The LMGTE victors were Christian Ried, Lorenzo Ferrari and Gianmaria Bruni in the no77 Proton Competition Porsche, with the team scoring their second win in a row.Bruni took the chequered flag 14.3 seconds ahead of David Perel in the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488. The South African put up a spirited defence of the lead handed to him by Duncan Cameron but couldn’t hold off the rapid Italian.The no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari finished third, with Miguel Molina crossing the line 24 seconds behind the no55 Ferrari at the end of the 4 Hours of Barcelona.

The race got underway with the air temperature in excess of 30 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. On lap one there was contact between the no83 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Sarah Bovy and the no10 Eurointernational Ligier-Nissan of Freddie Hunt, with the Ferrari spearing off into the wall at Turn 2.In a separate incident the no3 United Autosport Ligier of Jim McGuire and the no27 Cool Racing Ligier of Jean-Ludovic Foubert also collided and both cars were left damaged and stranded at the exit of Turn 3.

The Safety Car was deployed before the end of the opening lap of the race to remove the three damaged and stranded cars.After 13-minutes behind the Safety Car the race went green again.

The top four cars in the LMGTE class were fighting it out with the no77 Proton Competition Porsche leading the way.Michael Fassbender in the no93 Proton Competition Porsche moved up from third to second when the no69 Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin of Ahmad Al Harthy ran wide at Turn 10 after challenging Ried for the lead, dropping the Omani driver to third place.

The two Proton Competition Porsches circulated, with Christian Ried able to open up a slight gap to his teammate while Michael Fassbender kept the rest of the LMGTE field at bay.The no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Giacomo Petrobelli moved ahead of Al Harthy to move into third and then challenged Fassbender for second.For several laps this battle raged until Petrobelli went for a small gap on the exit of the chicane, tapping the Porsche into a spin and moving up to second as a consequence.The manoeuvre was penalised in the third hour of the race with a drive through penalty for the no66 Ferrari.

The no19 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, which had started a lap down from the pitlane, was making rapid progress through the LMGTE and LMP3 field.Viscaal’s progress was interrupted when he was tapped into a spin by the no32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari at the chicane.Viscaal rejoined as quickly as he could to resume his run, while the no32 Ferrari received a drive through penalty.

Matt Griffin in the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was catching the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Giacomo Petrobelli, who was leading race after the pitstops.The no77 Proton Competition Porsche dropping back to fourth with Lorenzo Ferrari at the wheel. There was a short 4-minute Full Course Yellow period was declared when the no14 Inter Europol Competition Ligier went off into the gravel at Turn 12

Duncan Cameron was now at the wheel of the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari and was catching the no66 JMW Ferrari which now had Sean Hudspeth behind the wheel.Cameron took the lead at Turn 1, going around the outside of the leading Ferrari.Hudspeth tried to retake the lead but over did the manoeuvre into Turn 7 and ran through the gravel dropping further back.He then had to serve a drive through penalty for the earlier incident with the no93 Porsche and this dropped the no66 Ferrari back to 5th and promoting the no77 Porsche into second, but 20 seconds behind Cameron’s Ferrari.

The no77 Proton Competition Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni was catching the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of David Perel.Bruni was taking nearly a second a lap and soon brought down the 20 second deficit to nothing.The Italian bided his time and swept into the lead with 23 minutes left on the clock. The no77 Proton Competition Porsche finished 14.392s ahead of the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari, with Miguel Molina bringing the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari home in third 38-seconds behind the lead car.

Round 5 of the 2022 European Le Mans Series will take place in Belgium with the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday 25 September.