Another week, another sportscar racing season finale with a whole host on the line. For the final time in 2025, the European Le Mans Series will take to the track and decide it’s champions over four hours of typically epic motorsport. With Silverstone crowning LMP3’s title winners, the rest are still up for grabs. But just who will be duking it out for glory?

LMP2

VDS Panis Racing lead the LMP2 championship, and lost out on a Le Mans class win this year in the final 10 minutes. Image credit – Lukas Raich, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

By far the closest class of the three still in play, with three cars split by just six points heading into the final round. With a maximum of 25 on offer, the ELMS’s top class is shaping up to be it’s most hotly contested.

After a poor Silverstone showing saw their lead practically disintegrate before a record crowd’s very eyes, VDS Panis Racing’s #48 will surely be focused on seeing their season through. Back to back wins at Imola and Spa put the French team in a comfortable lead before the series crossed the English Channel thanks to the driving skill of Esteban Masson, Charles Milesi and Oliver Gray though that eighth place dented their hopes considerably.

Even if they were to loose it, 81 points is a record for the outfit started by 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis who founded the operation in 2016 and with TDS Racing’s operational skill in the garage it’s been an amazing step forward for a team that finished fourth in the standings with just one win last year.

I also can’t forget to mention their incredibly strong run at Le Mans, before mechanical woes ten minutes from the end saw them slip back behind their fellow ELMS title challengers Inter Europol.

Of these three teams, the only one to have won this series before is IDEC Sport, and they currently are poised to do so for the first time since 2019. That was at a time when the team ran purely by themselves, with Paul Lafarge, Paul-Loup Chatin and Memo Rojas.

In 2025 though, the team have backing from Genesis Magma Racing, who’ve partnered with the team to gain vital data and knowledge ahead of their 2026 FIA WEC programme with the GMR-001. With an improved driver lineup of Daniel Juncadella, Mathys Jaubert and Jamie Chadwick the team’s #18 started strongest of anyone. Back to back class wins, the latter of which was overall saw them leap into contention from the get go, their only real struggle coming at Imola where they failed to finish after an accident on lap 18. Other than that it’s been a really commendable year for them, and a brilliant win at Silverstone in changeable conditions was testament to that. Expect this crew to be up there all the way.

Inter Europol meanwhile have to be considered the in-form team heading into this weekend, as despite currently sitting just six points adrift of the #48, their #43 crew of Nick Yelloly, Jakub Smiechowski and Tom Dillmann hasn’t won a race all season. Incredibly the team have finished runner up four races in a row this year, a run that’s kept them in the title fight all the way through. The bridesmaid theme doesn’t end there, as this is a team that arguably should’ve won this series before.

Yet they’ve somehow come up short every single time.

Runners up last year in the LMP2 class, they’ve also finished second an amazing four times in the LMP3 class since 2018 and are still on the hunt for a first ELMS title in either. They’ve won Le Mans in LMP2, they’ve won the IMSA title in LMP2. What a time it would be to finally complete the hat-trick.

I’ll drop in a quick word to the Pro/Am subclass of LMP2 which also has it’s own title battle raging into the final race.

Algarve Pro Racing are on track to seal it, with their #20 crew of Ollie Caldwell, Kriton Lendoudis and Alex Quinn holding a nine point advantage over the reigning LMP2 champions who’ve moved down to the Pro/Am subclass this year. AO Racing’s ever popular #99 of Spike the Dragon has its work cut out to take a second title in as many years. But with a lineup of Louis Deletraz, Dane Cameron and Github founder and team owner P.J Hyett having beat the Pro field last year, anything is possible for them. I’m looking forward to a formidable showdown.

LMGT3

The championship AF Corse crew also competed at Le Mans this year, finishing 11th in the LMGT3 class. Image credit – Lukas Raich, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

LMGT3 meanwhile is by far the most competitive class when it comes to raw numbers. No less than seven cars will by vying for victory, with the favourite surely being that of AF Corse’s #50 of Lilou Wadoux, Custodio Toledo and Riccardo Agostini. They currently hold a 12 point lead, the largest gap of any class still in contention. Don’t let that fool you into thinking its all but a done deal though, as six further entries all have a mathematical chance.

Their closest rivals are that of Racing Spirit of Leman’s #59 entry with Valentin Hasse-clot, Erwan Bastard and Clement Mateu having been consistent across the board all season, with a win at Spa helping their cause. 12 points back they may be, but it’s important to point out that everyone in this class at some point has had a weekend to forget. If they’d improved those two seventh place finishes in the season opening Barcelona race and Imola they would surely be closer. It’s been a busy year for the French team, who’ve also competed in WEC this year and are now looking to take a maiden GT3 title.

They are far from the only ones biting at the heels of AF Corse.

TF Sport are also in with a shout with the reliable trio of Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood and Hiroshi Koizumi. Retirement at Paul Ricard in just the second round of the season has cost them dear, as with their Imola win and a podium at Silverstone they’ve had a good second season with the Corvette Z.06 GT3.R. As of writing they also sit third in WEC after victory at Fuji, meaning there’s potential for double championship by the end of 2025.

The Iron Dames are also in contention after a strong second season in the Porsche. It must be said their season hit its peak right at the start in Barcelona with a class win, since then they’ve struggled to make it into the top five and haven’t returned to the podium. 10th last time out at Silverstone did nothing to aid their cause, and so sitting some 19 points behind it’s fair to say their chances are incredibly slim. Despite this, the ever popular #85 crew of Sarah Bovy, Celia Martin and Michelle Gatting will be gunning for it.

They’re not the only ones with a 19 point gap to close, as Kessel Racing’s #57 crew also find themselves in an identical uphill battle going into the final four hours of the 2025 season. Two podiums at Barcelona and Spa have kept Takeshi Kimura and Ben Tuck in it all the way, but their form is admittedly far from what you’d expect of a champion.

Incredibly there’s still two more contenders for the title, though nothing short of a miracle is needed for both to take it. Spirit of Race’s #55 trio of Matt Griffin, Duncan Cameron and David Perel stared 2025 with three consecutive top five finishes including a podium at Imola, their problem has been that since then, they’ve finished no higher than eighth, picking up a total of five points in the second half of the season. That’s been their undoing and with a total of thirteen cars in the LMGT3 class for this race, it’s going to be almost impossible for things to fall their way.

It’s an even slimmer situation in the #86 GR Racing camp. If this team had performed as fantastic as their livery is on the eye, they’d be steamrolling their way to the title. The sad part for them is, they haven’t. A single podium across the five races thus far was counterbalanced by retirement in Imola, and with other results failing to prop their lap 16 pileup in Italy up, they’re sitting a massive 23 points behind the leaders. I have to be honest, I can’t see them winning this. Not that I would be complaining if they did, because that would generate a hugely entertaining race.

Whatever happens in either class, it’s sure to be a cracker.

That then is your rundown of how the title fights are shaping up across the ELMS grid for it’s finale tomorrow. It’s a series that’s produced breath-taking drama in the past, and may yet do again this year…

thumbnail credit – Lukas Raich, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons