Lola sports cars scored yet more podium finishes in the latest round of the Le Mans Series held in the Algarve, Portugal over the weekend. Aston Martin Racing and Racing Box finished second in the LMP1 and LMP2 classes respectively on Saturday evening with their Lola designed and built cars. The points scored by each of the teams in Portugal has ensured that Lola have now opened up leads in both classes of the 2009 Constructors Championship.

LMP1 After qualifying in 2nd place, just a tenth of a second off the pole spot, Aston Martin Racing’s Lola B09/60 driven by Stefan Mucke, Jan Charouz and Tomas Enge took the lead of the race on the 15th lap and began to pull clear of the pack.

However, soon after the first scheduled pit stop, Mucke lost the Lola Aston Martin LMP1 and spun in to the gravel suffering minor damage to the rear of the Huntingdon designed and built LMP1 sports car. A pit stop to repair the damage meant that the #007 Lola lost time to the leading Pescarolo LMP1 car, but some stirling effort by the team and all three drivers soon had the car back in contention. Eventually the Lola Aston Martin clawed back the lost time and finished in a close 2nd place despite some gear selection problems in the final hours of the 1000kms race. The sister Lola Aston Martin of Darren Turner, Harald Primat and Miguel Ramos finished in 5th place after a consistent run.

Speedy Racing Team Sebah endured a tough weekend in the Algarve with the LMP1 Lola B08/80 suffering from a clutch problem in the race. Andrea Belicchi, Nicolas Prost and Marcel Fassler had qualified in 9th place but hit problems just before their first planned pit stop. Sadly this meant the car that starred in the Le Mans 24 Hours was forced to retire after 30 laps.

LMP2 Racing Box continued their excellent 2009 with a 2nd and 4th place finish in the LMP2 category. The two car Lola Judd squad are now just six points behind the Quifel ASM entry in the team’s points standings with two races to go.

Andrea Ceccato, Giacomo Piccini and Filippo Francioni scored their second podium place in two races, except this time their result stood unlike the Spa 1000ks, when they were penalised after the race. A late race duel with the GAC Zytek saw the #29 Racing Box entry take second position while the other Italian entered Lola of Thomas Biagi, Andrea Piccini and Matteo Bobbi finished 4th in LMP2, despite a long 4th hour pit stop to collect loose astroturf from the radiators and wheel arches.

RML showed huge promise throughout the weekend despite engine difficulties during the weekend. A heroic qualifying performance by Tommy Erdos saw the team set the 2nd fastest time in LMP2, only for their start position to be relegated ten positions in accordance with the engine penalty rule, after they changed a unit at Spa in the last round of the series in May.

The race saw more excellent driving from Erdos who quickly scythed through the LMP2 pack to get the B09/46 Lola AER in to a healthy points scoring position. However several issues pegged the red, white and blue Lola back, meaning that crucial time was lost during the middle portion of the race.

Despite this, Mike Newton and Erdos did a stunning job to fight back to 7th place at flag fall. A frustrated yet encouraged Phil Barker summed up the teams mood when he said: “Those last laps were remarkable. Without the water leak, we’d certainly have been 5th, or better, but it’s so galling. We started off down at the back of the grid, and yet fought through to 3rd in class, and might have soon made it through to 2nd.”

Speedy Racing Team Sebah’s LMP2 entry showed the pace to fight for at least a podium position throughout the weekend but the team’s race was spoiled by contact with the GT2 Ferrari of Team Modena. Jonny Kane was hit by this car, which had its indicator stuck on making the rapid Ulsterman believe that the Ferrari was letting him through one of the Portimao’s tight left handers.

The time lost to repair the Lola Judd meant that Kane, Xavier Pompidou and Benjamin Leuenberger netted 4 points for 5th place in class. This trio though are still 4th in the LMP2 points standings and just 7 behind the leader.

The series re-convenes at the Nürburgring in Germany on the weekend of 22/23 August.

All pictures Lola Heritage.

Lola Aston Martin 007 took a very close second in LMP1



Lola Aston Martin 009 was fifth in LMP1.



The Speedy Racing Team Sebah B08/80 was out of luck.



Racing Box took second...



... and fourth in LMP2.



Fifth in LMP2 for Speedy Racing Team Sebah.



The RML B09/46 took seventh in LMP2 despite problems.



Tomas Enge, Jan Charouz and Stefan Mucke on the Portugal podium.



The RML Lola heads into the twilight.