Manuel Alves will return to the Porsche Sprint Challenge Ibérica next weekend for the fourth round of the season at Jerez de la Frontera. The two-time champion will make a one-off appearance in place of Henrique Cruz and will team up with young driver Duarte Camelo in LOB Motorsport’s Porsche 992 GT3 Cup.

The opportunity arose because Henrique Cruz is unable to take part in the Spanish round. For the two-time champion, it will also mark a return to an environment where he wrote some of the most important chapters of his recent career: “First of all, I’m happy to return to a home where I was also very happy over these past few years. Unfortunately, Henrique Cruz won’t be able to be present at this round and the opportunity came up for me to ‘steal’ his place and keep his seat warm for this round.”

From mentor to teammate

Although he did not compete in the PSCI during the first half of 2026, Manuel Alves has never truly been away from the project. Throughout the season, he has closely followed the work of Henrique Cruz, Duarte Camelo and Francisca “Kika” Queiroz, putting the experience accumulated over recent seasons at the service of the LOB Motorsport drivers. At Jerez, that role will take on a different dimension.

Manuel will go from observer and adviser to sharing the car with Duarte Camelo: “He is a driver I have already been following throughout the year. I’ve been there with him, Henrique and ‘Kika’, always helping them. Now I’ll be able to help Duarte even more closely because I’ll be in the same car.”

The sporting objective, naturally, does not disappear. Manuel Alves is returning to compete and the bar remains exactly where it has always been: “We’re going there with the intention of trying to win the races I take part in, but above all to try to help Duarte and continue helping Kika, as I have been doing.”

Despite the significance of the news, Manuel Alves is keen to make clear that this return does not, at this stage, represent a change to his sporting programme for 2026. Jerez will be a one- off appearance: “There are no plans, nor has it even been considered, to do more than this round. It really is a one-off, and we want to make the most of it so that it is very productive, both in terms of points for the team and in the evolution and development of our drivers.”

The collective dimension therefore takes on particular importance. Every result achieved at Jerez can contribute to LOB Motorsport’s championship campaign, while the presence of the two-time champion will provide an additional reference point in the work being carried out with the team’s young drivers.

From the Porsche Cup France back to the PSCI

The return comes at a time when Manuel Alves is facing a very different challenge outside the Iberian Peninsula. In 2026, the Portuguese driver is competing in the Porsche Cup France. And the results have accompanied his adaptation process.

Manuel arrives at Jerez inside the overall Top 10 of the French competition, sitting ninth in the championship and third among the rookies: “This year has been a huge challenge, competing abroad in one of Europe’s most competitive Porsche one-make championships. It’s going well. I feel that I’m progressing considerably in every area, in my knowledge of the car and in the way I work with it, within a more competitive environment that is also more difficult to manage.”

“We’re going back home”

Manuel Alves makes no secret of the emotional significance of this return. The PSCI was the stage for his two titles and LOB Motorsport remains the team to which he is deeply connected: “We’re going back home, to the PSCI, to LOB Motorsport, and we’ll see what awaits us. Above all, the focus, as it always is in every race I enter, is to give my best and win, not only within the category but overall.” But Jerez will also have another mission.

Duarte Camelo will be alongside him in the same Porsche. Kika Queiroz, currently one of the protagonists in the battle for the leading positions in the PSCI, will also continue to benefit from the two-time champion’s experience: “Above all, I want to support the development of our drivers, who have a lot of potential. Both Duarte, with whom I’ll share the car, and Kika have a lot of potential, and that is where I’m going to focus: helping them and passing on as much know-how as possible. I’ve already been doing that since the first round and we’ve seen that they are progressing very well.”

The fourth round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Ibérica therefore gains another ingredient of enormous interest.