Soufi and Konrad become two-time champions

Danny Soufi and Konrad Motorsport confirmed themselves as the 2025 Prototype Winter Series champions, with a stellar sweep of the final races of the season.

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya played host to the finale, and featured several additional line-ups on the grid. Team Virage welcomed a talented young pairing in the form of Geronimo Gomez and Daniel Nogales, while KC2 welcomed Jochen Schafer for his first race in 11 years. The German driver was coached early in his career by Gedlich Racing founder Markus Gedlich.

Konrad Motorsport also entered an additional Ligier JSP320 for Zino-Ferret Fahlke, who was making his debut in LMP3 racing.

Race 1

Coming into the first race of the weekend, Soufi had one hand on the Prototype Winter Series title. The championship battle was only to be extended into the second race of the weekend if CLX Motorsport’s Quentin Joseph and David Droux won the race, with Soufi either retiring or finishing at the back of the field.

However, Soufi began the event in strong fashion and started the race from pole position, alongside his Konrad team-mate Fahlke. As the 50-minute contest began, Soufi eased into an early lead, and had put himself out of range of attacks from behind after the first sector.
Philip Lindberg of High Class Racing moved into second off the line, ahead of Fahlke. As the leader ran from the field, Lindberg, Fahlke and Team Virage’s Gomez could be covered by a blanket in the battle for second. That was until Gomez began to drop away, while Fahlke applied increasing pressure to Lindberg.

Just as the pit window opened at the 20-minute mark, Fahlke had a great run out of the final corner. This – combined with the slipstream from Lindberg’s car – allowed Fahlke to fire past the Danish racer before the braking zone for Turn 1.

By the time Fahlke moved into second, Soufi was already over 25 seconds clear at the front. Shortly thereafter, Fahlke pitted. Unfortunately, after briefly stalling on the pit apron, Fahlke proceeded to cut the pit exit line. This led to a drive-through penalty for Konrad’s second car.
After the pitstop window, and even despite the handicap system slightly shuffling the deck, it was still Soufi leading. In second place, after a strong stint from Jon Brownson, was the DKR Duqueine of Laurents Horr.

Before receiving the aforementioned drive-through, Fahlke fought with Droux and Nogales over third. Nogales found his way past Fahlke after lapped traffic stalled the German’s momentum in the final corners, and this also allowed Droux to move past Fahlke at Turn 1.

Nogales was soon under fire from Droux, the holder of the fastest-ever LMP3 lap around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. And, while Virage’s single-seater convert made a valiant effort, Droux ultimately moved into third with a move around the outside at Turn 1. That would prove to be the CLX team’s finishing position.

Second went to Horr, who was 17s behind the race winner. Soufi crossed the line to win his sixth race from seven in the Prototype Winter Series, and with it, his second consecutive championship in the LMP3-led category.

Race 2

With the pressure off, Soufi could now enjoy Sunday morning’s race, albeit from fourth on the grid.

Racing Experience’s Matthias Bjerre Jakobsen started from pole, after mastering tricky slippery conditions during the second qualifying session on Saturday. He shared the front row with Horr. And, as the race began, wet tyres were the order of the day.

DKR’s Horr took the lead at the first turn with a committed late braking move around the outside. He did not find space on the outside, and was forced to rejoin the circuit at the Turn 3 bollard, but he did so in the lead. Soufi also moved past Jakobsen in the first corners, while Droux immediately began applying pressure for third place.

Jakobsen was sure to make his Duqueine as wide as possible, and defended hard against Droux while staying in touch with Horr and Soufi ahead. At the 10-minute mark, Droux finally found a way past Jakobsen, and was immediately on the case against Soufi for second.

Droux and Soufi’s battle briefly got physical at Turn 2 but, a lap later, a clean move around the outside at Turn 1 yielded second place for the CLX driver.

Droux, ever the man-on-a-mission, was not finished yet, and proceeded to close in on Horr for the lead. And, as Horr started to struggle with traction, Droux flew past around the outside at Turn 12.

The pit window began as Droux moved into the lead. Soufi immediately peeled in, but Jakobsen made an error at Turn 5 that brought out a full-course yellow. This paused and extended the pit window by four minutes, which both Droux and Horr decided to maximise, staying out as long as possible before handing over to their bronze-rated team-mates.

However, this backfired; the window closed as they approached pit entry. Therefore, both CLX Motorsport and DKR Engineering were penalised with a 20s stop/go for pitting outside of the window. However, as this was applied just three laps from home, the punishment was converted to a 55s post-race penalty.

On the final lap, Soufi found his way to the lead on the road, and guided home a 1-2 for Konrad along with Fahlke. Lindberg rounded out the podium after CLX Motorsport’s penalty was applied, and this demoted the Joseph/Droux combo to fourth. However, this was enough for the Swiss team to secure runner-up spot in the 2025 Prototype Winter Series.

For Soufi, his first campaign of 2025 could scarcely have gone better. The American was on the podium for every race, and seven of the eight contests ended with him crossing the line first. The combination of Soufi and Konrad Motorsport has matured and improved considerably since it began in 2022, and the team will now carry great momentum going into the summer.

Looking ahead, 2026 will be an exciting year of growth for all of the Winter Series categories. With V6-powered third-generation cars arriving on the LMP3 scene, the Prototype field will have a different flavour in years to come. However, Gedlich Racing’s sportscar grid will continue to attract top teams and promote exciting racing in future seasons.