Soufi serves up a double in Prototype Winter Series opener at Estoril

Defending champion Danny Soufi took a double victory in the opening round of the 2025 Prototype Winter Series at Estoril, triumphing in wildly contrasting weather conditions.

The Konrad Motorsport driver converted pole position in both 50-minute plus one lap races at the former Portuguese Grand Prix venue aboard his Ligier JSP320.

Victory in Saturday’s opener, held in pristine conditions, came after lapping two seconds quicker than second place starter, High Class Racing’s Philip Lindberg.

Every team with two drivers began the race with their Bronze-rated competitor at the wheel, which allowed Silver-rated pair Soufi and Lindberg to pull away.

Soufi held a comfortable advantage before the mandatory pitstop window and rejoined still in a lead that the American, acting as his own data engineer at Estoril, held to the finish.

But Lindberg lost second place as the Prototype Winter Series features longer mandatory pitstop times for line-ups exclusively featuring Silver and Gold drivers in order to balance the field. Laurents Horr (DKR Engineering Duqueine), in for Jon Brownson, therefore took second while David Droux (in for Quentin Joseph) passed Lindberg for third for CLX Motorsport.

Amid heavy rain on Sunday, Soufi again led from Laurents Forderer before the DKR driver spun off and became beached in the gravel, requiring a safety car that bunched the field prior to the stops.

Soufi rejoined in third, but soon passed Racing Experience’s Wolfgang Payr and Joseph for victory before a full course yellow froze the order for the remainder of the contest, preventing Lindberg’s bid to dispatch Joseph for second.

The next round of the Prototype Winter Series will be staged at Portimao this weekend, with races on 25-26 January available to stream live on the Gedlich Winter Series YouTube channel.