Doriane Pin ends ELMS season fourth in championship standings
Doriane Pin and her Duqueine Team teammates closed their European Le Mans Series campaign with a seventh-place finish in LMP2 ProAm at Portimão, after a series of setbacks prevented the #30 Oreca from fighting for the podium in the season finale. The result saw the French driver finish fourth in the final LMP2 ProAm championship standings.
Doriane Pin and her Duqueine Team teammates Giorgio Roda and Richard Verschoor closed their 2026 European Le Mans Series campaign with a seventh-place finish in LMP2 ProAm at Portimão, after a promising start and a series of setbacks prevented the #30 Oreca from fighting for the podium in the season finale.
Pin delivered a strong final stint, setting great laps and climbing through the order, but the time lost to an early-race collision and a subsequent door issue left the crew with too much ground to recover. The result saw the French driver finish fourth in the final LMP2 ProAm championship standings with 67 points.
Despite the frustrating end to the season, Pin once again demonstrated her pace and racecraft in LMP2, building on a campaign that had included consecutive podiums at Barcelona and Paul Ricard, a competitive showing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and a determined recovery drive at Silverstone.
The Portimão finale represented the last opportunity for Pin, Roda and Verschoor to challenge for the LMP2 ProAm title after arriving in Portugal just six points from the championship lead. The #30 Duqueine Team Oreca had shown encouraging speed throughout the weekend, with Pin setting the crew's fastest lap in the opening practice session, a 1:33.387 that placed the car fourth in class. Roda then topped the bronze-rated drivers' session with a 1:33.741, while the team remained inside the top five in FP2, where Verschoor posted a 1:33.188 to put the Oreca fifth in ProAm.
Roda took over for qualifying as the bronze-rated driver in the lineup and again ran among the leading contenders. After his first representative lap placed him 10th, the Italian improved through the session, setting a series of fastest sectors before recording a 1:33.851 to move up to second. He continued to find time and, with four minutes remaining, a 1:33.457 put him provisionally on pole position after further improvements in the second and third sectors.
However, Roda's qualifying challenge took a turn when he spun with three minutes left on the clock. Glorieux in the DKR Engineering Oreca meanwhile improved by four tenths of a second to take the top spot. Roda was unable to extract further performance from his tyres after the spin and ultimately settled for second on the LMP2 ProAm grid, still giving Duqueine Team a front-row starting position for the four-hour contest.
Under sunny skies on Saturday afternoon, Roda took the start for the season finale and immediately made the most of his position, moving into the LMP2 ProAm lead through Turn 1. John Falb in the Virage LMP2 car remained close behind, but Roda soon began to establish a margin, setting a new class fastest lap of 1:35.9 and extending his advantage over Falb and Glorieux by around a second over the following laps.
The early progress was abruptly undone when Falb went deep into the hairpin and made contact with Roda's Oreca, sending the Duqueine car into a spin. Roda was forced to recover from 12th in class, losing valuable time and track position at a critical stage of the race.
The race was soon interrupted by a Virtual Safety Car after the Iron Lynx Mercedes of Naran ended up in the gravel following contact with another LMP2 car. Roda used the neutralisation to make his first pit stop, before a full Safety Car was deployed. Following the pass-around procedure and the subsequent restart with three hours and 21 minutes remaining, the #30 Oreca was back in 10th place in class.
Roda immediately set about recovering the lost ground, producing strong sector times as he worked his way through the field. He attacked Felbermayr in the #88 Proton Oreca and completed the move for ninth before gaining another position on Daniel Schneider in the #21 United Autosports car. The Italian continued to make progress as the race developed, gradually bringing the #30 back up the order after the early collision.
When the second round of pit stops for the LMP2 ProAm runners began, Roda brought the car in from fourth place in class and handed over to Verschoor. The Dutch driver rejoined in 11th after the pit-stop cycle, but the team's recovery was immediately disrupted when the #30 Oreca had to return to the pits to address a door issue. The additional stop proved costly, dropping Verschoor back into 11th and leaving him with another sizeable deficit to overcome.
Verschoor responded with consistent pace in the 1:36s, moving up to 10th and beginning to close on Felbermayr ahead. As the next sequence of pit stops unfolded, the Dutchman continued to push and benefited from cars ahead coming into the pits, climbing as high as fourth overall and taking the provisional LMP2 ProAm lead. However, with his own stop still to complete, he eventually came into the pits and rejoined ninth in class.
Verschoor maintained ninth through the following phase of the race before making another pit stop, handing the #30 Oreca over to Pin for the final stint with one hour and 20 minutes remaining. The French driver returned to the track in eighth place in LMP2 ProAm, immediately showing strong pace and setting purple sectors as she began her charge.
Pin was initially more than 20 seconds behind the #19 Virage Oreca ahead, but she continued to push while managing traffic and looking for opportunities to gain positions. The pit-stop cycle soon began, with Espirito Santo stopping on lap 113, followed by Huffaker, Bolukbasi and Jarvis over the next couple of laps. As the cars ahead cycled through their stops, Pin climbed into the LMP2 ProAm lead on lap 115, briefly putting Duqueine Team back at the front of the class.
The French driver made her own final stop one lap later, with around 40 minutes remaining. She rejoined in eighth place after the pit cycle. Pin continued to deliver an impressive stint, but the earlier setbacks had left the team without the track position needed to convert its pace into a podium challenge.
A Full Course Yellow was called with 23 minutes remaining to clear debris at Turn 1. Pin gained another position when Jarvis received a penalty and served it, moving up to seventh in class. She maintained that position through the final phase of the race and crossed the finish line seventh in LMP2 ProAm, bringing a difficult afternoon to a close with a strong personal performance in the final stint.
The result was not the conclusion Pin and her teammates had hoped for after arriving in Portugal with the championship still within reach, but their season nevertheless featured several notable highlights.
Pin ultimately finished fourth in the LMP2 ProAm championship with 67 points, level with the third-placed crew but missing out on the top three position in the standings due to having one fewer victory.
Although the final result fell short of the title challenge the team had targeted, Pin's return to endurance racing was widely positive, with the French driver once again demonstrating her speed and potential in the LMP2 category.
