24h Le Mans
The second half of the 2023 European Le Mans Series kicks off with the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (September 22-24, 2023). Which teams fighting for a championship title will get a leg up in their respective classes?
Let's start with the numbers. The 2023 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps entry list is stocked with 41 cars: 7 in LMP2, 10 in LMP2 Pro/Am, 12 in LMP3 and 12 in LMGTE, representing 26 teams and 120 drivers of 30 different nationalities. Three drivers will compete on their home playing field, namely Alessio Picariello in Proton Competition's #16 Porsche 911 RSR-19, Ulysse de Pauw in AF Corse's #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo and Tom van Rompuy in DKR Engineering's #3 ORECA 07-Gibson.
The 2023 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Entry List.
Three teams have clinched an overall win since the beginning of the season: Racing Team Turkey, Algarve Pro Racing and United Autosports USA. Five teams are currently within 13 points in the provisional championship classification. Duqueine Team leads the charge thanks to remarkable consistency. The outfit's #30 ORECA shared by Nicolas Pino, René Binder and Neel Jani finished second at both the 4 Hours of Barcelona and Le Castellet this year. Gilles Duqueine's team has a one-point advantage on Algarve Pro Racing and eight on 2019 ELMS champion IDEC SPORT Racing. After winning the 4 Hours of Aragón, United Autosports USA finds itself in the fourth spot in the championship standings. The Anglo-American outfit has triumphed at four of the last five runnings of the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps!
In LMP2 Pro/Am, the duel between AF Corse and Racing Team Turkey will resume. The Italian team leads the championship, but Racing Team Turkey won the first two rounds of the season and only trails AF Corse by three points overall.
In the LMP3 class, COOL Racing's #17 Ligier heads into the Belgian race with a 26-point advantage on Racing Spirit of Le Mans' #31 Ligier. The Swiss outfit scored a second victory of the season at the 4 Hours of Aragón, and drivers Adrien Chilas, Alejandro García and Marcos Siebert will seek to maintain their momentum and secure the helm of the classification.
Thanks to their win at the Barcelona round and second place at Aragón, Proton Competition's #16 Porsche 911 RSR-19 drivers Alessio Picariello, Ryan Hardwick and Zacharie Robichon are once again in the top spot in the LMGTE class championship standings. Meanwhile, Kessel Racing's #57 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo only trails Proton's car by two points. The latter's #77 Porsche and Iron Lynx's #60 are also in the mix. The 2023 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps is sure to be a nail-biter!
Follow the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps live on the official European Le Mans Series YouTube channel. The start of the race will be given on Sunday september 24 at 09:30 GMT.
