Updated, a post-race three-lap plus 51-second penalty for the #45 Thunderhead by Carlin Dallara sees them lose the win at Shanghai after a driving time infringement for Ben Barnicoat, the team putting Barnicoat into the car for 6 minutes and 36 seconds longer than the permitted maximum
The #26 G-Drive by Algarve Aurus 01 of Roman Rusinov, James French and Leonard Hogenboom takes the win, the #36 Eurasia Ligier of Roberto Merhi, Nick Foster and Aidan Read takes second with the #45 now classified third.
Thunderhead Carlin Racing has scored its first win as an LMP2 team in the opening round of the Asian Le Mans Series season at Shanghai in dramatic fashion today. Harry Tincknell was the hero here, snatching the lead from Roman Rusinov onto the back straight on the final lap.
It was a stunning move after the Briton had been gaining on Rusinov in the final minutes of the race through traffic, had one opportunity and took it, up the inside. It’s a big win for Carlin, its first in LMP2, a big win for Dallara, it’s first with the P217 in the Asian Le Mans Series, and gets the Jack Manchester, Ben Barnicoat and Tincknell’s title hopes off to the best possible start.
This came after Carlin’s Dallara lost the lead at the final round of pit stops. Barnicoat caught and passed Rusinov, who made an error at the final hairpin just before both cars came in for the final time. But the G-Drive Racing by Algarve crew managed to turn their Aurus 01 around quicker in its final stop than Carlin’s crew could service the Dallara, vaulting Rusinov back into the lead.
Tincknell, installed for the final run to the flag, applied pressure to the Russian-flagged Aurus immediately. It appeared that Rusinov, despite catching multiple back-markers at difficult parts to the circuit, would be able to hold on, but Tincknell made the move, scoring the Dallara P217’s second-ever win.
Third in the class was the pole-sitting #36 Eurasia Ligier, which lost out on strategy through the FCYs and Safety Car periods during this one. A podium finish for Roberto Merhi, Nick Foster and Aidan Reed is still a strong finish and made it three-LMP2 chassis in the top three.
Japanese LMP2 newcomer K2 Uchino Racing looked set for fourth on its debut in the series, but the car stopped on track and failed to cross the line, handing fourth to the first of the heavily delayed Inter Europol Ligier’s, the #34. Both of the Polish team’s Ligier’s were handed crippling four-minute stop-gos in the third hour for illegal passes during a safety car period.
LMP2 Am was won by RLR Msport, drama late in the race deciding this class too.
ARC Bratislava’s #4 Ligier JS P2 looked set for victory into the final hour, but Kang Ling ground to a halt at Turn 14, believed to be out of fuel), bringing out an FCY. The car retired, handing the lead to RLR’s ORECA. John Farano, Arjun Maini and Andrew Higgins, on their debut in the series, will be delighted to win here.
Second in the Am class, by a distance, was the single Rick Ware Racing Ligier. Despite finishing off the lead lap, Cody Ware and his Eurointernational-backed team will be pleased just to have finished here, after a tough first weekend as an Asian Le Mans team. Its container arrived late to the meeting and left the team scrambling to prep the car for the race. Not ideal, but the JS P2 stayed reliable and made the final.
Inter Europol takes first blood in LMP3
Martin Hippe and Inter Europol’s title defence got off to a flyer in China, with a victory.
Hippe and his teammate Nigel Moore stormed to the win here in China in the #13 Ligier JS P3. The duo inherited the lead after the ACE 1 Villorba Corse Ligier, which held a dominant lead in the class, stopped on track for a full minute in the third hour.
It was a bitter disappointment for the Italian team, which did finish, but fourth in class and therefore without silverware.
As a result, Inter Europol’s Ligier went on to win, comfortably ahead of the #2 Nielsen Racing Norma of Colin Noble and Tony Wells. The #9 GRAFF Norma completed the podium.
D’Station delivers in GT
In the GT class, D’Station’s Aston Martin Vantage prevailed, the Japanese Super GT regular taking the lead and securing the victory in the final hour of the race.
In the third hour, Astro Veloce’s BMW M6 GT3 of Max Wiser, Piewen Qi and Jens Klingmann led the category but lost time when it pitted under green before D’Station and JLOC pitted under the FCY for the ARC Bratislava Ligier stopping.
This dropped the BMW to third, handing the top spot to JLOC. But it wasn’t settled there, as drama would strike the Lamborghini team with only half an hour to go, the Japanese team handed a stop-go penalty for a pit infringement which dropped
As a result, Ross Gunn, who had been pushing hard to catch the Huracan GT3 of Yuya Motojima, inherited the lead with just a handful of laps to go.
JLOC took second and finished just 11 seconds ahead of the delayed Astro Veloce BMW which completed the podium.
Off the rostrum were the four Ferraris, which finished fourth to seventh in the class running order. The pace was there at times for the cabal of 488 GT3s but they couldn’t find silverware.
The best of them was the #51 Spirit of Race entry, which after a door to door battle with Car Guy’s entry during Hour 3, took fourth, leaving the reigning champions to cross the line fifth.
Aside from the #96 Oreca and #4 Ligier there were two further retirements, the #1 Eurasia Ligier suffering a major gearbox failure, the #90 FIST Team AAI BMW out with accident damage after Jun San Chen went wide out of T13 onto the back straight, half spun and recrossed the track before ending up with the M6 GT3 top the armco on drivers right, the driver perfectly OK, the BMW rather less so!
