2025 Le Mans 24 Hours invitations awarded to ELMS winners (2024)

AO by TF was one of several teams to secure an automatic invitation for the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours after it won the overall title in this year's European Le Mans Series.

The Tom Ferrier-led squad secured the entry for the next edition of Le Mans afterJonny Edgar, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz finished second in 4 Hours of Portimao, the European Le Mans Series season finale, behind the race-winning Cool Racing entry of Lorenzo Fluxa, Ritomo Miyata and Malthe Jakobsen.

In a grandstand conclusion to a tightly-contested season, two of the championship battles were decided on the very last lap of the race.

A drive-through penalty for United Autosports for contact with Panis Racing gifted Cool the lead. Miyata and then Jakobsen did not relinquish it, winning the race by 2.4 seconds.

It made the Cool Racing trio the first repeat overall winners in the six-round championship, having also claimed the Barcelona season opener back in April.

Second place for AO by TF was enough for Spa winners Edgar, Kubica and Deletraz to be crowned champions as nearest rivals Inter Europol Competition finished fourth.

The title is Edgar’s first in endurance racing since making the switch from single-seaters, it’s a second for Kubica (who won the 2021 title with Deletraz) and a third for Deletraz in four years. Also, it marked a second consecutive success for Kubica and Deletraz together after they claimed the final LMP2 title in the World Endurance Championship last year with WRT.

Inter Europol, meanwhile, was left disillusioned by the outcome of the finale, pointing to a improper 10-second pitstop penalty as key to its defeat. It was initially handed to Sebastian Alvarez, Tom Dillmann and Vlad Lomko for an alleged Virtual Safety Car infringement. That was eventually rescinded, but only after it had already been served. This, crucially, put the Polish-flagged squad behind AO by TF – a setback they would not overcome.

"They rescinded the penalty two minutes after we had already taken it," said Dillmann. "I find it shameful at this level when you are going for the championship."

2025 Le Mans 24 Hours invitations awarded to ELMS winners (1)

#43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA crew was left disgruntled with fourth

Photo by: Eric Le Galliot

However, the Polish-entered squad would still secure an automatic invitation to the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2025 in P2, along with AO by TF, and the champions of LMP2 Pro-Am and LMP3.

These were also decided at Portimao, each in decidedly dramatic fashion.

AF Corse successfully retained its crown in LMP2 Pro-Am after a bold strategic attempt at an upset from Algarve Pro Racing was only foiled on the last lap.

APR’s Alex Quinn tried to significantly extend his final fuel stint to grab the class win that would have landed a shock title together with Richard Bradley and Kriton Lendoudis.

However, Quinn was overtaken by Proton Competition’s Bent Viscaal on the final lap, which in turn gave AF Corse drivers Matthieu Vaxiviere, Alessio Rovera and Francois Perrodo the crucial two-point advantage to seal the title by finishing fourth in class.

The Italian squad was put in that position thanks to the efforts of Vaxiviere, who had fought his way past Richard Mille by TDS’s Mathias Beche in a battle that had seen the two repeatedly come to blows. The Alpine Hypercar driver duly defended the crown he had won in 2023 alongside Perrodo.

Even more dramatic was the conclusion to the LMGT3 championship battle, which wasn’t decided until the very final corner.

It was then that Iron Lynx Lamborghini driver Andrea Caldarelli passed stablemate Michelle Gatting (Iron Dames) for the lead, in a move that looked like it might have been orchestrated.

2025 Le Mans 24 Hours invitations awarded to ELMS winners (2)

Iron Lynx claimed LMGT3 title

Photo by: Iron Lynx

That was because the scenario played out in such a way that Caldarelli, Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Axcil Jefferies required a win to deny fifth-placed trio Takeshi Kimura, Esteban Masson and Daniel Serra (Kessel Racing Ferrari) the titleand a Le Mans LMGT3 class entry.

In LMP3, meanwhile, a late-race charge meant RLR M Sport driver Gael Julien rose past both of his direct championship rivals from Eurointernational and Team Virage to finish second behind outgoing champions Cool Racing, securing the title for himself, Michael Jensen and Nick Adcock in the process.

ELMS Portimao Race Results

1

-

4

1

-

2

ClaTeam#DriversCarLapsTimeIntervalPitsRetirementPoints
1Cool Racing37

L. Fluxá

M. Jakobsen R. Miyata
Oreca 07127

4:00'20.026

25
2

AO by TF

14 J. Edgar L. Deletraz R. Kubica Oreca 07127

+2.499

4:00'22.525

2.499 18
3Cool Racing47 C. Bennett F. Habsburg F. Vesti Oreca 07127

+3.159

4:00'23.185

0.660 15
4Inter Europol Competition43

S. Alvarez

V. Lomko T. Dillmann
Oreca 07127

+4.075

4:00'24.101

0.916 12
5Inter Europol Competition34

O. Gray

C. Novalak L. Ghiotto
Oreca 07127

+9.491

4:00'29.517

5.416 10
6United Autosports23

B. Garg

F. Scherer P. di Resta
Oreca 07127

+12.007

4:00'32.033

2.516 8
7

DUQUEINE TEAM

30

N. Koolen

J. Simmenauer J. Allen
Oreca 07127

+14.864

4:00'34.890

2.857 6
8Proton Competition77 G. Roda R. Binder B. Viscaal Oreca 07127

+16.120

4:00'36.146

1.256
9Algarve Pro Racing Team20 K. Lendoudis R. Bradley

A. Quinn

Oreca 07127

+17.115

4:00'37.141

0.995
10Algarve Pro Racing Team25 M. Kaiser O. Caldwell A. Lynn Oreca 07127

+17.585

4:00'37.611

0.470 4
11

NIELSEN RACING

24 J. Falb C. Noble Jr. N. Yelloly Oreca 07127

+18.392

4:00'38.418

0.807
12

Iron Lynx - Proton

9 J. Ried

M. Capietto

M. Cairoli
Oreca 07127

+19.368

4:00'39.394

0.976 2
13AF Corse83 F. Perrodo M. Vaxiviere A. Rovera Oreca 07127

+34.909

4:00'54.935

15.541
14United Autosports22 F. Ugran M. Sato B. Hanley Oreca 07127

+45.966

4:01'05.992

11.057 1
15

NIELSEN RACING

27 B. Pedersen W. Stevens G. Aubry Oreca 07127

+49.854

4:01'09.880

3.888
16

PANIS RACING

65 M. Maldonado C. Milesi A. Leclerc Oreca 07127

+58.579

4:01'18.605

8.725 1
17

Richard Mille by TDS

29 R. Sales M. Beche G. Saucy Oreca 07127

+1'09.361

4:01'29.387

10.782
18

TEAM VIRAGE

19

G. Kolovos

R. Narac

T. Vautier
Oreca 07126

+1 Lap

4:01'14.010

1 Lap
19

DKR ENGINEERING

3

A. Latorre

C. Bolukbasi L. Hörr
Oreca 07125

+2 Laps

4:00'27.078

1 Lap
20

IDEC SPORT

28 N. Pino R. de Gerus J. Van Uitert Oreca 07125

+2 Laps

4:00'56.042

28.964
21Cool Racing17

M. Cristovão

M. Espirito

Ligier JS P320122

+5 Laps

4:00'39.095

3 Laps 26
22RLR Msport15

M. Jensen

N. Adcock

G. Julien

Ligier JS P320122

+5 Laps

4:00'49.780

10.685 18
23Eurointernational11 M. Bell

A. Ali

Ligier JS P320122

+5 Laps

4:00'54.149

4.369 15
24

WTM BY RINALDI RACING

12

T. Kratz

L. Weiss

O. Tunjo
Duqueine M30-D08122

+5 Laps

4:00'54.345

0.196 12
25

DKR ENGINEERING

4 A. Mattschull

W. Brichacek

G. de

Duqueine M30-D08122

+5 Laps

4:00'56.430

2.085 10
26

TEAM VIRAGE

8

J. Gerbi

B. Pinheiro

G. Henrion

Ligier JS P320122

+5 Laps

4:01'14.346

17.916 8
27RLR Msport5 J. Dayson

D. Ali

B. Voisin

Ligier JS P320121

+6 Laps

4:00'58.353

1 Lap 6
28

IRON LYNX

63 H. Hamaguchi

A. Jeffries

A. Caldarelli
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2119

+8 Laps

4:00'20.533

2 Laps 25
29

Iron Dames

85 S. Bovy R. Frey M. Gatting Porsche 911 GT3 R119

+8 Laps

4:00'20.728

0.195 19
30Proton Competition60 C. Schiavoni M. Cressoni J. Andlauer Porsche 911 GT3 R119

+8 Laps

4:00'21.519

0.791 15
31Formula Racing50 J. Laursen

C. Laursen

Ferrari 296 GT3119

+8 Laps

4:00'24.690

3.171 12
32

KESSEL RACING

57 T. Kimura

E. Masson

D. Serra
Ferrari 296 GT3119

+8 Laps

4:00'28.142

3.452 10
33

GR Racing

86 M. Wainwright R. Pera D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3119

+8 Laps

4:00'28.686

0.544 8
34Spirit of Race55 D. Cameron D. Perel M. Griffin Ferrari 296 GT3119

+8 Laps

4:00'32.048

3.362 6
35

Grid Motorsport by TF

97 M. Berry

L. Nicolas

J. Adam
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3119

+8 Laps

4:01'36.015

1'03.967 4
36

RACING SPIRIT OF LEMAN

59 D. DeBoer C. Stevenson V. Hasse-Clot Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3118

+9 Laps

4:00'35.534

1 Lap 2
37JMW Motorsport66

S. Noble

J. Hart B. Tuck
Ferrari 296 GT3118

+9 Laps

4:01'49.054

1'13.520 1
dnfInter Europol Competition88

A. Bukhantsov

K. Askey

P. Perino

Ligier JS P320111

+16 Laps

3:43'28.579

7 Laps Retirement
dnf

Vector Sport

10 R. Cullen S. Richelmi F. Drugovich Oreca 07108

+19 Laps

3:28'53.256

3 Laps Retirement
dnf

RACING SPIRIT OF LEMAN

31

J. Wolff

J. Foubert

A. Doquin

Ligier JS P32088

+39 Laps

2:49'55.495

20 Laps Retirement
dnfUnited Autosports21 D. Schneider A. Meyrick O. Jarvis Oreca 0783

+44 Laps

2:50'24.243

5 Laps Retirement
dnfUltimate Team35 F. Heriau J. Lahaye M. Lahaye Ligier JS P32061

+66 Laps

2:06'59.307

22 Laps Retirement
dnfAF Corse51

C. Samani

E. Collard

N. Varrone

Ferrari 296 GT30Retirement
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2025 Le Mans 24 Hours invitations awarded to ELMS winners (2024)
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