An outstanding performance by 16-year-old Josh Pierson guided the #23 United Autosports Oreca to a win at a dramatic first 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi, round three of the 2022 Asian Le Mans Series.
A 30-minute red flag interruption after a fire for the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier of Vyacheslav Gutak, the driver emerging unharmed, did not throw Pierson off his rhythm, the young American unchallenged aside from a pass to unlap himself from Ben Hanley in the #4 Nielsen Racing Oreca after the race returned to green flag running.
Pierson handed the car over to Paul di Resta inside the final hour to complete the job, the Scot taking the fastest lap of the race in the final stages with the reconfigured proving to be some 15 seconds a lap faster than the pre-2022 iteration!
The United team though would not take maximum points for the race after opting to forego a points-scoring finish after testing earlier in race week to allow Pierson, who turned 16, the age at which he is able to be issued the relevant International race license, only on the Monday of race week.
The 25 points for the win, plus the point for pole position, therefore, went to the second-placed #4 Nielsen Racing Oreca of Rodrigo Sales, Matt Bell and Ben Hanley, enough to secure the championship win with a race still to come on Sunday, the Nielsen squad the first this season to have a confirmed automatic invitation to the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours from the season’s results.
There was some spirited action in the LMP2 Am running once again with David Droux putting in a star turn to catch and pass Anders Fjordbach for the class win and another slot on the overall podium for the #39 Graff Racing Oreca that he shares with Eric Troulliet and Sebastien Page.
The High Class Racing car would come home second in LMP2 Am with Anders Fjordbach’s pace blunted by floor damage suffered early in the race. The #44 ARC Bratislava Ligier completed the class podium despite a late-race assault at the chicane from a Garage 59 McLaren.
After a tough start to the season in Dubai with two DNFs following a spate of electrical issues, the #2 DKR Engineering Duqueine M30 D08 Nissan of Laurents Horr, Sebastian Alvarez and Mathieu de Barbuat lead from pole position to take a dominant win, all three drivers putting in a strong performance that will give the team a boost as they prepare not only or the season finale later today, but also for the defence of their 2022 ELMS LMP3 title.
They were followed home by the #22 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine of Leonard Weiss, Torsten Kratz, and Hendrik Still in a much better performance from the German outfit, a Duqueine one-two quite a turnaround from the double-header in Dubai!
The podium would be completed by the still Championship-leading #27 CD Sport Ligier JS P320 of Christophe Cresp, Antoine Doquin and Steven Palette, the latter winning a late-race duel with the title-challenging #8 Nielsen Racing Ligier of Colin Noble and Tony Wells, Noble passing the CD Sport car before being baulked in traffic through the Hotel complex and losing the place again to the CD Sport driver.
The CD Sport team will go into the season finale tonight holding a one-two in the points standings with their #3 car coming home fifth.
The biggest drama of the race befell the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier, a pair of spins at T14 and T15 saw fluid down and a Safety Car scrambled for the clear up before the car burst into flames on the run down to T9, under the Safety Car – Vyacheslav Gutak emerged unharmed with the fire taking some time to get under control.
The firefighting effort and subsequent track clean up made a Red Flag inevitable and the race was neutralised, but with the clock still running, the cars lined up on the pit straight for some 30 minutes before a restart was ordered. The Graff Racing team meanwhile were preparing for an overnight rebuild of the entire rear end of the car.
The red flag interruption saw a number of teams as winners and losers in the strategy stakes as drive time for their non-Pro drivers was burned with the field neutralised, and the element of luck in whether teams had pitted for fuel or nit before the Red flag came into play also.
One big winner was reigning GT Champions Herberth Motorsport, they had a very lucky break with the red flag having made a significant error in taking Ralf Bohn out of the car a minute too early to fulfil his minimum driver time. The red flag saw drive times amended and removed the issue at a stroke, without that the team would have had to pit again. As it turned out their #91 Porsche 911 GT3 R for Alfred Renauer, Robert Renauer and Ralf Bohn made a slick late-race pit stop, taking new rubber allowing Robert Renauer to emerge still in the lead ahead of a charging Ben Barnicoat in the Championship-leading #7 inception racing McLaren that he shares with Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy. The McLaren squad take an increased points lead into the season finale after the #55 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari could do no better than seventh, they had started the day just a single point behind the McLaren in the standings.
Behind the #7, there was a strong flavour of deja vu as the #17 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 of Louis Prette, Vincent Abril and Conrad Grunewald held on for a third consecutive third-place finish after they recovered from contact with the #77 D’Station Racing Aston Martin early in the race entry and a drive-through penalty for contact with #20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG.
The Ferrari was chased home yet again by the #42 Optimum Motorsport `Mclaren of Joe Osborne after another strong showing from the team, the orange and blue 720S GT3 shared with Nick Moss and Andrew Watson.
There was bad luck for the #6 HRT Mercedes-AMG after contact for Hubert Haupt from an unsighted Francesco Piovanetti saw a delay for the car when running strongly.
Piovanetti’s #51 Ferrari required significant quantities of race tape to effect a running repair to the bodywork after the incident, a further repair for the car under the red flag saw the #51 one of three cars to be penalised (together with the #6 HRT AMG and #96 Attempto Audi) with a drive-through for work on their car under Parc Fermé conditions.
All three Aston Martins ran strongly until the latter stages of the race, the red flag interruption not helping their race strategies, a common factor with the Garage 59 Mclarens, one of which would finish with significant front end damage after the clash with the #44 Ligier at the chicane in the last 10 minutes.
The #99 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Jurgen Haring, Tim Muller and Marco Seefried looked set to win GT Am, before a 3min45s penalty was handed to the German team late in the race for violation of the pass around procedure. This gave the lead to the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Roman Ziemian, Francesco Zollo and Axcil Jefferies, ahead of Valentin Pierburg, Ian Loggie and Mikael Grenier in the #20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG GT3.
The action continues tomorrow with Race 4 at 16:30 local (GMT+4) from Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi.
