The Estoril Season Finale by NAPA has already started with the free practice session, with all the drivers and teams preparing for the final race of the season of the Iberian Supercars Endurance and the Portuguese Speed Championship and among the candidates for the title already the appointments began.
It was under the glorious sun of the Autódromo do Estoril that the thirty-four registered cars took to the track to start the weekend of all the decisions and, despite some trends, the uncertainty is enormous with the seven fastest ‘stuck together’ ‘ in less than seven tenths of a second.
One of the complaints common to all drivers was the amount of traffic on the track, resulting from a large field of thirty-four cars, and this will be a challenge that in qualifications will have to be very well managed.
Yesterday, Elias Niskanen and Nuno Pires, in Lema Racing’s Mercedes AMG GT4, were the ones who best managed to deal with this problem and this allowed them to reach the top of the timesheets, beating Patrick Cunha and Jorge Rodrigues by a tenth of a second.
The Audi R8 LMS GT4 duo from Veloso Motorsport, which leads the GT4 Bronze on time, was the fastest in its division, starting its title bid in the best possible way.
However, their biggest rivals, Alberto de Martín and Nil Montserrat, in the NM Racing Team’s Mercedes AMG GT4, were not far behind, recording the fourth best time overall and losing just two tenths of a second to their opponents in the fight for the title. of the GT4 Bronze.
In GT4 Pro, in which Elias Niskanen and Nuno Pires were the fastest with their best time overall, it was Guillermo Aso and his new teammate, young Jan Duran, who set the second record, losing just two tenths to the Lema Racing duo, taking third place overall.
The GT4 Pro point leaders, José Carlos Pires and Francisco Abreu, were in seventh place in Speedy Motorsport’s BMW M4 GT4, six tenths of a second behind their great rivals in the fight for the title, but the duo complained about the traffic on the track. , admitting to having the potential for more than what the time sheet showed.
Ahead of the drivers of the Bavarian car were Sérgio Azevedo and Orlando Batina, in the BMW M4 (F82) GT4 from Batina Racing, and Manuel Gião and Roberto Faria, in the Mercedes AMG GT4 from Racar Motorsport, who also proved to be very competitive and are candidates for fight for podium positions throughout the weekend.
In ninth position, with a good lap, was the best of the Touring cars, the Cupra TCR from the JT59 Racing Team driven by Daniel Teixeira, the main candidate to secure the category title.
Their great rivals, Borja Hormigos and Héctor Hernández, were in twenty-seventh place, but the Autoworks Motorsport BMW M240i Racing duo strive for consistency and have not yet demonstrated their true potential, focusing on learning the Estoril route, where both the pilots make their debut. Still, the Spanish duo was the fastest in the TC division.
The returning António Coimbra, in the competitive Sports & You Hyundai Elantra N TCR, was second fastest in the TCR division, six tenths of a second behind Daniel Teixeira
Álvaro Ramos and Fernando Soares were the fastest in the GTC category and the GTX division, driving the Aston Martin Vantage AMR from Araújo Competição, reinforcing their position as candidates for the titles they are fighting for.
However, Dave Benett and Marcus Fothergill, in a Tockwith Motorsports Porsche 911 Cup, were right on their heels, just two tenths behind, being second in the GTC and the fastest in the Cup division, and could seal the title this weekend. of the latter and is still involved in the fight for the category title.
Among the FPAK Junior Team drivers, the Ginetta G40 driven by Mariana Machado was the fastest, with twenty-ninth time, which was ahead of the other cars of the young hopes, with Duarte Camelo and Gabriel Caçoilo ahead Henrique Cruz and Duarte Pinto Coelho .
Qualifications will take place on Saturday, which can be followed via livetiming for those who cannot make it to the Autódromo do Estoril.
The races will be held on Sunday, the first at 9:40 am and the second at 2:35 pm, both of which can be followed live on the competitions’ official social networks and the first also live on A Bola TV.
Source: Race Ready Iberian
Photos: @filiperosaphoto