down there, let it roll in the long corner.

“You go to the penultimate corner on the Estoril circuit.  It looks faster than it is.  You’re rolling in 3rd gear and carrying a lot of speed.  You touch the inside kerb, you can go up to the outside kerb as well but then you need to think about the last corner of Estoril, which is a very fast corner. 

“The last corner, which is known as the Parabolica Ayrton Senna, is very long, very aggressive on the Dunlop tyres, very aggressive on the driver’s neck and arms.  You keep it tight, you don’t want the car to roll to the outside because there is a lot of marbles from the tyres.  Its 4th and the 5th at the exit, the speed is almost 220kph and it is very important to carry the speed at the exit because then you have a long straight where you cross the start finish line to begin another lap.”

The 4 Hours of Estoril is fifth of five races on the 2015 European Le Mans Series calendar which included races at Silverstone (UK), Imola (Italy), Red Bull Ring (Austria) and the Circuit Paul Ricard (France).  Six of the eight titles will be decided at the final race in Portugal which takes places on Sunday 18 October.

For more information on the event CLICK HERE