A total team effort of driving and strategic savvy propelled the #37 COOL Racing Oreca LMP2 07 of Alexandre Coigny and Malthe Jakobsen to victory in an incident-packed first race at Yas Marina Circuit.
There was a 40 minute red flag after Johnny Laursen crashed heavily into the armco barrier on approach to turn one. Laursen’s #60 Formula Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 was pitched into the barrier after contact with a prototype vehicle.
After the barrier work was complete, the race resumed with two hours and 20 minutes remaining, completing one lap behind the safety car before the field took the green flag once again. Two (technically three) Safety Cars and a Full Course Yellow had disjointed the running order. And then after the #55 Rinaldi Racing Duquiene D08 lost a wheel and spun at turn nine, a second FCY intervention blew open the running order even further!
It was at this point that the COOL Racing team had made all of their required 100 second pit stops, and by now Coigny had passed the baton to the sensational young Danish driver Jakobsen. He kept himself within reach until 30 minutes left, then took the lead as the #22 United Autosports Oreca (Philip Hanson/Paul di Resta/Jim McGuire) and #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca (John Falb/James Allen/Kyffin Simpson) needed to make one more 100-second stop.
Combine that with Jakobsen’s searing pace, and he was able to take a splash of fuel with 25 minutes left and to get to the end and retain a 50 second advantage over the field.
Hanson dueled with Oliver Jarvis in the sister #23 United Autosports Oreca over the last half-hour of the race, but Hanson was able to pull away and secure second place on the road. But after the race, the #22 was given a 36 second post-race time penalty for failing to complete one of their 100-second stops within the maximum allowed time. This promoted the #23 of Jarvis, Yasser Shahin, and Garnet Patterson back up to second.
Simpson tried to chase down Jarvis in the closing minutes but spun out of the final corner with three minutes left on the clock, which gave the eventual third place to the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca (Salih Yoluç/Charlie Eastwood/Ayhancan Guven)!
That amazing turn of events and the post-race penalty to the #22 United car has given DKR Engineering the LMP2 championship lead heading into tomorrow’s season finale, 12 points ahead of three teams tied for second – COOL Racing, Algarve Pro, and the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca (Charles Crews/Christian Bogle/Nolan Siegel) that finished in fourth after issues on their last pit stop.
The second FCY caught out the #11 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duquiene D08 (Torsten Kratz/Leonard Weiss/Nico Varrone) which briefly led outright and was dominating its class, a drive time management issue dropped them out of the lead.
Instead, the #4 Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P320 of Tony Wells and Matt Bell, denied victory in Race 1 in Dubai, avenged its heartbreaking defeat a week ago with a win in Race 1 in Abu Dhabi. Bell – who arrived in the Emirates battling food poisoning a week ago – took the lead after the last round of full-service stops from the #29 MV2S Racing Ligier (Jerome de Sadeleer/Viacheslav Gutak/Fabien Lavergne), which finished second and extended its lead in the LMP3 championship.
The #11 WTM/Rinaldi Duquiene finished third, ahead of the #8 Graff Racing Ligier (Fabrice Rossello/Xavier Lloveras/François Heriau) in fourth.
MV2S Racing now lead Graff Racing’s #8 entry by 10 points heading into tomorrow’s finale.
Omani driver Al Faisal al Zubair took the chequered flag for his #7 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3, joined by co-drivers Luca Stolz and Martin Konrad on the top step of the podium in the GT class.
It was a victory flattered by the Safety Car and FCYs’ combined effects and the lack of a wave-around for some contending cars that lost track position, but one that was still well-executed – and a valuable win as well in terms of keeping the championship fight alive until the final race!
Rounding out the podium was the #91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (Alex Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Harry King) in second, and the #19 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (Gabriel Rindone/Brendon Leitch/Marco Mapelli) taking a surprise podium in third.
The #72 HubAuto Racing Mercedes (Liam Talbot/Jules Gounon/Ollie Millroy) finished fourth on the road, but because Talbot failed to meet the required minimum drive time, they were demoted out of the points entirely after receiving a seven lap plus 77 second time penalty after the race.
This promoted the championship-leading #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 (Chandler Hull/Nicky Catsburg/Thomas Merrill) up to a respectable fourth place, and gave them two more points in their bid to become GT class champions.
Walkenhorst Motorsport now lead by 18 points over the #7 Al Manar Racing/HRT entry.
