It was a heartbreaker at Silverstone for Filipe Albuquerque. The Portuguese driver, racing for Nielsen Racing, had shown incredible pace. He even led the pack for a while during Sunday’s European Le Mans Series event. But after four hours of grueling competition, the team had to settle for a sixth-place finish.
Albuquerque shared his car with teammates Cem Bolukbasi and Ferdinand Habsburg. Their Nielsen Racing machine chased the winning IDEC Sport entry, piloted by Daniel Juncadella from Brazil, Mathys Jaubert from France, and Britain’s own Jamie Chadwick. The gap at the checkered flag was just over a minute.
“I’m truly gutted,” Albuquerque admitted after the race. “The final result just doesn’t show how well we drove. We were consistently among the fastest cars out there. We were really hoping for a yellow flag to come out, which would help us with our pit stop strategy. But we ended up having to pit anyway. And then, wouldn’t you know it, the yellow flag came out right after.”
This twist of fate played right into the hands of their competitors. “We lost every chance to recover,” he explained. “Then, to add insult to injury, the race ended under a red flag. It was totally not the way we pictured things unfolding.”
Looking Ahead to the Home Race
Despite the disappointment, Albuquerque is already looking forward. The season finale is set for October 17 and 18 in Algarve, Portugal.
“Racing in Portimão is always special for me,” he shared. “It’s my home country, and that circuit means a lot to me. I really hope we can finish the year strong. We want to turn all our hard work from these last few races into a great result there.”
More Misfortune for Portuguese Drivers
Filipe Albuquerque wasn’t the only Portuguese driver facing tough luck. Manuel EspÃrito Santo, driving for CLX Motorsport in the same LMP2 category, also had a challenging day. He suffered a string of setbacks throughout the event. EspÃrito Santo finished 17th overall and 12th in the LMP2 class.
The driver from Cascais described a chaotic race. “We knew it was going to be crazy,” he recalled. “But when I found myself fighting for the lead, I truly believed good things would happen. Then the rain hit, and everything just fell apart. We stayed out on track one lap too long. That cost us a lot of time. A slow pit stop didn’t help our situation either. And then, I even got a puncture.”
