Prema won the 2022 title in Portimao

Splitting Prema’s Oreca 07-Gibson with Juan Manuel Correa, Deletraz and Habsburg took the checkered flag by 49 seconds in the mixed conditions, giving the Italian team their fourth win in six races this season in the inaugural LMP2 competition.

This is the second consecutive ELMS title for Deletraz, who contested last year’s championship with WRT.

Correa only returned to the team for the final two races of the season after suffering an injury in his parallel FIA Formula 3 program, with the event at Portimao marking his first victory.

Lorenzo Colombo, who competes for Prema in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship, replaced Correa in the first four races and helped the team to victories at Polly Ricard, Imola and Barcelona.

Prema went into the race at Portimao with a 24-point lead and was just one point short of putting the championship out of reach of his rivals.

After a cautious first performance from Correa, Habsburg raced into the lead as soon as he got behind the wheel, leaving Deletraz to wrap up the win under pressure, knowing the only car that could deny Prema the title was Panis Racing, running second.

“It was difficult because they gave me a car with a big gap and said that now I have to go to the end, the Panis team is second and they will never catch me, but if I put it in the wall, or we have a problem, we will lose the championship,” recalled Deletraz.

“It was the longest hour and 10 minutes of my life. I really wanted to get that title and I didn’t take any chances, I just drove, drove, drove. It was very intense because I didn’t have to push, but if you don’t push, mistakes happen.”

Habsburg added: “We had a lot to lose, there was always a bit of spray and water on the track and a few cars were spinning. The worst thing is when you want a simple race, but in the end I felt so confident in the car and it’s easy to do such a good job with such a good car.”

Second place saw the Panis trio of Job van Wittert, Julien Canal and Nico Jamin finish second in the standings and, along with Prema, earn an automatic invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Cool Racing trio of Nicolas Lapierre, Niklas Cruten and Ye Yifei completed the podium in third place, with the Swiss team earning an automatic invitation to Le Mans thanks to their title win in the LMP3 class.

The Porsche Proton Competition team and the Ferrari Kessel Racing and Iron Lynx teams have received three car invitations on offer in the GTE class.