From a spin on the opening lap, to the top step of the podium. The #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca LMP2 07 of Nolan Siegel, Christian Bogle, and Charles Crews won the second edition of the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Dubai, thanks to a spirited charge from the 18-year-old newcomer Siegel to take the lead with 25 minutes left in the race.
After Viper Niza Racing’s Douglas Khoo was sent into the wall at turn 11 – thankfully able to walk away uninjured – the Safety Car was deployed with under 90 minutes left in the race – erasing a 34-second advantage from the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca of leader Charlie Eastwood.
Siegel passed Eastwood around the outside of the penultimate corner to grab the lead of the race, and after late pit stops for fuel, Siegel pulled away from the field to take the victory. It came after Crews spun on the opening lap from pole position, and a day after a late retirement in Race 1 cost them a podium.
This is the first LMP2 and overall victory for Inter Europol Competition in the Asian Le Mans Series, and the first win in the series for all three drivers.
The #3 DKR Engineering car of Eastwood, Salih Yoluc, and Ayhancan Guven picked up another second-place finish in Dubai, after another near miss with LMP2 class victory.
The #24 Nielsen Racing Oreca (Rodrigo Sales/Ben Hanley/Mathias Beche) rounded out the LMP2 and overall podium in third place, while Race 1 winners John Falb, James Allen, and Kyffin Simpson finished fourth in the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca. After picking up a costly puncture in the second hour of the race, Algarve Pro held off the #37 COOL Racing Oreca (Alexandre Coigny/Malthe Jakobsen/Nicolas Lapierre) over the line despite Jakobsen’s best efforts to get past Allen
DKR Engineering wouldn’t be denied the LMP3 class victory in Race 2, as Tom van Rompuy and Valentino Catalano drove their #5 Duquiene D08 to the win.
The #8 Graff Racing Ligier JS P320 (Fabrice Rossello/Xavier Lloveras/Francois Heriau) got its revenge over the #29 MV2S Racing Ligier (Jerome de Sadeleer/Viacheslav Gutak/Fabien Lavergne) – after Lavergne passed Lloveras for the win in race one, Lloveras returned the favour by overtaking Lavergne for second with seven minutes left in the race.
Walkenhorst Motorsport completed a perfect weekend at Dubai Autodrome with their second pole-to-win victory. The #34 BMW M4 GT3 of Chandler Hull, Nicky Catsburg, and Thomas Merrill overcame a slow start to the race to win, by a full lap after a fortunate pick-up from the final Safety Car.
While the lead fight in GT was spoiled as a result, second place was still fiercely contested after the #10 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Raffaele Marciello/Fabian Schiller/Florian Scholze) snatched the position away from the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 (Stefano Constantini/Simon Mann/Miguel Molina) with five minutes to go. Marciello had to go all the way to the pit wall on his right to slip past the harsh defence of Molina.
Expanded report to follow.
