JOTA Takes Back-to-Back Wins in Abu Dhabi!
Sean Gelael and Tom Blomqvist have won the final race of the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series to make it back-to-back victories in the #28 JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson.
A clean start saw the #25 and #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson lead the field, before Race 3 winner #28 JOTA moved up the grid after an overtake on #64 Racing Team India Oreca 07 Gibson.
Pit-stops, restarts and drive through penalties shuffled the podium positions, and hard-fought battles continued into the final moments of Race 4, but #28 JOTA came out on top from #25 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson of Franco Colapinto, Rui Pinto de Andrade and John Falb. Matthias Kaiser, Simon Trummer and Kelvin van der Linde finished third in #5 Phoenix Racing Oreca 07 Gibson.
Andreas Laskaratos, Kyle Tilley and Dwight Merriman took a clean sweep of LMP2 Am victories in the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson.
Once the race shook out from safety cars and incidents, United Autosports had control of the LMP3 class, which saw the #23 United Autosports Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Rory Penttinen, Wayne Boyd and Manuel Maldonado win from #3 United Autosports Ligier JS P320 Nissan ofJames Mcguire, Duncan Tappy and Andrew Bentley. John Loggie, Robert Wheldon and Andrew Meyrick round out the podium position in the #2 United Autosports Ligier JS P320 Nissan.
The #15 RLR M Sport Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Maxwell Hanratty, Malthe Jakobsen and Bashar Mardini led at the start, but retired in the third hour with a broken exhaust. Bad luck also hit Jean Glorieux Laurents Hörr in the #63 DKR Engineering Duqueine M30-D08 Nissan after they led the class but dropped back to sixth after a number of drive through penalties.
Takeshi Kimura, Come Ledogar and Mikkel Jensen came out on top in Race 4 in #57 Kessel Racing by Car Guy Ferrari 488 GT3, ahead #7 INCEPTION Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Brendan Iribe, Oliver Millroy and Ben Barnicoat and #55 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Rino Mastronardi, David Perel and Davide Rigon.
Incidents galore in the GT Class from the moment the lights went green. #40 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R was in pits to replace the left door after early contact, and a safety car was called to collect the #60 Formula Racing after an incident with GT Am #27 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3. An accident between the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 pair of #54 and #51 brought the safety car out once again, for an extended period.
Drama also filled GT Am when overall class winner #66 Rinaldi had an incident early in the race and saw them retire. The #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Henry Walkenhorst, Jorg Breuer and Sami Matti Trogen took line honors for the final race of the season from Giorgio Roda, Francesco Zollo and Tim Kohmann in #27 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3
Race Highlights
This was the final race of the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series and saw the Champions crowned!
Championship Class winners:
LMP2: #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson – Rene Binder Yifei Ye Ferdinand Habsburg
LMP2 Am: #18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson – Andreas Laskaratos Kyle Tilley Dwight Merriman
LMP3: #23 United Autosports Ligier JS P320 Nissan – Rory Penttinen Wayne Boyd Manuel Maldonado
GT: #99 Precote Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 – Ralf Bohn Alfred Renauer Robert Renauer GT Am: #66 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 – Christian Hook Manuel Lauck Patrick Kujala