Asia Le Mans: Algarve Doubles Up in 4 Hours of Dubai Race 2
Algarve Pro Racing scored a second victory in the 4 Hours of Dubai, but this time it was the #20 Oreca-Gibson of Kriton Lentoudis, Olli Caldwell and Alex Quinn that crossed the line in first place at the Dubai Autodrome. Quinn was having an epic battle for the lead with Tom Dillmann in the #22 Proton Competition Oreca.
Dillmann holding the upper hand until an unseen incident involving some back markers in final minutes of the race saw the Proton Oreca spin off and allow Quinn to take the lead and the checkered flag. Tristan Vautier in the #30 RD Limited Oreca finished second by passing Matthieu Vaxiviere in the #83 AF Corse Oreca on the final lap.
The LMP3 win went to the #15 RLR MSport Ligier of Chris Short, Nick Adcock and Ian Aguilera after long battle with the #26 Bretton Racing and the #49 High Class Racing Ligiers. Aguilera brought the car home 12 seconds ahead of the rest of the class field.
An intense GT encounter saw the #99 Herberth Motorsport Porsche of Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer and Alfred Renauer come out on top, finishing the race ahead of championship leaders, the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG and the #89 EBM Aston Martin, with just 12 seconds cover the top three cars after four hours of racing
WARM AND SUNNY FOR RACE TWO IN DUBAI
The grid formed up for the second of the two 4-hour races in Dubai with 43 cars taking the start after the #8Dragon Speed Ferrari and the #82 AF Corse Ferrari were withdrawn after the accidents in race one on Saturday.
The race start saw pole sitter Giorgio Roda in the #22 Proton Competition Oreca leading the field into Turn 1. The #91 Pure Rxcing Oreca of Aliaksandr Malykhin ran wide and dropped back to 9th at Turn 3 on the opening lap.
The #85 Iron Dames Porsche had to pit with front end damage in an unseen incident on lap 2, with the two Optimum Motorsport McLarens also colliding, damaging both cars at T12. This meant the Virtual Safety Car was declared by race control to clear the debris that had been dropped by the damaged cars.
Some teams elected to pit to top off the fuel in the cars, with the #15 RLR MSport Ligier of Chris Short taking the opportunity to burn one of the team’s long stops. After the Safety Car was withdrawn, the race went green.
The #50 AF Corse Oreca of Jeremy Clarke was leading from Roda in the #22 Oreca. The #26 Bretton Racing Ligier of Jens Moeller was leading LMP3 ahead of the #43 Inter Europol Competition of fellow Dane Mikkel Kristensen, with Kristensen eventually getting ahead of Moeller to take the lead.
Dustin Blattner was in front of the GT field in the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, with Steve Janis in the #9 Getspeed Mercedes-AMG and Bo Yuan in the #87 Origine Motorsport Porsche both less than a second behind.
After the pitstops the #91 Pure Rxcing had been brought back into contention, with Harry King ahead of the #22 Proton Oreca of Vlad Lomko, who had Job Van Uitert in the #3 DKR Engineering snapping at his heals. Van Uitert eventually moved up to second and set off after King.
After 50 minutes of racing the Safety Car was deployed when the #8 Dragon Racing Ferrari of Todd Coleman spun off and hit the barrier at Turn 6. The American driver was OK, and the badly damaged Ferrari was recovered, but the Armco barrier required rebuilding, so the race was red flagged to allow the repair crew to work.
The work took nearly an hour, with the clock continuing to run down, and the race resumed behind the Safety Car. The #9 Getspeed Mercedes-AMG of Steve Janis stalled on the grid at the restart and had to be pushed into the pitlane by the marshals.
The championship leading #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG also went into the garage with an ABS issue and the #15 RLR MSport Ligier retired with a coolant issue after steam was seen coming from the engine bay.
Julien Andlauer was leading LMP2 in the no91 Pure Rxcing Oreca from Tom Dillmann in the no22 Porton Competition and Malthe Jakobsen in the #25 APR. Alex Quinn was on the move in the #20 APR Oreca, catching the 4th placed #83 AF Corse of Matthieu Vaxiviere. Vaxiviere passed Jakobson as the Dane struggled with front end grip due to a damaged dive plane, with the #20 Oreca also moving up to 4th.
There was a change for the lead when Dillmann went ahead of Andlauer, with Vaxiviere almost immediately challenging Andlauer for second place. Alex Quinn was following the battle for 2nd between the two cars and at T13/T14 they tripped over some back markers and the #20 went from 4th to 2nd before the next corner.
The battle for LMP3 was between the #26 Bretton Racing, the #49 High Class Racing and the #15 RLR MSport, with Ian Aguilera quicker moving up to second in the #15 Ligier before challenging Thomas Kiefer for the lead. It took a quicker pitstop to get the Mexican ahead of the German but once he was in front, Aguilera moved away from the chasing pack to take the win.
The GT lead was also decided in the pitlane with the #99 Herberth Motorsport Porsche getting ahead of the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG after the team turned the car around in 21 seconds compared to Winward’s 28-second stop. Alfred Renaud kept Gabriele Piana at bay until the checkered flag with the #99 Porsche crossing the line 2.4 seconds ahead of the #81 Mercedes-AMG. The #89 EBM Aston Martin finished third after Mattia Drudi overtook the #10 Manthey Porsche of Klaus Bachler on the last lap of the race.
At the front of the field the #22 Proton Competition Oreca was leading but Dillmann was being caught by Quinn in the #20 APR Oreca. With four minutes left Dillmann was keeping a small gap to the following British driver and was looking good for the win. However, an unseen incident with some GT backmarkers saw the #22 Oreca spin and drop down the order as Alex Quinn swept into the lead.
The second placed #83 AF Corse of Matthieu Vaxiviere was also being caught by Tristan Vautier in the #30 RD Limited, with Vautier taking the position at Turn 10 on the very last lap of the race to finish second and Vaxiviere in third.