Tatiana Calderón will conclude her campaign in the European Le Mans Series this weekend with a double-header event at Portimao in the south of Portugal.
The Colombian driver and her team-mates in the Team Virage Oreca LMP2 car face the unique challenge of two four-hour races in the space of two days, with a second race at Portimao added to the ELMS schedule to replace the cancelled fixture at Imola in May.
There will be little respite for Tatiana and co-pilots Ian Rodriguez and Alexander Mattschull as they aim to continue the positive momentum of the past two rounds at Aragon and Spa and wrap up their season in the ultra-competitive LMP2 Pro/Am division strongly.
Tatiana is no stranger to Portimao, having raced there in the ELMS in 2020 and again in the World Endurance Championship in 2021, both times with Richard Mille Racing. On the latter occasion it was the scene of her best finish of the season, so Tatiana will be hoping for similar fortune over the course of an intense five-day schedule.
Action begins with a pair of collective tests on Wednesday before opening practice on Thursday. Qualifying for the first race - known as the 4 Hours of Algarve - will take place on Friday, just a few hours before the green flag is waved for the race itself.
The final round of the season, the 4 Hours of Portimao, will take place across Saturday and Sunday. A total of 40 cars are entered for both races, including 10 in LMP2 Pro/Am, which features such big names as Juan Pablo Montoya, Nelson Piquet Jr and Nicolas Lapierre.
Tatiana Calderón: “Time flies - I can’t believe it’s already the final weekend of the championship! We have one race on Friday and another on Sunday, so it’s going to be a busy and challenging weekend for everybody. Portimao is a track that could suit our car a bit more than others, and while the weather looks like it may be cooler than expected, we’ve been busy analysing the last couple of rounds and why we lacked a bit of pace, so hopefully we can put everything together. We have two chances, there’s a lot of track time, but we need to be on our A-game to keep improving the results. Things have been going better and better since the start of the season, we’ve been working on the simulator as well, so hopefully we can have two clean races and finish the season on a high note.”
4 HOURS OF ALGARVE/4 HOURS OF PORTIMAO TIMETABLE
Thursday October 19
Free Practice 1 - 10.50am
Friday October 20
Qualifying 1 (LMP2 Pro/Am) - 10.40am
Race 1 - 2.45pm
Saturday October 21
Free Practice 2 - 11.40am
Qualifying 2 (LMP2 Pro/Am) - 6.10pm
Sunday October 22
Race 2 - 1pm
