The LMP2 category in the ELMS has provided action and drama at almost every round. The competition for the top title in European endurance racing has always been hot with the top teams from the world of sports cars wanting to get their hands on the championship trophy and receive the automatic invitation to the greatest endurance race in the world, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
To underline the competitive nature of the LMP2 category no less than six different teams have won in the past six seasons, including two teams winning the title on their ELMS debut.
In 2019 IDEC Sport won their first ELMS title, with the French team taking two wins and two seconds from six starts, with one pole position in Barcelona. Victory in Portimão denied G-Drive Racing their third title in a row by just 4-points. Paul Loup Chatin and Memo Rojas both claimed their second LMP2 crown, with Paul Lafargue celebrating his first.
2020 was a difficult year for the whole planet due to the Covid-19 crisis and the ELMS season was shortened to five races from July to October. United Autosports claimed a 1-2 in the LMP2 Championship standings with the no22 Oreca-Gibson taking the crown in the hands of Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque.
The Anglo-Portuguese duo took five podium finishes from the five races, including three wins at Spa-Francorchamps, Le Castellet and Monza, and four pole positions, the exception being Portimão, which was claimed by their teammates in the no32 car.
Hanson and Albuquerque also made history by becoming the first drivers to win the FIA WEC, ELMS and 24 Hours of Le Mans titles in the same year.
Team WRT are a highly successful GT team, but in 2021 Vincent Vosse’s outfit set out to conquer the world of Le Mans Prototypes and chose the ELMS to make their LMP debut.
The Belgian team won the title finishing 32 points ahead of reigning champions United Autosports at the end of the season in Portugal.Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye won the first two races of the season in Barcelona and Red Bull Ring and then went on to claim a further three podiums from the next four races, including victory at Spa-Francorchamps.
2022 was another championship win for a team in their debut season. Like Team WRT the season before, Prema Racing was at the top of their chosen motorsport field, namely single seaters. The Italian team not only came, they also conquered the LMP2 field finishing on 125 points, 31 ahead of Panis Racing in the standings at the end of the final race inPortimão.
With Lorenzo Colombo and Juan Manuel Correa sharing the third seat, the drivers crown was claimed by Louis Deletraz, the Swiss driver taking his second title in a row, and Austrian Ferdinand Habsburg.
Deletraz and Habsburg claimed four victories in 2022, taking the chequered flag in Le Castellet, Imola, Barcelona and Portimão, the first three with Colombo and the win in Portugal with Correa. They also took a further podium finish in Belgium.
Algarve Pro Racing took the overall title in 2023, the Portuguese flagged team finishing the season on 95 points, 20 ahead of United Autosports USA.
Alex Lynn, James Allen and Kyffin Simpson took five podiums from the six starts, with wins at Le Castellet and Spa-Francorchamps and two pole positions.
AO by TF became the sixth different team in six years to take the title after an epic season that saw five different teams win a race, with COOL Racing being the exception by winning in Barcelona and Portimão.
The American flagged team run by TF Sport saw Louis Deletraz take his third LMP2 title in four years, Robert Kubica secure his second title in two attempts and Britain’s Jonny Edgar take his first in his ELMS debut season.
The trio took four podiums from six starts with one victory at Spa-Francorchamps from pole position. AO by TF finished on 93 points, just 12 points ahead of Inter Europol Competition.
Who will win the overall title in 2025? Will it be another new team name on the impressive LMP2 Trophy or will one of the teams from the past six years make it to the top of the standings once again?
The six round 2025 European Le Mans Series gets underway in April at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and concludes at the Autodrome Internacional do Algarve in October after visits to Le Castellet, Imola, Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone.
Tickets are available for the events in Barcelona, Le Castellet and Silverstone.
