DKR Engineering claimed victory in this evening’s Asian Le Mans Series four-hour season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, which was punctuated by a long stoppage for barrier repairs.
Behind the victorious #3 ORECA 07 – Gibson of Alexander Mattschull, Mathias Beche and Griffin Peebles, CrowdStrike Racing by APR secured the LMP2 title with eighth overall.
It was an underwhelming performance today by the #4 ORECA of George Kurtz, Malthe Jakobsen and Louis Delétraz, which picked up multiple penalties, but its champion-elect status was never truly threatened by the #47 Cetilar Racing ORECA. As a result, they comfortably earned the title and a Le Mans invite.
The AF Corse-run Cetilar entry, which was in a must-win scenario, climbed from the back of the field to fourth before Antonio Fuoco made contact with LMP3 traffic in the closing minutes. This initially dropped the #47 ORECA to seventh, before a post-race penalty for the incident relegated it further to 10th.
It is Algarve Pro Racing’s sixth Asian Le Mans Series title, whilst Kurtz has won his second drivers’ crown, and Jakobsen has become the first driver to win three consecutive titles in the same category. A maiden Asian Le Mans Series crown, meanwhile, means that Delétraz has now won a LMP2 title in every ACO series, including both classes in the ELMS.
A violent accident in the opening hour for Algarve Pro Racing’s Michael Jensen and Kessel Racing’s Memo Gidley neutralised the event under red flag conditions for over 70 minutes, setting up a two-hour sprint under the floodlights to end the 2025/26 season. (Crucially, both cars exited their cars without assistance.)
DKR Engineering restarted in sixth, but a strong stint by an unwell Beche moved the team up to third before a round of pit stops towards the end of the penultimate hour, during which ARC Bratislava’s Matthieu Vaxiviere stopped on circuit.
This triggered a Virtual Safety Car before the #3 ORECA, the final LMP2 to stop, had pitted, and as such, it cycled to the front of the field with Peebles freshly installed.
The Australian then delivered a stellar performance, consistently pulling away from the rest of the field from the restart with one hour and four minutes to go, to claim victory by 11.532 seconds over the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA of Nolan Siegel, Giorgios Kolovos and Bijoy Garg.
“The pace was mega in this car today!” Peebles told Asian Le Mans Series TV. “I have to thank the whole team, we really got the set-up right today, I was super comfortable the whole stint and it was very enjoyable.”
High Class Racing’s #49 ORECA of Jens Reno Moller, Gustavo Menezes and Theodor Jensen completed the podium, ahead of the #20 Algarve Pro Racing, #6 United Autosports and #64 Nielsen Racing entries.
The #5 United Autosports ORECA once again came up short of a race victory, despite controlling the event until the Virtual Safety Car for Vaxiviere’s stranded car. Mikkel Jensen restarted second behind Peebles, but made his final pit stop significantly earlier than any of the LMP2 opposition, ceding significant track position and ending up seventh, ahead of the title-winning #4 ORECA.
Behind, Ponos Racing ended its first season of LMP2 on a high note, as it secured its first points finish in ninth overall.
In LMP3, 23Events Racing claimed victory with its #23 Ligier JS P325 – Toyota of Louis Stern, Isaac Barashi and Matteo Quintarelli.
A trip to the garage for the #29 Forestier Racing by VPS Ligier, which needed to win to stand a chance of the title, effectively guaranteed CLX Motorsport’s #17 Ligier of Paul Lanchere, Kevin Rabin and Alexander Jacoby the championship.
The Swiss outfit spent the majority of the race well-placed to seal the title in style, leading LMP3 until Rabin was collected under braking by R-ACE GP’s #85 Duqueine D09 of Pierre-Alexandre Provost with 45 minutes to go. The damage forced Rabin to retire, with CLX Motorsport celebrating its title in the garage.
This contact allowed Quintarelli to inherit the lead, and the Italian cruised to victory 41 seconds ahead of the #13 Inter Europol Competition, with #71 23Events Racing, #94 High Class Racing and #26 Bretton Racing Ligiers rounding out the top five.
23Events Racing had looked set to end the season with a 1-2 finish, but the #71 Ligier was awarded a drive-through penalty with seven minutes to go for contact with the #8 Team Virage entry.
And in GT, Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn’s Giacomo Petrobelli, Jonathan Adam and Kobe Pauwels pulled off an impressive comeback after its #56 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo suffered an opening lap puncture.
Petrobelli had climbed from third to the lead on the opening lap, only for contact with an LMP3 to force the Italian to pit. The British outfit then mastered the updated drive time regulations, which were reset due to the Red Flag, allowing them to return to contention.
The #56 Aston Martin was one of only a few GT entries to field their Pro driver in the middle stint, which meant Silver-ranked Kobe Pauwels could climb on board for good under the VSC at the end of the third hour.
This caution came too early for most of the opposition to complete their final driver change, since the maximum driving time for Pros was only 53 minutes.
This meant Pauwels only needed to perform a drive-through to reset his maximum stint time at his final pit stop, whilst his rivals lost crucial time switching drivers, and the Belgian comfortably cycled into the race lead from fourth position.
“The strategy was on point!” said 2025 AMR Driver Academy winner Pauwels. “Those two did a mega stint, and I only had to finish it. I pushed until the end, and now we are Asian Le Mans race winners!”
The #9 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO finished second, nine seconds back, ahead of the #10 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) and a pair of AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s, which had adopted a similar strategy to Blackthorn.
Kessel Racing’s #74 Ferrari finished a lowly ninth, following a drive-through penalty for a pass-around infringement. But with the #69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo failing to win, this was more than enough for Dustin Blattner, Chris Lulham and Dennis Marschall seal the GT title and for Kessel to be awarded the second Le Mans invitation up for grabs.
Images courtesy of Asian Le Mans Series
