Era Motorsport, United Autosports, GPX Racing and Rinaldi Racing take class honours.
2021 Asian Le Mans Series – Race 2
Dubai Autodrome, United Arab Emirates
11 – 14 February 2021
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: #40 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Julien Andlauer Axcil Jefferies Alain Ferte
GT Am: #66 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 – Christian Hook Manuel Lauck Patrick Kujala
The #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson of Rene Binder, Yifei Ye and Ferdinand Habsburg have dominated to take another convincing win in Race 2 of the 2021 Asian Le Mans season.
A clean start saw the sister #25 G-Drive Racing Aurus lead, before Rene Binder moved through to the front of the field. A three-car battle for podium positions broke out, with Arjun Maini capitalising on in the #64 Racing Team India Oreca 07 Gibson to move into second, and then first before a pit stop gave the race back to the Russian-flagged outfit.
With a strong lead, not even a stop and go penalty could prevent the trio taking victory ahead of the #25 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson of John Falb Franco Colapinto and Rui Pinto de Andrade and Matthias Kaiser Simon Trummer and Nicki Thiim in the #5 Phoenix Racing Oreca 07 Gibson.
Saturday’s LMP2 Am Class winners, #18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson, struggled early after a lock up and an unplanned visit to the pits, but Andreas Laskaratos, Kyle Tilley and Dwight Merriman overcame a tough day to keep control of LMP2 Am from #11 Eurointernational Ligier JS P217 Gibson of Neale Muston and John Corbett.
The dominance of #23 United Autosports Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Rory Penttinen, Wayne Boyd and Manuel Maldonado in LMP3 continued. The team made it two wins from two races. A final lap issue for #63 DKR Engineering Duqueine M30-D08 Nissan of Jean Glorieux and Laurents Hörr saw them drop from second to fourth, giving the position to Ian Loggie, Robert Wheldon, and Andrew Meyrick in #2 United Autosports Ligier JS P320 Nissan. The #8 Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Rodrigo Sales and Matthew Bell rounded out the podium positions.
It was a day to forget for #4 Phoenix Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Jan-Erik Slooten, Leo Weiss and Vincent Kolb after a multicar incident ended their day and caused a full course yellow. Pain also for the #9 Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan which suffered a failed suspension in the last hour of the race.
In GT, battles broke out early for the minor podium positions before the tensions spiked. The #97 Oman Racing by TF was penalised after contact with yesterday’s class winner, #99 Precote Herberth Motorsport, before an incident between #60 Formula Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 and #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3. This prompted a full course yellow to collect the stranded BMW, with the #60 given a drive-through penalty for causing the incident.
Redemption came for #40 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Julien Andlauer, Axcil Jefferies and Alain Ferté with victory in GT after a dominant performance in Race 1 saw them finish fourth following a late-race spin and post-race time penalty. Nothing was able to stop the Dubai-based team taking the class win at their home event today ahead of #55 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Rino Mastronardi, David Perel and Davide Rigon. Alexander West, Maxime Martin and Valentin Hasse-Clot in the #88 Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 finished third.
Control of GT Am by the #66 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Christian Hook, Manuel Lauck and Patrick Kujala continued as the team became double winners in Class. The #27 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Giorgio Roda, Francesco Zollo and Tim Kohmann finished second ahead of Henry Walkenhorst, Jorg Breuer and Sami Matti Trogen in the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.
