The 2021 European Le Mans Series season kicked off this weekend in Barcelona. Forty-one cars hit the track for the four-hour race, with Orlen Team WRT's #41 ORECA 07-Gibson scoring the win at the checkered flag. Sharing the LMP2 prototype were former F1 driver Robert Kubica, Louis Delétraz and Yifei Ye. The Polish driver crossed the finish line with a 22-second lead on Panis Racing's #65 ORECA 07-Gibson. The defending champion #22 fielded by United Autosports rounded out the podium.

Pole-sitter G-Drive Racing's #26 Aurus 01-Gibson lost all chances of winning the 4 Hours of Barcelona one hour and 40 minutes into the race. The car incurred a penalty for failing to respect the restart procedure after a neutralisation and also spun out with Franco Colapinto at the wheel.

In the LMP3 class, DKR Engineering's #4 Duqueine M30-D08-Nissan dominated at the top of the classification each hour. However, in the final stretch, Cool Racing's #19 Ligier JS P320-Nissan sprang into action. The car driven by Nicolas Maulini, Matthew Bell and Niklas Kruetten triumphed over RLR MSport's #15 Ligier JS P320-Nissan and 1 AIM Villorba Corse's #18 Ligier JS P320-Nissan.

In LMGTE, Iron Lynx's #60 and #80 Ferrari F488 GTE Evos held the lead alternatively until Proton Competition's #77 Porsche 911 RSR-19 made it a three-way battle. In the end, the #80 reached the top step on the class podium ahead of the #77 Porsche and Spirit of Race's #55 Ferrari.

Fielded in the Innovative Car class, Association SRT41's #84 ORECA 07-Gibson shared by Pierre Sancinena, and mobility challenged drivers Takuma Aoki and Nigel Bailly, crossed the finish line in 34th place.

The next round of the 2021 European Le Mans Series is scheduled for 16 May in Austria at the Red Bull Ring circuit.