Asian Le Mans Series Decider in Yas Marina: Hours 1-3 Report
We are one hour from the finish of the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit.
Here’s a report of the action as it happened.
Metres into the Asian Le Mans Series 2023 finale, there was drama when the #23 United Autosports Oreca of Yasser Shahin hit the back of the LMP3 pole-sitting #11 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duquiene D08 of Torsten Kratz, inflicting big damage to the rear of the #11 which limped slowly back to the pits.
Shahin was given a drive-through penalty for his troubles, while in the other United Oreca, Paul di Resta – one of only two professional drivers to take the start in his class – seized the initiative, driving past both the #24 Nielsen Racing Oreca of Rodrigo Sales and #3 DKR Engineering Oreca of Salih Yoluc in one swoop through turn nine, from ninth to second, then past pole sitter Ahmad al-Harthy in the #98 99 Racing Oreca on the second lap.
Di Resta would drive out to a 30 second lead before he and the rest of the LMP2 leaders pitted for fuel only past the half hour mark. He retained that lead over the young American Christian Bogle in the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca, who had to fight for several laps to get past Yoluc for position and jumped ahead of Al-Harthy after the pit cycles.
Likewise in LMP3, young Mexican driver Sebastian Alvarez went on a tear of his own to catch up to the class leading #29 MV2S Racing Ligier of Viacheslav Gutak, and take the class lead in the first half-hour. He built up a 30 second advantage then brought the long-suffering #18 360 Racing Ligier into the pits for the first of three compulsory 100-second pit stops, and was relieved by Frederic Jousset.
There were great – and thankfully clean – battles all throughout the 18-car GT class from the opening minutes. In this class, many teams started their Silver, Gold, and Platinum rated drivers. One such team was the #95 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GT3, Henrique Chaves drove to the lead past the #7 Haupt Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Bronze-rated Martin Konrad.
But Konrad did well to hold a strong position ahead of the professional drivers in the opening stint, and staying within the boundaries of the track – something Mikkel Jensen in the #57 CarGuy Ferrari 488 GT3 fell afoul of, he had to serve a drive-through penalty for track limits infringements while running in second.
Meanwhile, Chandler Hull in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 approached the start very conservatively and fell outside of the top ten in his class.
The #5 DKR Engineering Duquiene suffered dramas in their bid for the LMP3 championship. Tom van Rompuy brought the car into the pits, but the engine cover came off and the car was soon brought back into the garage. The #63 Inter Europol Ligier also went to the garage at the turn of the first hour, and eventually retired with a starter motor problem.
A lap later, the #29 MV2S Racing Ligier, #17 COOL Racing Ligier, and #4 Nielsen Racing Ligier pitted in for regulation stops as hour two got underway. Jerome de Sadeleer relieved Gutak in the #29, Adrien Chila and Tony Wells stayed aboard the #17 and #4 respectively.
The first of the LMP2 front runners to take a 100-second stop was the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca, just over an hour into the race. Christian Bogle completed a change of drivers to Charlie Crews, but the pit crew dropped the car off its air jacks without the right rear tyre.
Then came the GT class leaders for their first regulation pit stops. John Hartshorne took over the #95 TF Sport Aston Martin, and Konrad, who retained second place heading into the pits, remained in the car for a double stint.
They were followed by the #33 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, which started in the hands of Alfred Renauer before handing the baton to Klaus Bachler – who then overtook Konrad for second place once the #6 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes of Frank Bird made its first stop. Taking several seconds per lap out of Hartshorne’s lead, Bachler easily drove through to take the GT class lead.
In the leading #22 United Autosports Oreca, Di Resta stretched his advantage out to 64 seconds before pitting for a full-service stop after an hour and nine minutes Jim McGuire got aboard for his first stint, hoping to maintain the advantage that his team mate had built for him.
COOL Racing made a similar move in the pits, this time swapping Bronze-rated Alexandre Coigny out for Race 1 star Malthe Jakobsen in the #37 Oreca. Without the aid of an in-car timer, COOL Racing stopped just one second short of 100 – just as Algarve Pro Racing did yesterday – and will need to make another attempt at it.
The #3 DKR Engineering, #25 Algarve Pro Racing, and #24 Nielsen Racing pitted with one hour and 15 minutes elapsed. Ayhancan Guven relieved Yoluc in the #3, and Ben Hanley relieved Sales in the #24. John Falb started the #25 and was relieved by James Allen, and they made a short stop which got them out ahead of the #3. A lap later, the #98 99 Racing Oreca made its first stop, and Al-Harthy brought an end to another serviceable first stint.
With that cycle of LMP2 stops complete, McGuire retained a lead of 20 seconds to Crews in second. But it didn’t take long for the racer-turned-lawyer-turned-racer renewed to close the gap to McGuire. At the start of lap 48, Crews easily swooped past McGuire into turn one to take the LMP2 lead. McGuire put up little resistance as the 99 Racing Oreca overtook him, and the blue, red, and white United Oreca began to slip out of contention for the victory as Guven and Jakobsen eventually went through for third and fourth.
Xavier Lloveras had taken over the #8 Graff Racing Ligier from Fabrice Rossello, and Lloveras drove past De Sadeleer in the #29 Ligier to take the LMP3 class lead, while De Sadeleer began battling with Jousset for second in class. De Sadeleer began to pull away, and Chila would then overtake Jousset for third in class.
As Bachler sprinted out to build a lead before Antares Au’s stint, Konrad dispatched Hartshorne for second place, and the Al Manar Racing-liveried #7 Mercedes moved into position to try and take a come-from-behind GT championship – with the #34 Walkenhorst BMW, now driven by Thomas Merrill, still hanging around the outskirts of the top ten in class.
A great battle between Bronzes Florian Scholze and Liam Talbot broke out for eighth place, with the #10 GetSpeed Mercedes of Scholze desperate to fend off the #72 HubAuto Mercedes of Talbot behind him. In his pursuit, Talbot went into the banked turn nine carrying too much momentum and spun.
Belen Garcia and Matthias Luethen battled for position in LMP3, but on approach to turn nine, Garcia spun out, and her momentum carried the #9 Graff Racing Ligier right into the side of the #55 Rinaldi Racing Duquiene despite Luethen’s best efforts to avoid. Simultaneously, Satoshi Hoshino spun his #77 D’station Racing Aston Martin at turn 12. With an hour and 35 minutes elapsed, a Full Course Yellow was declared.
Several teams elected to take regulation 100 second stops, some changed drivers. When the race restarted, Crews led LMP2 by ten seconds over 99 Racing, Guven was third in the DKR Engineering car, while the Algarve Pro Racing team made two 100 second stops during the FCY.
Adrien Chila stayed out aboard the #17 COOL Racing Ligier to take the LMP3 class lead over the #8 Graff Racing Ligier now in the hands of Francois Heriau and the #29 MV2S Racing Ligier of De Sadeleer, still running strong.
Delaying their stop one lap helped Haupt Racing Team take the GT class lead, with Omani hero Al Faisal al Zubair now at the wheel of the #7. Frederik Schandorff caught a lucky break after needing to serve his own track limits drive through penalty, the FCY helped him retain third on the restart, and he soon dispatched Au in the #33 Herberth Racing Porsche for position.
Ominously for the new GT race leaders, the #34 Walkenhorst BMW of Merrill also gained tons of track position and moved up to sixth after the FCY – but Merrill’s heart had to be in his throat when he and McGuire in the #22 United Oreca collided at turn seven, knocking some dive planes off the Oreca and leaving the Walkenhorst crew covering their eyes in the garage!
It didn’t impact Merrill much as he, and the #10 GetSpeed Mercedes now in the hands of Raffaele Marciello, got past Au – Marciello now third, Merrill in a title-clinching position in fourth.
Crews slotted into second as the 99 Racing Oreca took the lead with one hour and 51 minutes elapsed. Guven then began to close the gap down to second-placed Crews, trying to give DKR Engineering’s five-year-old Oreca LMP2 07 chassis a championship in the Asian Le Mans Series.
Ross Kaiser put on a sensational move past the #53 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Miguel Cristovao, three-wide around the outside using the #95 TF Sport Aston Martin as a pick in the middle!
At the start of the third hour, the critical battle between Crews and Guven saw the two running tail-to-nose for second place. Minutes later, Guven sold Crews the dummy into turn five, and took second place with an 11 second gap to the race leader in front. All the while, Jakobsen was cleaving several seconds per lap out of the gap to the cars in front of him in fourth.
Nielsen Racing gave their #4 Ligier a short pit stop to gain track position as Matthew Bell relieved Wells, while after two hours of driving, Chila finally climbed out of the #17 COOL Racing Ligier and was relieved by Cedric Oltramare at the end of a full-service stop. Bell would find himself battling with Nick Adcock in the #1 CD Sport Ligier, but he eventually wrestled fifth place away.
Al Zubair was beginning to not only hold, but extend the #7 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes’ advantage to over 25 seconds over the #57 CarGuy Ferrari of Schandorff. But with the #34 Walkenhorst BMW solidly fourth, Al Zubair and the rest of the Haupt squad knew they did not control their championship destiny. Marciello was hit with a track limits drive-through penalty in the #10 GetSpeed Mercedes, which helped the race leaders at Haupt Racing Team, but also Walkenhorst Motorsport in their championship bid.
Nolan Siegel got aboard the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca with just under an hour and 50 minutes left, and the Inter Europol crew took a short stop at this time.
James Allen had a bit of a scare when the #77 D’station Racing Aston Martin of Satoshi Hoshino collided with the #15 RLR MSport Ligier of Andres Latorre at turn six, right in Allen’s proximity. Minutes later, the #53 Inter Europol Ligier lost its left rear wheel through the final two corners, but Wyatt Brichacek brought the car back into its pits safely.
With 100 minutes left, the rest of the LMP2 leaders made another round of pit stops. Charlie Eastwood boarded the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca in a 100-second stop. Kyffin Simpson relieved Allen aboard the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, and they made a “performance” stop to gain track position. 99 Racing and COOL Racing kept their drivers aboard on short stops. Jakobsen emerged in second, Siegel slotted in ahead of Eastwood in fourth, with Simpson in fifth and Hanley sixth.
Jakobsen’s sensational charge was blunted when, with 95 minutes left, he and Hanley made contact in the final corner, sending both cars spinning! It would take over 20 minutes to review, but Jakobsen, the hero of Race 1, was given a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact – this took COOL Racing out of the lead fight.
The #57 CarGuy Ferrari pitted from its battle for the top three in GT, as Takeshi Kimura was strapped in to take the car home. The #34 Walkenhorst BMW of Merrill now moved up to second with just over an hour and a half remaining.
A battle for second broke out in LMP3 as Kaiser in the #18 360 Racing Ligier caught De Sadeleer in the #29 MV2S Racing Ligier, one where De Sadeleer would be keen to hold Kaiser behind him – because with the #8 Graff Racing Ligier of Heriau leading, a tie on 73 points each would see Graff Racing win the title on the second place tiebreaker! Then, with 80 minutes left, Kaiser overtook De Sadeleer to put Graff in title-winning position.
Simultaneously, the sensational Siegel caught the overall leader, driving well beyond the level of an 18-year-old prospect but an 18-year veteran. Siegel gave the F1 veteran in front of him a taste of his own medicine – despite naughty defence from the 99 Racing Oreca pushing Siegel almost into the grass, he never lifted and committed all the way through into the lead at turn six!
Pit stops began to come thick and fast as the clock ticked down to 75 minutes left. First, the 99 Racing Oreca stopped for full service, and Neel Jani got aboard to take the car home. The #43 Inter Europol Oreca took its final 100-second stop, cycling Malthe Jakobsen to the lead even after his drive-through penalty, but he does owe a 100-second stop. Performance stops from the #3 and #25 followed just as the third hour came to an end. This cycled Siegel back to second place, behind Jakobsen.
But as it stands, the #43 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Crews, Bogle, and Siegel is set to take the race win, while the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca of Yoluc, Eastwood, and Guven is set to take the title.
In GT, Luca Stolz boarded the leading #7 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes, taking with him a 40 second lead over the #34 Walkenhorst BMW now piloted by Nicky Catsburg and closing in on a dominant GT championship clincher. And Benjamin Goethe, from nowhere, was running third in the #88 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 after taking the baton from Alex West and Marvin Kirchhoefer – this was a car had been in accident dramas all day yesterday, and it was now ahead of the #10 GetSpeed Mercedes, now fourth with Fabian Schiller aboard.
Matt Bell drove the #4 Nielsen Racing Ligier to the LMP3 lead, still to make its final 100 second stop, ahead of the #17 COOL Racing Ligier, and the #8 Graff Racing Ligier, which should re-take the net lead with Xavier Lloveras now at the wheel. The #29 MV2S Racing Ligier of Fabien Lavergne is fourth, but they have to plug De Sadeleer back in for more drive time.
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