Algarve Pro Racing Double Up in Dubai

Algarve Pro Racing scored a second victory in Dubai but this time it was the no20 Oreca-Gibson of Kriton Lentoudis, Olli Caldwell and Alex Quinn that crossed the line in first place. Quinn was having an epic battle for the lead with Tom Dillmann in the no22 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 chequered flag. Tristan Vautier in the no30 RD Limited Oreca finished second by passing Matthieu Vaxiviere in the no83 AF Corse Oreca on the final lap.

The LMP3 win went to the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Chris Short, Nick Adcock and Ian Aguilera after long battle with the no26 Bretton Racing and the no49 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 no99 Herberth Motorsport Porsche of Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer and Alfred Renauer come out on top, finishing the race ahead of championship leaders, the no81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG and the no89 EBM Aston Martin, with just 12 seconds cover the top three cars after four hours of racing.

The grid formed up for the second of the two 4-hour races in Dubai with 43 cars taking the start after the no8Dragon Speed Ferrari and the no82 AF Corse Ferrari were withdrawn after the accidents in race one on Saturday.

The race start saw pole sitter Giorgio Roda in the no22 Proton Competition Oreca leading the field into Turn 1. The no91 Pure Rxcing Oreca of Aliaksandr Malykhin ran wide and dropped back to 9th at Turn 3 on the opening lap.

The no85 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 no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Chris Short taking the opportunity to burn one of the teams long stops.  After the Safety Car was withdrawn the race went green.

The no50 AF Corse Oreca of Jeremy Clarke was leading from Roda in the no22 Oreca.  The no26 Bretton Racing Ligier of Jens Moeller was leading LMP3 ahead of the no43 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 no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, with Steve Janis in the no9 Getspeed Mercedes-AMG and Bo Yuan in the no87 Origine Motorsport Porsche both less than a second behind.

After the pitstops the no91 Pure Rxcing had been brought back into contention, with Harry King ahead of the no22 Proton Oreca of Vlad Lomko, who had Job Van Uitert in the no3 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 no8 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 no9 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 no81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG also went into the garage with an ABS issue and the no15 RLR MSport Ligier retired with a coolant issue after steam was seen coming from the engine bay.

Alexander Bukhantsov had brought the no7 Graff Racing Ligier up through the LMP3 field and he took the lead after 90-minutes of racing. The GT battle was still led by Dustin Blattner, with the American being challenged by the no28 AF Corse Ferrari of Massimiliano Wiser and the no99 Herberth Motorsport Porsche of Robert Renauer.

Another VSC period was declared to clear even more debris from the last corner and main straight. The Safety Car period lasted 20-minutes before racing resumed.

Job Van Uitert took the lead at the restart with Harry King challenging the Dutch driver for the lead, which he duly did before the end of the 47th lap.

Battles continued up and down the field with the no3 DKR Engineering Oreca heading slowly for the pitlane with a damaged damper. A quick repair in the garage the car rejoined but 2 laps down.

The no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Valerio Rinicella was on the move up, taking second from Vlad Lomko just before coming into the pits for a scheduled stop.

The LMP3 Championship leading no35 Ultimate Ligier stopped at the side of the track at Turn 16, bringing out another Safety Car period to recover it to a safe place. The race went green again with an hour of the race remaining.

Julien Andlauer was leading LMP2 in the no91 Pure Rxcing Oreca from Tom Dillmann in the no22 Porton Competition and Malthe Jakobsen in the no25 APR.  Alex Quinn was on the move in the no20 APR Oreca, catching the 4th placed no83 AF Corse of Matthieu Vaxiviere. Vaxiviere passed Jakobson as the Dane struggled with front end grip due to a damaged dive plane, with the no20 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 no20 went from 4th to 2nd before the next corner.

The battle for LMP3 was between the no26 Bretton Racing, the no49 High Class Racing and the no15 RLR MSport, with Ian Aguilera quicker moving up to second in the no15 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 no99 Herberth Motorsport Porsche getting ahead of the no81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG after the team turned the car around in 21 second compared to Winward’s 28 second stop. Alfred Renaud kept Gabriele Piana at bay until the chequered flag with the no99 Porsche crossing the line 2.4 seconds ahead of the no81 Mercedes-AMG. The no89 EBM Aston Martin finished third after Mattia Drudi overtook the no10 Manthey Porsche of Klaus Bachler on the last lap of the race.

At the front of the field the no22 Proton Competition Oreca was leading but Dillmann was being caught by Quinn in the no20 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 no22 Oreca spin and drop down the order as Alex Quinn swept into the lead.

The second placed no83 AF Corse of Matthieu Vaxiviere was also being caught by Tristan Vautier in the no30 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.