Algarve Pro Racing’s #25 ORECA of Michael Jensen, Valerio Rinicella and Malthe Jakobsen have snatched the lead in the Asian Le Mans LMP2 points standings this afternoon in Dubai after claiming a second victory in a row.
The trio, who won the second race of the season back in December in Sepang, came to the fore late in the encounter after a 57-minute red flag disrupted the middle portion of the race.
It was Jakobsen, who arrived in Dubai late due to travel woes in the early hours of this morning, that made the winning move. The Dane forced Pure Rxcing’s Julien Andlauer into a mistake with 37 minutes on the clock as the various pit strategies in LMP2 were becoming clearer.
Jakobsen later emerged fourth after a final splash with 20 minutes remaining but brought the car home in the lead once the other cars in the class all made their final trips down pit road. It completed an impressive run through the field for the #25 crew, who started the race eighth.
“I had an amazing fight with Julien, we had close moments but it was super cool. We raced hard. It came close with fuel at the end, but I think we just had to focus on our own race,” an elated Jakobsen said after the race.
The aforementioned interruption was a safety car that morphed into a red flag in the opening hour with 52 minutes of the race duration elapsed.
Todd Coleman in locally-based Dragon Racing’s #8 Ferrari 296 hit the barriers on driver’s right at Turn 6-7, which sent him back across the track and unable to continue.
He was ‘ok’, but the barriers were damaged and the car was an on-the-spot retirement, just as the GT runners were beginning to come in for their first stops.
The Safety Car lasted almost 20 minutes before race control decided to stop the race to allow circuit staff to repair the dented Armco. Repairs lasted an hour before the race restarted with an hour and 44 minutes on the clock.
The podium in LMP2 was completed by the #3 DKR Engineering ORECA, which came alive when Laurents Hörr was at the wheel late in the race and the #20 Algarve Pro ORECA, making it a double-podium for the Portuguese-flagged team.
Behind, AF Corse’s #83 ORECA took fourth, as Matthieu Vaxiviere unable to reel in and pass Alex Quinn ahead in the final stops to nab a top-three finish. Proton’s #22 ORECA ended up fifth after starting from pole.
Pure Rxcing, which led a decent chunk of the race and looked set to claim its first win of the season, would see its chances of a podium crumble in the final hour. Julien Andlauer suffered a spin and lost the lead to Jakobsen before being dealt a drive-through penalty for causing a collision with the #9 GetSpeed Mercedes, which caused a further delay.
The Frenchman would eventually finish down in eighth after Nicky Catsburg made a late move on him in Nielsen’s #24 07, adding to the reigning WEC LMGT3 Championship-winning team’s frustrating run through the first half of the season.
RD Limited, which held a points lead after Sepang, struggled too and could only muster a sixth-place finish.
It was a race of attrition for the seven-car LMP3 class, which was won by Bretton Racing’s Ligier JS P320 of Jens Reno Moeller, Griffin Peebles and Theodor Jensen.
Bretton’s car started second and with a two-stop strategy thanks to the red flag managed to forge a commanding lead late in the race after Sepang double-winner Ultimate’s final trip to pit lane.
Inter Europol collected third behind Ultimate with its #34 car. Elsewhere though, it was a messy race from the start.
High Class Racing’s class pole-sitting Ligier finished off the podium and fourth after early drama.
The Danish team’s afternoon was essentially derailed at Turn 1 at the start, when Mark Patterson suffered side-to-side contact with Moeller, sending him into a spin which caused him to tumble down the order. To make matters worse, the car also suffered minor damage which stilted progress the team’s for the remainder of the race.
“We (Mark and Jens Moeller) talked about the first corner and having enough room, I had nowhere to go and he slammed into me,” Patterson said during the red flag.
“I’m grateful nobody else hit me, but everyone missed, that’s the good part. Thankfully there was very little damage, there’s aero damage to the front. You can’t win every race, but we were supposed to do much better than this.”
Inter Europol’s #43 Ligier was in the wars too late in the race. Mikkel Kristensen, while running fourth, ended up in the tyres at pit-in after taking the in-road too quickly. This damaged the front end and left-hand side of the JS P238, delaying the team significantly. It would finish fifth after repairs.
RLR M Sport’s #15 Ligier also hit trouble and retired. Nick Adcock was forced into the garage with steam billowing out of the car’s rear-end bodywork after he was held at pit-out with the pit lane closed during the safety car.
“We had been struggling with high water temperature, I switched the engine off and a water pipe had burst,” Adcock said. “It’s fixable but we need to wait for it to cool down.”
GT saw 2Seas Motorsport’s #96 Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Ben Barnicoat claim an unlikely maiden victory from 10th on the grid.
Ben Barnicoat fought his way to second in the final hour with a nice move on the Origine Porsche, then inherited the lead with under two minutes remaining when the #10 Manthey Porsche of Klaus Bachler pitted for a splash. It was a superb, turnaround result for the Bahraini-flagged outfit which failed to register a top-five finish in Malaysia.
“I had two great teammates and a fantastic team around me. Asian Le Mans is always tough on strategy, today with the red flag it was hard for everyone. But we did a great job and they set me up to just overtake one car,” Barnicoat commented.
Manthey’s apparent miscalculation on fuel meant its #92 EMA Porsche would rise to second thanks to a late charge from Richard Lietz and the #74 Kessel Ferrari salvaged a podium after being dealt a drive-through.
From the start, the #74 looked on course to fight for victory, with both Dustin Scott Blattner and Ben Tuck putting in head-turning performances to keep the car in the hunt for the win. But a track limits violation would undo their good work and leave Dennis Marshall scrapping for the final podium place by the end.
Origine Motorsport’s #87 Porsche, which was carrying a 10-second time penalty for causing an incident in the pitlane, did lead for a time but faded on pace despite Laurin Heinrich’s best efforts to hold off those behind him. The German would claim fourth, benefitting from the #10’s splash.
Winward’s #16 Mercedes would take a fine sixth, but it was a disaster for its sister #81 car which led the championship heading into the weekend and suffered terminal electronics issues today. The #81 still leads the standings, but its advantage has shrunk to just two points over the resurgent 2Seas AMG.
Beyond the Dragon Ferrari which crashed out, Optimum Motorsport’s #77 McLaren GT3 Evo suffered a problem in the first hour which took it out of contention.
Morgan Tillbrook, while running sixth in class, was caught by the TV cameras running very slowly back to the pit lane. The issue was a sticking left-front brake, which forced the car into the garage.
Tomorrow’s race will also start at 14:10 local time before the series travels to Yas Marina for the final weekend of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Image courtesy of Asian Le Mans Series
