The Race to GTE Glory in Estoril

2016 ELMS LMGTE Champions

This is a straight battle between two British teams – the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rob Smith, Rory Butcher and Andrea Bertolini and the no99 Beechdean sponsored Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Andrew Howard, Darren Turner and Alex MacDowall.

The advantage lies with the no66 Ferrari with four podiums, including three wins in Austria, France and Belgium, from the last four races of the 2016.  Bertolini, Butcher and Smith have become the driver crew to beat.

They were the first car over the line at Silverstone back in April but an incorrect bodywork part was fitted to the car that didn’t match the homologation papers and the 25 points and the winners trophies were given to the no99 Aston Martin as a consequence.  The British team put their hands up and admitted they had made a mistake.  But instead of allowing the situation to ruin their season, they put the issue behind them and with great British resolve just got on with the job of returning to the podium in Italy a month later.

In Austria the bright yellow Ferrari won by over a lap completing an all Ferrari podium, while at Paul Ricard the victory was a little hard to come by and they won by just 13 seconds from the 2015 champions Formula Racing.  In Belgium it was another dominant victory for the British Ferrari, with the JMW Motorsport F458 nearly a lap of the 7km Spa-Francorchamps circuit ahead when the Chequered Flag was shown.

This has given the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari a 20-point advantage over the no99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage with 26 points available on Sunday 23^rd October.  Rory Butcher, Rob Smith and Andrea Bertolini only need to finish 7^th in the LMGTE class in the 4 Hours of Estoril to be crowned 2016 European LMGTE Champions.

The Road to the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans

The top two LMGTE class finishers in the 2016 European Le Mans Series will receive an invitation to the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 17/18 June next year.

The no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari has already claimed one of those invitations because the British team cannot finish the season lower than second place.  So this leaves the identity of the second team to receive an automatic invitation to be decided at the 4 Hours of Estoril.

The no99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage is currently in second place with 73 points, just 12 points ahead of the no56 AT Racing Ferrari and 15 points ahead of the Imola race winners in the no77 Proton Competition Porsche.

With a maximum of 26 points still available the no88 Proton Competition Porsche and the no55 AF Corse, both on 49 points, have a mathematical chance of securing the vice champions position in Portugal, so there are five teams in with a chance of securing the automatic invitation to next years 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The 4 Hours of Estoril will be held on the 23^rd of October and will be the last round of the 2016 ELMS season.