Louis Delétraz (Prema Racing) : "It was the longest hour and ten minutes of my life"

With a 24-point lead over Panis Racing going into Portugal, it looked like an easy task for Prema Racing. But there are plenty of examples where the overwhelming favourite has fallen by the wayside, Inter Europol Competition - who yesterday let the LMP3 title slip through their fingers - being the perfect example.

But the Italian team did not give up and went on to win the title in its very first season in the discipline, as WRT did last year. If, on a sporting level, the #9 Oreca 07 of Louis Delétraz-Ferdinand Habsburg-Juan Manuel Correa dominated the rest of the pack, this Portuguese final was not necessarily easy to manage mentally for René Rosin's men, and even more so for Louis Delétraz.

"It was hard because they gave me the car with a big lead and said, now I just have to drive it to the end, the Panis team is second, and they'll never catch me, but if I put it into the wall, or we have an issue, we lose the championship, Louis said yesterday night. It was the longest hour and ten minutes of my life. I really wanted this title, and I took zero risks, just driving, driving, driving."

A task he carried out to perfection, proving once again that he has become one of the new references in the class and that he deserves the reinforcement position that Wayne Taylor Racing has entrusted to him on the long distance races in IMSA.

"It was very intense because I didn't have to push, but when you don't push, it's where mistakes happen. Overall, I enjoyed the season a lot. It has been a lot of stress, a lot of work, and a lot of pleasure, and in the end, we won four races. It's really amazing. I love being competitive, I love being part of PREMA, and winning a title like this is fantastic, so thank you PREMA and Iron Lynx for everything."

A 100% Italian association which will defend Lamborghini's interests in the top class of endurance racing from 2024 onwards, and which would be wrong to do without the services of the speedy Swiss driver.