Estoril in Portugal proved to be a very happy hunting ground for AF Corse driver Michael Lyons on Sunday, 19th October, with the British racer securing his maiden European Le Mans Series podium during the fifth and final round of his debut season in the prestigious sportscar championship.

After a highly competitive and consistently strong performance from the 23-year-old and Italian team-mates Marco Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perazzini, the trio ended four hours of challenging racing second in the LMGTE class and in 10th position overall.

Not only that, the impressive podium result enabled the No.54 Ferrari 458 Italia drivers to conclude the season inside the LMGTE championship top six – climbing from eighth position at the beginning of the weekend.

“We were in the hunt all race long and, in the end, we came within 10 seconds of the victory so I’m pretty pleased about that”, said Bishop’s Stortford-based Michael, “It’s obviously fantastic to finally get that first ELMS podium under our belts, it’s been on the cards for a while but for a variety of reasons it didn’t happen until now. It’s a great way to round-off my first season in the series.”

Qualifying eighth fastest in class, 18th in the overall classification, Michael took the opening stint of the four-hour contest and immediately gained two positions before becoming bottled up behind Sergey Zlobin’s SMP Ferrari. Searching for a way past, the breakthrough came on lap six as he moved into fifth in LMGTE.

Climbing into third in class and 11th position overall before the race reached the one-hour mark, he then pitted to hand over the car to Perazzini. Following a competitive stint from the Italian veteran, Michael got back behind the wheel for the third hour and carved his way back up the order.

Rejoining the race ninth in LMGTE and 20th overall, the Briton starred as he sliced his way through the field. After working his way into fourth in class, he rapidly closed up behind the JMW Ferrari of compatriot Daniel McKenzie and with 75 minutes of racing remaining Michael challenged for third.

With much better traction out of the chicane, he positioned himself neatly on the inside line out of the left-right kink to move into the LMGTE podium placings and the overall top 12. Shortly after, he handed the AF Corse Ferrari over to Cioci with roughly one hour to go.

During the final stint the Italian delivered a similarly impressive performance and after joining the race fifth in LMGTE and 16th overall, he climbed back into the top three before taking second in class late on and breaking into the coveted overall top 10 to cap a magnificent race for the trio.

“We did struggle a bit on Saturday to get the car how we wanted it but we made changes overnight and unlocked more pace so we had good consistency on Sunday”, explained Michael, “It wasn’t a straightforward race, my first stint was pretty good but in the second stint I had LMP2 cars spinning in front of me and GT cars making contact – a lot of people took risks but we kept our heads down.

“It’s been a good first year in the ELMS, I’ve really enjoyed working with the AF guys again and it’s been a lot of fun racing with Marco [Cioci] and Piergiuseppe [Perazzini]. Obviously, a big thank you to the sponsors as always – now the hard work starts to ensure plans for a bigger and better 2015 come to fruition.”

Final 2014 European Le Mans Series LMGTE Driver Standings:

6th Michael Lyons/Marco Cioci/Piergiuseppe Perazzini, 48pts