Thiriet by TDS also in the mood for victory

In effect the classification today didn't really reflect the points' order for the championship; with only a few hours remaining to the end of the season, it's easy to imagine there will be some surprises for tomorrow ... let's wait and see! 

While Murphy was ahead this morning with a lap of 1:33.381, the French Thiriet by TDS Racing team raised the bar at the close of today's session with an overall best time of 1:31.422. Tristan Gommendy, Ludovic Badey and Pierre Thiriet are definitely ready to show what the Ligier JS P2 can do on the Estoril circuit – the car being the only closed roof prototype currently entered in the ELMS. 

JOTA Sport was not to be outdone as the British team, which includes in its ranks local star Filipe Albuquerque, set the second best time of 1:31.455, only 0.033 seconds behind the Frenchmen from Montpelier.  Fired up to attain the European title for the team, Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell will do everything in their power to support Filipe in front of his Portuguese fans; they finished ahead of the No.48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA 03R Nissan. Fourth in the session went to the No.36 Alpine A450b of Signatech Alpine driven by the trio of Nelson Panciatici, Oliver Webb and Paul-Loup Chatin. Currently leading the LMP2 class in the standings, the blue car continued with its set up work for qualifying tomorrow.

Another title contender, the No.43 NewBlood by Morand Racing Morgan Judd set the 5th quickest time and less than a second separated the first five cars. Suffice to say that preparations for qualifying were taking their course, and that the teams fighting for the 2014 title may not have yet shown their hand. 

Race Performance claimed 6th place ahead of the No.24 Sébastien Loeb Racing ORECA 03 and the No.28 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11 SN Nissan. The second Greaves entry has changed colour for the final round of the season, and the No.41 claimed 10th in free practice this afternoon ahead of the No.29 Morgan Nissan of Pegasus Racing.

The action picks up again tomorrow at the Estoril circuit from 9h30 (10h30 CET) for the 20-minute qualifying session reserved for the LMGTE and GTC categories. The LMP2s will follow at 10h00 and at the end of that session the starting grid for the final race of the 2014 ELMS season will be known. The start of the 4 Hours of Estoril will be given at 13h30 (14h30 CET).  

Further information and full classifications can be found on www.europeanlemansseries.com