The result of today’s ELMS season finale in Portimao has been changed after yet another post-race penalty.

On this occasion, the #13 InterEuropol Competition Ligier of Nigel Moore and Martin Hippe has been dealt a huge nine-lap penalty for a driving time infringement. This is a result of apparent confusion over the required Bronze driver time following the lengthy red flag in Hour 1.

Martin Hippe has been found to have been 16 minutes, 13 seconds short of the adjusted minimum (1 hour 21 minutes and six seconds) against the regular minimum of 1:45.

The decision has huge implications for the team’s ELMS effort, as it passes the 2019 ELMS LMP3 Championship to rival Eurointernational, which finished the race on the road in seventh place.

After the change in results, the team’s Ligier has been classified sixth after the penalty for #13, which originally crossed the line second.

The two title contenders had started the race equal on points (94 apiece). Now, Eurointernational finishes with 103 points while Inter Europol’s duo finish as the last classified runner, and with just half a point now scored, 94.5 is Hippe and Moore’s subsequent season total.

It also sees the auto (2020) Le Mans entry for the LMP3 title winner go to Eurointernational and not to Inter Europol, and breaks a 10 race podium finishing streak for the #13 that goes back to Portimao last year. That streak included its podiums in the Asian Le Mans Series season and the first five races of the 2019 ELMS.

For the newly-crowned championship winners, its Jens Petersen’s second title in two seasons following on from his Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 crown with DKR Engineering in 2018. Mikkel Jensen takes his first title since the ADAC Formel Masters crown in 2014.

The result is, however, still provisional, as Inter Europol has opted to appeal the decision.

You can read DSC’s full (updated) race report HERE >>>