APR Claims Fourth Straight Win In Race 1 At Yas Marina

Algarve Pro Racing’s win streak in the Asian Le Mans Series extended to four races under the floodlights in Abu Dhabi this evening. After a dramatic final hour, in which a flurry of late stops saw the LMP2 order turn on its head, the Portuguese-flagged team’s #25 ORECA of Malthe Jakobsen, Michael Jensen and Valerio Rinicella claimed its third win this season.

The drama continued right until the final lap of the race, which finished later than expected after it was extended by half an hour following an 83-minute red flag for a huge incident at the exit of Turn 1 on the opening lap.

QMMF by Herberth’s Ibrahim Al-Abdulghani came together with an unsettled Tsunami RT Porsche of Johannes Zelger that was tagged by the 2 Seas AMG, sending Al-Abdulghani hard into the Armco on driver’s left. The impact severely damaged the front end of the QMMF Porsche and forced race control to stop the race to allow circuit officials to repair the dented guardrails. The Qatari racer was able to exit the car unaided.

Once the action resumed and the race settled down following a pair of safety cars, it was intense. Initially, all eyes were on Proton’s pole-sitter Giorgio Roda up front in LMP2 and Pure Rxcing’s hot-shoe Julien Andlauer at the back. But neither the #22 or #91 would be fighting for the lead at the end.

Jakobsen took the chequered flag first after a late splash and a last-lap move on the sister Dubai Race 2-winning #20 ORECA that finished second after a fuel save from Alex Quinn in the final half hour.

Quinn pushed to extend the fuel and was helped by two late Full-Course Yellows for debris that slowed the pace of the race down. His efforts to cruise to the flag were impressive and he secured a 1-2 finish for the team, but he couldn’t quite stay ahead of the hard-charging Dane to make it a perfect outing.

“It was a fantastic day. It was tricky with the restarts and I had a difficult time, but we did what we had to do and got the strategy right in the end,” Jensen said after the race.

Behind the two APR ORECAs, the pole-sitting #22 Proton ORECA took a hard-fought third after the efforts of Giorgio Roda, Vlad Lomko and Tom Dillmann. Yet again though, the team failed to convert qualifying dominance into a win.

The crew looked to be in the fight right until the final hour when Lomko held the lead over the #25 APR and Pure Rxcing ORECAs. But a drive-through for a collision Dillmann caused with the #83 AF Corse 07 at Turn 14 would cost the team dear, as its finished just nine seconds off the lead.

Off the podium, it was a fine run for the #11 Proton ORECA which ended up fourth, and the #24 Nielsen ORECA which claimed fifth. UPDATE – Post race the fourth and fifth places would be reversed after Mathias Beche was adjudged to be 9seconds short on drive time – a 39 second penalty the result).

Further back, the #83 AF Corse ORECA’s day was ruined by a strategy gamble on tyres that didn’t pay off, plus the incident at Turn 14 that left Matthieu Vaxiviere stuck facing the barriers and unable to move. It finished sixth.

Perhaps the most surprising result though, was Pure Rxcing’s. It started from very back of the field after failing to set a time in Qualifying, yet appeared to be on course to win the race in the closing stages.

The team looked to have executed a perfect strategy by putting Julien Andlauer in against the Bronze drivers at the start. He steered the #91 to the lead in 21 laps before Alex Malykin completed a 40-minute stint in the middle of the race, which cost him a handful of places but kept the car within striking distance.

When Harry King took over, he put in a spirited drive through the field, with an excellent sequence of moves on Olli Caldwell, Matt Bell and Jonas Ried. Up to third with time running out, the Briton looked set to make it to the end on fuel and take the lead, as the cars ahead all needed a splash. But a miscalculation in drive time meant Alex Malykhin needed to get back in, dropping the car to seventh.

RD Limited also finished way down the order. The title-contending French team came home eighth and off the lead lap after a Fred Poordad picked up a puncture from debris under the safety car early on with subsequent body damage, the car needing an emergency stop with the pits still closed and then forcing an additional stop when the race.

As for the title battle, it will still go down to the wire with three cars in contention despite RD’s woes. The #25 crew sit on 97 points, the #20 trio are on 81 and the RD Limited drivers are just about in the running with 73, 24 points adrift with 25 up for grabs.

LMP3 saw RLR M Sport claim a second consecutive win with its #15 Ligier. Nick Adcock, Ian Aguilera and Chris Short came home almost a minute clear of Bretton Racing’s challenger after a topsy-turvy encounter, and almost two minutes ahead of GRAFF’s car that claimed third.

Bretton Racing’s drivers will be satisfied with their performance though, as it was enough to hand them a five-point lead in the standings ahead of the finale over the Ultimate team.

It was another disaster for Ultimate, which led the standings by three points heading into the race following a DNF in Race 2 last weekend. The team didn’t recover after Louis Stern was involved in a clash following the red flag restart which damaged the Ligier heavily.

Stern, attempting a move on the #49 High Class Ligier for third at the final turn, made contact that sent him into a spin. Then, while trying to rejoin, he was hit hard on the right side by the GT championship-leading #81 Winward Racing Mercedes of Rinat Salikhov who had nowhere to go.

Thankfully both drivers were ‘ok’. Though the hit immobilised the Mercedes, which stopped on the pit straight, and forced Stern to limp back to pit late for repairs in the garage that would see the #35 lose 11 laps.

High Class Racing, another contender for the P3 title, was also dealt a crushing blow. The car retired with just over an hour to go after a fire under the engine cover. The Danish team’s run of top-five finishes – which included three podiums – through the first four races, came to an end as a result.

It means that four of the seven cars can still win the championship, with Bretton, Ultimate, RLR M Sport and High Class all mathematically in with a chance.

The aforementioned incident involving Ultimate and Winward has blown the GT title race wide open.

The Winward team’s 17-point lead in the standings evaporated after a win for the #92 Manthey EMA Porsche of Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz. The WEC-bound team now lead by the championship by nine points over the #81 trio.

“There’s always surprises. I’m just happy. The Manthey Porsche was unbelievable to drive and got quicker as the night went on. First win in ALMS and we have a lot of momentum heading into the World Endurance Championship.” a delighted Hardwick said after the race.

It was a Manthey 1-2 in the end, with the #10 Porsche coming home second, helped by a late driver change that dropped the #2 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG from second to 14th.

That late promotion for the #10 also means that Antares Au, Klaus Bachler and Joel Sturm are now level on points in second with Winward’s Rinat Salikhov, Gabriele Piana and Luca Stolz.

Winward’s sister car picked up the pieces for the team and came home third after Maro Engel pushed the #16 AMG GT3 hard at the end. Kessel Racing’s #74 Ferrari and the #89 EBM Aston Martin ended up fourth and fifth.