César Machado and Jan Durán won the first race of the Iberian Supercars and Supercars Jarama RACE season finale at the Algarve International Circuit, clinching the GT4 championship title. Similarly, Daniel Teixeira sealed the Iberian Supercars Touring Car championship title.
In the morning race, the duo in Speedy Motorsport’s Toyota GR Supra GT4 started from pole position, maintaining their lead but facing strong pressure in the opening laps from José Carlos Pires, who led the GT4 Bronze standings in Racar Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4.
César Machado took advantage of backmarkers to open up a gap to his pursuer, enabling Jan Durán to get in the car without losing the race lead.
The Spanish driver managed the pace, securing the pair’s fourth victory of the season in the Toyota and, with it, the overall GT4 title as well as the GT4 Pro division title in the Iberian Supercars.
After a solid first stint by Gonçalo Fernandes, Francisco Mora, who set the fastest lap of the race, drove an aggressive second half, catching up to José Carlos Pires and overtaking him just before the finish line, securing second place. Meanwhile, the Aston Martin driver crossed the line in third overall, winning GT4 Bronze in his debut appearance in the division this year.
In the battle for this division’s title, Jorge Rodrigues and Patrick Cunha faced dramatic moments as the Veloso Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT4 experienced some engine issues.
Jorge Rodrigues fell to last place on the first lap but managed to recover, with Patrick Cunha finishing third in GT4 Bronze. Their rivals, Nil Montserrat and Alberto de Martín, drove a solid race to take the NM Racing Team’s Mercedes AMG GT4 to second place, delaying the title decision for this division until the second race of the day.
Miguel and André Nabais were dominant in GT4 Am, taking complete control to put the Speedy Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 at the top of the division standings, followed by Keith Gatehouse and Igor Sorokin. With these results, the NM Racing Team’s Mercedes AMG GT4 pair need only to finish the afternoon race to secure the championship title.
As usual, Daniel Teixeira ran a strong and error-free race, taking his Hyundai Elantra N TCR to victory among the TCR cars, outperforming Beatriz Correia and José Correia’s Cupra TCR. With this result, the JT59 Racing Team driver secured the Touring Car title in the Iberian Supercars.
João Oliveira and Gabriel Caçoilo were the strongest in TC, also winning the close battle between the FPAK Junior Team’s Ginetta G40 cars, beating Henrique Ventura Oliveira and Henrique Moura Oliveira by only two-tenths of a second in an exciting race.
Mikkel Kristensen and Manuel Cañizares took the Chefo Sport Ligier JS2R to victory in GTX and GTC, defeating Speedy Motorsport’s Porsche Cayman GT4 CS, driven by Pompeu Simões and Duarte Camelo, who made their division debut this weekend.
Andrius Zemaitis finished third in a Porsche Cayman GT4 MR, gaining points on Tomás Pinto Abreu and Simon Moore in Tockwith Motorsport’s Ginetta G50, who placed fifth, thus strengthening his title bid in the division.
In the Cup, Rui Miritta, who arrived at the Portimão track already crowned GTC champion, maintained his near-perfect record, winning the race and securing the remaining Iberian Supercars title he lacked.
The second race will start at 15:50, serving as the stage for the remaining championship decisions.
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