After a two and a half hour delay, qualifying for the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Dubai concluded as the clubman racers were in the spotlight to set the grid for both races. The fastest times set the grid for Race 1 which begins today at a new time of 4:45 PM GST (local time).
Charles Crews, the one-time Indy 500 aspirant, turned lawyer, turned first time LMP2 Bronze driver, locked out the top spot on the grid aboard the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca LMP2 07.
Crews first jumped to the top spot with a time of 1’49.329, then, on his next flying lap, put pole position out of reach with a 1’48.580. That will put Crews, and co-drivers Nolan Siegel and Christian Bogle, on the overall pole position at the head of a field of over 40 cars including 24 sports prototypes.
And, they will also start Sunday’s race from pole position – see more in our report of how the second-fastest times shook down!
Salih Yoluc qualified second in the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca (with Charlie Eastwood and Ayhancan Guven), six-tenths behind Crews’ benchmark. Rodrigo Sales, driving for defending LMP2 series champions Nielsen Racing, was third quickest in the gold #24 Oreca (with Ben Hanley and Mathias Beche.
Torsten Kratz put in a dominant performance to give the #11 WTR by Rinaldi Racing Duquiene D08 the pole in LMP3, shared with co-drivers Nico Varrone and Leonard Weiss. Kratz turned in a lap of 1’53.185, the only sub-1’54 lap time set by the LMP3 field.
Nick Adcock was second-fastest in the #1 CD Sport Ligier JS P320 (with Michael Jensen and Valdemar Eriksen), followed by the #55 Rinaldi Racing Duquiene of Matthias Luethen (with Lorcan Hanafin and Jonas Ried).
Tony Wells and the #4 Nielsen Racing Ligier hit the #18 360 Racing Ligier of Frederic Jousset from behind at turn six, sending the dark blue Ligier spinning around and nearly collecting the LMP2 pole winner Crews. As a consequence, Wells received a three-place grid drop.
Trans-Am Series TA2 champion Thomas Merrill gave Walkenhorst Motorsport’s #34 BMW M4 GT3 – the sole BMW in the 24-car field – pole position for race 1 in GT qualifying. Merrill was named as a late replacement for Richard Heistand as their compulsory Bronze graded driver.
Franz Konrad in the Al Manar Racing-liveried #7 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 originally took the top spot with a time of 1’58.684, but Merrill displaced him from first place after a 1’58.298. The Mercedes and BMW were almost tail to nose at the final corner of their last lap. Konrad found more pace and improved to a 58.016, but just behind him, Merrill broke the sub-1’58 barrier with a pole-winning time of 1’57.701.
Merrill, Chandler Hull, and Nick Catsburg will start on pole this afternoon for the first running of the 4 Hours of Dubai, ahead of Konrad, Al Faisal al Zubair, and Luca Stolz.
A late flyer from Stefano Constantini put the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 third on the grid this afternoon, the car he’ll share with Simon Mann and Miguel Molina.
Qualifying was interrupted for two hours and 26 minutes after Philipp Sager’s accident aboard the #54 Dinamic GT Porsche 911 GT3 R. Sager was okay, but the section of armco barrier that he struck needed to be replaced completely.
