- Multiple Authors
- Feb 15, 2025
- 8 min read
Asian Le Mans Series - 4 Hours of Dubai - Double APR glory sees them go 1-3 in the standings
A hectic weekend at the Dubai Autodrome sees the blue and black Algarve Pro Racing cars reign supreme
Contributions by Olly Shakesby and Charlie Thornton
QUALIFYING
Qualifying for the Dubai Autodrome rounds of the Asian Le Mans Series started with twenty-seven GT3 cars blasting around the dusty circuit, with the #79 Tsunami RT Porsche 992 GT3 R spinning on cold-tyres immediately after leaving the pits. The Porsche continued carefully, and with ten minutes to go of the fifteen minute session, Takeshi Kimura in the #57 Car Guy Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 vaulted himself to the top of the timing boards. While the clock ticked down, lap times came thick and fast, with drivers constantly exchanging positions, but Dustin Blattner was on a charge in his #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, which topped the charts with a 1:58.960.
Blattner had to make sure that he was able to set another good lap time in order to claim pole position for both the Saturday, and Sunday race, with the second best lap being used to form the grid for race two. With less than a minute remaining, the #82 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Charles-Henri Samani found himself in the wall, which drew the session to an early close with a red flag, and the session would not be resumed.
Prototype qualifying started with seventeen LMP2s and LMP3s blasting around the track, which saw little action until the closing minutes, when with eight minutes to go the #50 AF Corse LMP2 with Jeremy Clarke at the wheel spinning in the first sector. The session was uninterrupted, and Giorgio Roda in the #22 Proton Competition Oreca 07 shortly made it to the top with a 1:47.569, leading by over half-a-second by the end over the #50 AF Corse Oreca. The #22 claimed pole position for both races, while the #49 High Class Racing Ligier JS P320 of Mark Patterson was able to claim duo pole position in LMP3.
RACE 1
The race began with immediate chaos as the majority of the LMP3 field found themselves directly involved in a crash or off track to avoid the crash caused by the #49 High Class Racing and #35 Ultimate cars. As the race got properly underway with all cars facing the correct way there was a period of relative calm before we saw the #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren running slowly on the back straight with smoke coming from the front left corner. With only twelve minutes run the car returned to the garage with what the team would later confirm was a stuck front left brake. Whilst this was ongoing the #35 Ultimate car suffered a spin at turn three, another setback for the team involved in the lap one turn one incident in the LMP3 field.
With just over twenty minutes run the lead battle in LMP2 was developing between the #22 Proton Competition and the #91 Pure Rxcing cars whilst also trying to navigate GT3 and LMP3 traffic. Just twenty minutes later we saw the #8 Dragon Racing Ferrari GT3 stationary on track after getting a tank-slapper on corner exit and hitting the wall at high speed. At the same time the #99 Herberth Motorsport Porsche suffered a spin. The incident involving the #8 Dragon Racing Ferrari led to a safety car. Under Safety car the #42 Prime Speed Sport Lamborghini GT3 was placed under investigation for exiting a closed pitlane, at the same time we saw the #15 RLR M Sport steaming whilst sat at pitlane exit waiting for the red light to change. After catching the safety car the #15 was forced to come back into the pitlane having suffered a burst water pipe which led to the retirement of the car. With just over an hour run the race would be placed under red flag after inspection revealed that the damage done to the barrier by the #8 Dragon Racing Ferrari would require emergency repairs to the barrier section that was impacted. Almost an hour after the red flag was called the cars that were in the pitlane when the red flag was called were released to catch the back of the pack before the green flag was flown for the safety car to lead the pack away. When the pack pulled away behind the safety car the #9 GetSpeed Mercedes stalled and dropped to the back of the GT3 field due to being wheeled back into the garage.
An hour and eight minutes after the red flag was called we would finally go back to official green flag running and the race would go through a significant stretch of clean running. With one hour and eight minutes to run two Ferrari GT3 cars collided at the final corner causing a spin. Just ten minutes later the #42 Prime Speed Lamborghini was given a drive through penalty for having exited a closed pitlane when the safety car was called for the #8 Dragon Racing car’s crash.
As we came into the final hour the #43 Inter Europol Competition LMP3 crashed into the pit entry wall which caused significant front left damage. With forty minutes to run the #25 Algarve Pro Racing LMP2 took the lead in the hands of Malthe Jakobsen, overtaking the #91 Pure Rxcing car in the hands of Julien Andlauer. The #91 slipped to third in the following corners as the #3 DKR Engineering entry also got past Andlauer. Just five minutes later the #91 would cause a collision with the #9 GetSpeed GT3 at turn twelve and spin to the outside of the track. They were given a drive through for causing the collision which would see them drop down the order significantly. In the final minute of the race the #10 Manthey Porsche GT3 entry would come into the pits as they had under-fuelled in their final pitstop, this saw the #96 2 Seas Mercedes take the class lead.
Across the line it was the #20 Algarve Pro Racing LMP2 that took the overall win followed by the #3 DKR Engineering and the sister #25 Algarve Pro Racing cars. In LMP3 the #26 Bretton Racing car took the class win with the #35 Ultimate and #34 Inter Europol Competition cars rounding out the podium in spite of the issues both cars faced throughout the race. Finally in GT3 the #96 2 Seas Mercedes won in class followed by the #92 Manthey Porsche and #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, showing yet again the diversity within the GT3 class.
RACE 2
The first lap, as well as opening couple of minutes were rather calm compared to the race one on Saturday, but the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 992 GT3 R of Celia Martin soon found herself in strife with frontal damage, coming into the pits to address it. Just moments later, the two Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720s GT3 Evos made contact with each other at the final corner, with the #27 entry spinning and limping around the track, back into the pits. This incident caused a full course yellow, which was later upgraded into a safety car period.
The race restarted cleanly, but with forty-five minutes completed, the #24 Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 spun with Naveen Rao at the wheel, but continued on. Before the first hour was over, the #46 QMMF by Herberth Porsche had major front damage, while fuel was added to the fire as they were given a ten-second penalty for pit stop infringements. A virtual safety car was called for debris collection and general track clearing.
With nearly half of the race in the books, the #91 Pure Rxcing Oreca 07 with Harry King at the wheel went around the outside of Job van Uitert in the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca 07 for first position, while moments later the #42 Prime Speed Sport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 was trundling slowly around the circuit, and eventually came to a stop just at pit entry, blocking for anyone who wished to pit at the time. Malmezac got moving again, and came into the pits, and was seen just a few minutes later stopped in the first sector after exiting the pits.
Meanwhile, the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca 07, which was earlier battling for the lead, experienced a puncture, and immediately came into the pits, but this lost them plenty of time and track position.
An hour and a half remained, but we saw a contender in the LMP3 field stop at the final corner, with the #35 Ultimate Ligier pulling to a stop, and the driver getting out, triggering another safety car period. The racing soon got back underway, and a brief moment of hasty competition came when a five-way battle ensued between the two Algarve Pro Racing entries, the #11 Proton Competition, #83 AF Corse and #91 Pure Rxcing cars for second in class. Alex Quinn in the #20 Algarve Pro Racing entry made extraordinary passes on multiple cars, soon claiming the lead and setting personal best lap times.
The final hour saw many monumental moments, with the #91 Pure Rxcing and #50 AF Corse cars made contact at the penultimate corner, with the #91 spinning and losing plenty of time. Later there was contact between the #60 Proton Competition Porsche and the #28 AF Corse Ferrari with Davide Rigon at the wheel, who attempted to force a line on the Porsche, but instead forced both cars off track and the Ferrari into a self-inflicted spin whilst battling for eleventh and twelfth.
It was getting down to line with twenty minutes remaining, and we saw a three-way battle for the lead in LMP3 between the #15 RLR M Sport, #26 Bretton Racing and #49 High Class Racing Ligier, seeing the #15 RLR M Sport entry with Ian Aguilera at the wheel spearing himself into the lead around the outside of the final sector.
In the dying moments, Tom Dillmann spun the #22 Proton Competition LMP2 from the lead of the race with just four minutes to go, which dropped him from first to fourth, handing the lead, and eventual victory to Alex Quinn in the #20 Algarve Pro Racing LMP2. On the final lap, the #83 AF Corse and #30 RD Limited cars battled for the remaining podium positions, with Tristan Vautier in the later vaulting himself into second position, the #83 of Matthieu Vaxiviere having to settle for third.
RLR M Sport took the victory in LMP3, with the #26 and #49 following closely behind, important for them to take the championship onto Yas Marina, with the #35 retiring from this race.
Herberth Motorsport took victory in GT with their #99 Porsche 992 GT3 R, while the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo taking second, and the #89 EBM Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo with Mattia Drudi taking the third and final spot of the podium, as well as taking the fastest lap of the race in class.
TWO TO GO - YAS MARINA
With just two races of the 2024-2025 Asian Le Mans Series championship to go at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, here’s how the championships end up after four of six races.
GT
Winward Racing’s #81 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo extend their championship lead to fifteen points, essentially taking victory, as well as full points in the second race at Dubai Autodrome, due to the #99 Herberth Porsche being a one-off entry for this, and next weekend. With a string of good results at Dubai, the #92 Manthey EMA Porsche 992 GT3 R elevates them into second place in the standings, overtaking the join third and fourth #96 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG and #10 Manthey Porsche.
LMP3
Despite their retirement in race two this weekend at Dubai Autodrome, the #35 Ultimate Ligier still remains the lead of the championship, this time only three points ahead of the race one winning #26 Bretton Racing, who have 67 points. The Bretton Racing crew vault from fourth to second in the standings, while the #49 High Class Racing entry sits just two points behind the #26 crew after their worst result being fourth place at the second race in Sepang.
LMP2
With two wins in a row for the #25 Algarve Pro Racing crew, they elevate themselves into first position with 72 points, dropping the #30 RD Limited entry to second just three points behind. The #20, sister Algarve Pro Racing entry jumps to third position, just six points behind RD Limited, with the #83 AF Corse ten points behind in fourth.
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