AF Corse closed out the 2024/25 Asian Le Mans Series with a win in Sunday’s second race of the 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi weekend, as smart strategy and savvy driving propelled François Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxiviere, and Alessio Rovera to the race victory.
45 cars lined up on the grid for the sixth and final race of the season, with several LMP2 and GT teams fighting for their golden tickets to the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans.
But in a repeat of yesterday’s four-hour race at Yas Marina Circuit, an early incident led to a long red flag for barrier repairs. As the GT field came through turn two, a brush between Absolute Racing’s Gregory Bennett and Prime Speed Sport’s Rene Heremana Malmezac sent the #42 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 head-on into the armco barrier.
Malmezac walked away from the incident unhurt, but the barrier supports were damaged, and the red flag was shown.
After 36 minutes of repairs, the race resumed – and was extended. Once the red flag was lifted and the Safety Car peeled into the pits, the race resumed with three hours and 51 minutes to run.
Polesitter Giorgio Roda was determined to convert his sixth pole position into a victory, and he did all he could to keep the #22 Proton Competition ORECA 07 in contention. But after a strong first stint from Perrodo, the #83 AF Corse ORECA was leading after the first round of routine pit stops.
Rovera took control of the race and kept AF Corse out front after a VSC and Safety Car intervention to clean up debris, building up a 20-second gap over the field by the time he was ready to hand the wheel over to Vaxiviere to close out the race.
The Frenchman found himself at the front of a four-car battle for the LMP2 lead at one stage, though eventually only the #24 Nielsen Racing ORECA of Nicky Catsburg remained as his final challenger. It took some stern defence and measured driving but Vaxiviere was able to fend off Catsburg’s attack.
After many frustrations throughout the 24/25 season, AF Corse closed out the year with the overall and LMP2 win. The #24 of Naveen Rao, Matthew Bell, and Catsburg finished 14.1 seconds behind in second, ahead of the #30 RD Limited ORECA of Fred Poordad, Tristan Vautier, and James Allen in third.
RD Limited was one of three teams in mathematical contention for the LMP2 Championship, but ultimately had to settle for second place behind the title-winning #25 Algarve Pro Racing car of Michael Jensen, Valerio Rinicella, and Malthe Jakobsen. Fourth place would be enough for APR to take the title in the end.
APR’s other entry, the #20 (Kriton Lendoudis/Olli Caldwell/Alex Quinn), finished 12 laps down after a significant issue in the wiring loom of the steering column sunk their prospects halfway through the race.
Proton Competition’s two cars finished fifth and sixth, the #11 (Alexander Mattschull/Jonas Ried/Mathias Beche) ahead of the #22 of Roda, Vladislav Lomko, and Tom Dillmann.
High Class Racing’s #49 Ligier JS P320 took the win in LMP3 as the ageless Mark Patterson, together with Thomas Kiefer and Anders Fjordbach, got their first wins of the season.
In the end it was a superb 35-lap economy run from Fjordbach that got the job done for the Danish team, which came down pit road with less than 75 minutes to go for its final stop.
Second place in class went to the #15 RLR M Sport Ligier (Nick Adcock/Ian Aguilera/Chris Short), by just over seven seconds.
And third place in LMP3 was enough for the #26 Bretton Racing Ligier of Jens Reno Möller, Dan Skocdopole, and Theodor Jensen to win the championship by seven points over RLR M Sport and eight points over the #35 Ultimate Ligier (Louis Stern/Matteo Quintarelli/Leonardo Colavita).
Meanwhile, in a GT class that saw countless frantic on-track battles and a healthy dose of contact to go with it, the #10 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R of Antares Au, Joel Sturm, and Klaus Bachler clinched their golden ticket in perfect style, taking the win and the title in the final race.
A year that began with Au getting swept up in a multi-car accident in Sepang ended with the #10 crew overcoming a drive-through penalty for a start infringement to win the race by 6.4 seconds over the #89 EBM Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Gabriel Rindone, Jamie Day, and Mattia Drudi.
The #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (Dustin Scott Blattner/Ben Tuck/Dennis Marschall) fought its way to third place, while the #27 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 (Andrew Gilbert/Fran Rueda/Benji Goethe) finally enjoyed some good fortune, gained 21 places from the start of the race, and held off the #16 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Sergey Stolyarov/Viktor Shaytar/Maro Engel) for fourth by just 0.6 seconds.
Manthey finished 1-2 in the GT standings as the #92 Manthey EMA Porsche of Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera, and Richard Lietz finished seventh in class. The leading car going into the finale, the #92 team dropped down the order after a costly drive-through penalty, following Hardwick’s collision with the #88 Dragon Racing Ferrari of Marco Pulcini.
The other major GT contender, the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG (Rinat Salikhov/Gabriele Piana/Maro Engel), had its chances effectively ruined when Stolz was turned around at turn seven by Manny Franco in the #28 AF Corse Ferrari, just as Stolz was trying to climb from 15th in class. It brings the season to a frustrating end for Winward after the #81 crew took a 15-point lead in the standings out of Dubai Autodrome.
Images © Asian Le mans Series
