It is time to race, in the first of four, four hour races for the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series. Yours truly is covering the championship for the first time. Hoping to learn a lot and to enjoy these races including the first one today, at the Dubai Autodrome. We are set, for a championship season unlike any other. Cars in the LMP2, LMP3, and GT championships are slated to race today, as well as in race two, tomorrow morning. Only the latest generations of both LMP2 and LMP3 prototypes are allowed to race. Here's a look at the class polesitters. It is sunny and warm. We welcome Graham Goodwin and Oliver Gavin, in the commentary box.
36 cars, and over 100 drivers will compete today. This will be great. Now, there's a likely issue with G-Drive, the pole sitting car. This circuit is 5.39 kilometers with 16 corners. Watch the downhill at turn one. Turn seven is the lowest point, and watch for the banked corner at turn nine, through ten, 11, and 12. Turn 14 is a double apex and watch for turn 16, the last corner, too. The conditions are hot and challenging here in the desert. A lot more gradient here at Dubai Autodrome. We will see how things go in Abu Dhabi next weekend as well.
The track is very technical. We come over the start finish line, into a heavy downhill braking zone. Use some of the curb on the left. Back uphill again before reaching turns five and six at the lowest point on the circuit. Watch the exit. Into the banked turn, the only one, and use the road on exit to the long backstretch, going uphill. Choose your turn ten brake point. Go across to the apex curve. Then take a fast sweeper. Through to another brake zone at the top of the hill, go over the exit curb, keep energy in the car. Watch the kink, and then tackle the sweepers. Into the next right hander, you are onto the front straight.
Let the car run out to the main pit straight. All the action here at Dubai is coming soon. There was a test session and some free practice. There's been fog. Rapid fire qualifying happened for both races. 22 degrees Celsius air temp, and 65% humidity which is low. This will help with driver cooling. In qualifying yesterday, there were 15 minute sessions for LMP2, LMP3, and GT. A single qualifying session per class. 19 GT3 cars, 36 cars overall. Herberth Motorsports takes pole for both races and we will get to the numbers soon. CD Sport from Spain get pole for LMP3, until Duncan Tappy and Wayne Boyd score pole in the class.
In LMP2, Sean Gelael for Jota Sport and Nikki Thiim, in his first LMP2 race, do well. But the G-Drive cars are the ones who sweep the front row for both races. Next weekend's races are Friday and Saturday. The Aurus 01 cars are on pole. #25 of Rui Andrade from Angola, Franco Colapino from Argentina, and American, John Falb. The second car, #26, has Ye Yifei from China, and Austrian's Rene Binder, and Ferdinand Von Habsburg. The marshals are clearing the grid and there are 36 cars, part of the grid, on the corner. Nielsen Racing and their Ligier, Era Motorsports from the United States, from the WeatherTech Championship, and a number of other key drivers are here.
Champions from across sports cars, and F1 as well. This will be fun. Grab a coffee and some toast or something, and enjoy this race, as we get ready to go. The world of motorsport has taken a look at the pandemic and said "screw it. We're going to race and do so safely." Pardon me if it takes time to find out who is driving where. But, it will be a fun race to cover. The cars are streaming around the track to get ready for a start. Again, we have another race coming up tomorrow. Two circuits that have never seen this form of racing. We have the new Ginetta LMP3 cars making their debut today.
Relatively inexperienced drivers are starting the motor race. So we shall see what happens. Race Director Edoardo Freitas is making sure everything is in order as we are set for a start. John Falb leads the field. Red lights, on, and out. We're racing! The two -GDrive cars are leading until Sean Gelael tries but fails to take the lead and now, Simon Trummer in the Phoenix Racing car leads. Sean Gelael was too late on the brakes, look. Now, they stream through in single file. The GT cars are lumped together like candies in a bowl.
Simon Trummer shows his experience and it looks like Dwight Merriman needs heat in his tires. Sean Gelael runs third. G-Drive running 1-2. Calm down. There's a long way to go yet. Get into a rhythm and get the temperatures and pressures up on the car. Phoenix Racing car #5 leads over Rene Binder in the #26 G-Drive entry. Simon Trummer from Switzerland sharing with Nikki Thiim (the Swiss and the Dane), and the third driver, Matthias Kaiser, from Lichtenstein. The GT cars have started as well. Now, yours truly still needs to figure out who is where with the production cars.
GPX Racing leads the GT class, the #40 Porsche 911 GT3R, based right here at the track in Dubai. Julien Andlauer, Alain Ferte, and Axcil Jeffries share that car, three of the winners of the recent 24 hour race here in Dubai. Two Frenchmen including Ferte the veteran, and Axcil Jeffries from Zimbabwe. Trummer leads Binder, Gelael, Falb, and Andreas Laskaratos from Greece. Now, Alain Ferte in the GPX car is vastly experienced including in a Jaguar Group C car back in the heyday of that championship in the 1980s. United Autosports leads LMP3 in their Ligier JS P320 Nissan, car #23. Rory Pentinen of Finland at the controls.
He is sharing with Wayne Boyd from England and Colombian Manuel Maldonado. Excuse me. He is from Venezuela. Problems early for car #63, the Duqueine Nissan for DKR Engineering from Holland with two German drivers, Laurents Horr, and Jean Glorieux. Excuse me. Glorieux is a Belgian. We watch Nielsen Racing in the #9 car, with Tony Wells and Colin Noble. Wells at the wheel of the car right now, in their Ligier Nissan. We've lost timing and scoring. So we shall make our way through. Jan Erik Slooten in the Phoenix Racing automobile is under pressure from the sister #8 Ligier for Nielsen Racing. Rodrigo Sales from the United States and Matt Bell from England, driving. Bell was off his form during qualifying. But now he seems to be back on the button, look.
Julien Andlauer continues to lead GT. We are really looking at LMP3 at the moment, on a harder tire compared to GT and LMP2. GT3 cars also have ABS on them of course. The Pro rated LMP3 drivers will really come into their own. Now, the #2 United Autosports car is in recovery mode, with a trio of British drivers. Rob Wheldon, sharing with Ian Loggie and Andy Meyrick. As the sun drops and track temperature falls away, the lap times will decrease. Use your tire allocation wisely. 14 tires for LMP2 and we shall see how many for LMP3 and GT. Sean Gelael has moved to second past Rene Binder but is 2.5 seconds behind Simon Trummer. Trummer is bish bash boshing it at the moment.
Rory Pentinen leads LMP3. Maxime Martin is leading the GT class over Ralph Bohn and Giancarlo Fisichella as well as Liam Talbot. Talbot is ahead of American Brendon Iribe. Binder is moving in on Gelael and Trummer. Trummer leads and has to slice and dice his way through the GT traffic. Giancarlo Fisichella gives Simon Trummer room, but barely. Sean Gelael is also pushing hard. Rory Penttinen still leads LMP3. There's a long, long way to go yet. Trummer remains ahead of Gelael and we watch the Mercedes AMG GT3 and the McLaren 720S GT3 battling. Liam Talbot from England sharing with Marcos Gomes from Brazil and Raffaele Marciello from Italy, in the Mercedes. In the McLaren it is Brendon Iribe sharing with Brits Ben Barnicoat and Ollie Millroy.
Automatic invitations to the 24 Hours of Le Mans are up for grabs in this series. We also watch the #11 Eurointernational car. LMP2 and LMP3 get invited. Four teams will run in GTE at Le Mans as well. LMP2 cars will run at Le Mans. Now, Eurointernational, the #11 is being shared by Phil Mulacek from the U.S. and Australian drivers John Corbett and Neale Muston. Hold on a second. There's a wreck. The Phoenix #5 car spins after being run into by the Jota car. Good grief. Big damage for Phoenix Racing. Two into one just didn't work. Rene Binder for G-Drive retakes the lead of the motor race. We might see a safety car after this. #5 has busted the rear wing and the rear tail section of the automobile.
Sean Gelael has pitted for fuel and for repairs. Now, we double check and see what has happened. Simon Trummer's team at Phoenix Racing is dealing with damage and the rear tail section needs to be replaced. Their car is from High Class Racing, which is experienced, but the pressure is on to make these repairs. Now, the Jota gar gets ojn the curb and tags the rear of the Phoenix car, sending him spinning. It was not on, and that was right rear to right rear contact. Goodness me. Corbett passes and we also watch #33 for CD Sport with damage, and #64. #33 will need to pit, the legality panel, the "cheese wedge" is busted.
#64 is the LMP2 Racing Team India Oreca 07 Gibson of Naveen Rao from the United States, and Indian drivers Narain Karthikeyan (ex F1 driver), and Arjun Maini. David Perel, the South African, is in a spot of bother right now. Perel is in one of the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3's. He is sharing with Davide Rigon and Rino Mastronardi. Perel moves around the McLaren. The Ferrari of Perel is missing it's right side door mirror. In replay, we watch the start. Sean Gelael went for his first lunge for the lead and he ran wide almost running into the G-Drive car and lost the rear end, moving down to third and then back up to second before that mess happened.
Rene Binder leads John Falb by 12 seconds and 30 seconds over the Am entered #11 and #18 cars. Jota are back there as well in LMP2 I believe, the #28 car. Sean Gelael from Indonesia sharing with Stoffel Vandoorne, the Belgian former Formula 1 driver. We watch Tony Wells in fifth in LMP3, 12th overall. Rory Penttinen and Jan-Erik Slooten, in the all German Phoenix Racing entry, the #4 Phoenix Racing LMP3 car. Slooten sharing with Vincent Kolb and Leo Weiss. The Ginetta is back on track, having lost eight laps. Miro Konopka, the team principal at ARC Bratislava is starting his sixth season in Asian Le Mans for Ginetta.
Ginetta in LMP3, the #44 car. Miro Konopka sharing with Tom Cloet and Charlie Robertson. Robertson from England, Konopka from Slovakia, and Cloet, from Belgium. Don't risk your car. Make clean passes. No worries, mate. There's a long way to go yet. We also see the #57 Car Guy Racing Ferrari 488 GT3. Now, this team shares with Kessel Racing. #57 being shared by Danish driver Mikkel Jensen, Takeshi Kimura from Japan, and Come Ledogar from France. #27 has Tim Kohmann from Germany, and Italian drivers Giorgio Roda and Francesco Zollo.
Oswaldo Negri Jr., a man we've seen driving in IMSA over the years, is running competitively. He is in one of the AF Corse Ferrari's, the #51 car sharing with Alessandro Pier Guidi, the veteran Ferrari pilot in such championships as FIA World Endurance and IMSA, and also Francesco Piovanetti from Puerto Rico. One of the cars, not sure which one, I think it is John Falb for G-Drive, is adding engine oil or gearbox oil. Not good. He's back on track now but will have to keep pushing. Now, in the lane, the sister car for G-Drive, Rene Binder.
No driver change. This is a routine fuel stop and nothing more. Stay out of trouble and be mindful of keeping your nose clean. This is a very short season. Today, tomorrow, and then, this coming Friday and Saturday. The grip level is low. Meantime, John Corbett is being monstered by Simon Trummer. Eurointernational vs. Phoenix. Now, Era Motorsports also pits. Kyle Tilley in the car and Dwight Merriman will take over. They cannot find first gear. Dwight Merriman had a huge incident at Le Mans last year which put this team out of that motor race. Of course they also ran with a special livery at the Rolex 24 a couple weeks back, designed as a crayon drawing, by six-year old Canadian race fan, Owen. That was a cool looking livery.
Era trying to avoid being lapped by G-Drive and poor old Dwight Merriman will have to really push. DKR Engineering with Laurents Horr is back on track and for the most part it will be a test session. Drive through penalty for Sean Gelael for the contact with the #5 entry we saw a wee while ago. Car #4 for Phoenix Racing has dropped to two drivers. We've come to the end of the first LMP2 pit stop cycle. So the race is settling in now. Rene Binder leads Sean Gelael but he has been pinged with a drive through penalty. John Falb is in the mix as well. Simon Trummer will move in on Gelael as soon as Sean takes his penalty. Take your medicine, and get on with it, chaps.
Julien Andlauer still leads Maxime Martin in GT as the #11 machine spins again, the high nose Ligier. He will have fine sand on his tires. John Corbett, the Australian, at the wheel of it. There's something on the front of that automobile, damage or a piece of junk that has been picked up by the front splitter according to commentators Graeme Goodwin and Oliver Gavin. Oliver Gavin of course a veteran in IMSA and now, a guest commentator for this motor race. We also watch the D'Station Aston Martin, a team that will also race in the FIA World Endurance Championship. That is the #77 D'station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Satoshi Hoshino of Japan sharing with countryman Tomonobu Fujii, and Britain's Tom Gamble.
That car is being lapped. Gamble, I believe is at the wheel, but he is driving in the middle of the track and the tire is used up. So, Mr. Gamble has been gapped by Maxime Martin, in the identical Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for Garage 59. There are two Garage 59 Aston Martin's and we shall get to those driver lineups in a moment as a spot of bother may be for the #23 car. Dwight Merriman has moved around the #23 Boyd/Pentinnen/Maldonado LMP3 machine. G-Drive are satisfied with their position at the moment or so it seems.
A quick spin for Sean Gelael. The dust is all over the infield. We are in the desert. So, no grass here. All sand. Now, Trummer is ahead. The #89 Garage 59 Aston Matin is in the lane. Michael Benham from England sharing with Marvin Kirchhofer and Yuuki Nemoto. A Brit, a German, and a Japanese driver. John Corbett could be back on the button here as Dwight Merriman chases him. The shark is chasing the minnow. Simon Trummer running well, but also, John Falb is moving in closer and closer. More pit stops. Oman Racing in the #97, and now both LMP3 United Autosports cars are in the lane with one hour on the board already.
#97 is the Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin GT3. Ahmad Al-Harthy, the Omani driver is the team owner, sharing with British drivers Tom Canning and also Jonny Adam, Aston Martin veteran. Some drivers have been brought to the attention of race control and one of them is Giancarlo Fisichella. Now, that's unusual because Giancarlo, a former Formula 1 driver and sports car ace, is as professional as they come. The LMP3 and GT3 cars are scrapping away indeed. GPX Racing with Julien Andlauer at the keyboard, is really motoring right now, around the team's home circuit.
Rory Pentinnen was motoring as well and still is. John Falb and Sean Gelael are still in top spots, but it's Rene Binder leading the motor race, and he is most definitely at the top of the sjhop. The HubAuto Corse Mercedes AMG GT3 is running very well, with Liam Talbot at the wheel of it. The Mercedes is very strong. They won their first ever title at Mercedes at the Rolex 24 in the GT Daytona class. Liam Talbot is running very well right now. The pop art liveried Phoenix #4 car is back on track. Leo Weiss at the wheel of it. Weiss is part of the GT3 Wochenspiegel team which races at the Nürburgring and elsewhere.
Jorg Breuer in the amateur effort for Walkenhorst Motorsport with the BMW M6 GT3. Henry Walkenhorst,t he team boss, has given the car over to Jorg Breuer. Henry Walkenhorst sharing with countryman Jorg Breuer and Sammi-Matti Trogen from Finland. The sister car #34 has Nicky Catsburg, GT veteran from Holland, and Americans Jon Miller and Chandler Hull at the wheel. Miller and Hull have run in SRO America in GT3 and GT4 in recent years. #8 rotates after a pit stop. Rodrigo Sales, with cold tires, takes a turn on the whirligig. Local yellow. Sales has recovered and is back in the race.
Car #9 is running in 19th overall, Tony Wells at the wheel of it, fifth in class. Colin Noble is his co-driver in that Nielsen Racing Ligier LMP3 car. Alexander West has taken over from Maxime Martin in the #88 Garage 59 Aston Martin. HubAuto in the lane, look. A driver change and Marcos Gomes is now in the car, the Brazilian stock car champ, taking over for Liam Talbot. The Mercedes is a very easy automobile to drive and it works well. It has power and traction both. Another driver swap at G-Drive. Mikkel Jensen chasing and passing the D'Station Aston who has to give it up. Mikkel Jensen, he will be a factory Peugeot driver in Le Mans Hypercar. Now, this is the 2020-2021 season in Asian Le Mans.
The season has been changed somewhat for the championship status due to the cursed pandemic the world is going through right now, still. Tom Gamble is being monstered by one of the prototypes. Thomas Flohr has taken over the #54 Ferrari for AF Corse. That's the WEC car, sharing with Giancarlo Fisichella and Francesco Castellaci. Two hours and 45 minutes now left on the board. G-Drive is running trouble free. Phoenix Racing just pitted and now Matthias Kaiser is driving. There's the #51 car, with two numbers. It has the regulation orange number plate and the historic #51 in a white circle on the door.
Rene Binder is two minutes ahead but needs a pit stop as DKR has come back on track. Mikkel Jensen is really moving. He's making progress steadily. The tires will be knackered at the end of a stint. Meantime, Stoffel Vandoorne sets fastest lap of the motor race at 1:47 dead. 1:47.017, two seconds in-arrears of John Corbett in the LMP2 class. Again, no LMP1 cars in Asian Le Mans or in European Le Mans for that matter. Yours truly wanted to blog the 2020 ELMS season but that just wasn't possible. Maybe there will be time to do so in 2021. We shall see. 42 laps done and dusted. Not sure of the mileage.
Ollie Hancock has taken over from John Hartshorne in the TF Sport Aston Martin and those two will race in the European Le Mans Series. The BMW is slowing. The car and the drivers are good but the circuit is not one that suits it. We have seen the BMW M6 run well in IMSA and in SRO competition. The track is very busy into the tenth turn. Working traffic and knowing how to do it is a key deal to becoming a good endurance sports car driver. The conditions are very aggressive right now. Mikkel Jensen is pressing really hard to unlap himself from the GPX car of Julien Andlauer, the Porsche. John Corbett has been passed by Matthias Kaiser.
Racing Team India in the lane. Narain Karthikeyan is driving. He got bored in lockdown and so he has put this team together. Naveen Rao currently driving. No minimum pit stop time in LMP2. There are minimums for Am entries in the class for pit stops. That's very confusing. Arjun Maini, Indian driver, is running well, but is under investigation for pit lane speeding. He will be pinged, more than likely, and the G-Drive automobiles are hot on his heels right now. Romain Rusinov is not driving this weekend but he is a driver talent scout for the remaining races this year including tomorrow, and next weekend on Friday and Saturday.
The LMP2 cars are on very different strategies. We've been clean and green for the most part since the start. Team Manager for the #64 to the stewards room. Meeting time. A slap on the wrist, perhaps? G-Drive in the lane, Ferdinand Habsburg at the wheel of it. Troubles with the right rear tire. Deary me. Other than that it seems to be a decent pit stop. Habsburg raced in DTM and he has a very long full name. Yifei Ye takes over the car and is back in the lead of the motor race. He is Chinese and an ex open wheel driver. Now, there is a double yellow flag somewhere and trouble for Rodrigo Sales. The Jani family and driver Neel Jani are managing Yifei Ye.
Car #3 off the road and back on. Jim McGuire from the United States, driving. McGuire sharing with British drivers Duncan Tappy and Wayne Boyd. There appears to be debris in turn 14. Maybe the #33 has lost the cheese wedge. Sorry, not edible. A Porsche in the pit lane. Jim McGuire, meanwhile is back on track. Three wide into the turn, but no worries. Yiffei Ye has the lead by 30 seconds. The lead gap is 33 seconds between the G-Drive cars. We have also seen one of the Porsche's, the Herberth Motorsports entry. Precote Herberth Motorsport has the #93 and #99 cars, a two car team. Two Porsche 911 GT3R's. #93 is shared by Steffen Gorig of Germany, Klaus Bachler of Austria, and Hong Kong driver Antares Au.
#99 is an all German team. Hang on a second, as the #25 car is in the lane. Meantime, the #99 is shared by Ralf Bohn and the Renauer brothers, Alfred and Robert. Dwight Merriman is back in the pit lane for service and DKR are back at it after their delays in the garage. Mikkel Jensen is losing time to the #99. Ralf Bohn, I believe is driving. Can't be too sure if it is Bohn or one of the two Renauer brothers. Mikkel Jensen laying streaks of rubber on the road. That Michelin tire is going to have the grip reduced greatly. Yifei Ye has a 35 second lead over Stoffel Vandoorne, and Mattias Kaiser is third having dropped back a wee bit. In fourth spot we see Franco Colapinto.
In LMP3, Rory Pentinnen leads Leo Weiss. Jim McGuire is next in the serial followed by Bashir Madini in the RLR MSport car, the #15 Ligier Nissan. Bashir Madini sharing with Maxwell Hanratty from the U.S.A. and Dane Malthe Jakobsen. Wow. We are getting very close to halfway in less than 20 minutes. It's been a very busy race as Jim McGuire fends off the advances of the #15 and with Tony Wells. Tony Wells in the #9 Nielsen Motorsport car. Tony Wells moves ahead and he will try to catch Jim McGuire. Nielsen Racing had a trying European season in 2020. Brake lockup for the #33 CD Sport Ligier. Adam Eteki from France, driving. That's the car with damage to the nose and the cheese wedge.
Eteki sharing with Dane Michael Jensen and Nick Adcock from England. In LMP3, only ten tires are allocated for these four hour races. Adam Eteki vs. Tony Wells in LMP3. Wells gives Eteki space to make the pass. Colin Noble will be next in the car that Tony Wells is currently driving. Stay in the fight and make the job easy for your co-driver. Stay cool,. calm, and within your limits. Adam Eteki is going to be pushing, pushing, pushing, though. Colin Noble and Tony Wells are really pushing hard. Will they have the speed to challenge United Autosport? We shall find out.
Tom Canning is passed by Alessandro Pier Guidi I believe. Alexander West is being chased by Rino Mastronardi in Ferrari #55. Giorgio Roda, making up ground, is warned about track limits. We are inching towards the halfway mark of this motor race. A lot to learn just from this one race, especially for tomorrow, and then, next weekend at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi as well. Looking forward to the second bite of the cherry tomorrow. Marcos Gomes moves past the Ferrari as Mastronardi was trying to move around Alexander West. We have just seen a pit stop as well. That's the #64, serving a penalty, a stop/go penalty.
Yifei Ye and Stoffel Vandoorne still battle as the DKR Engineering #63 locks up. The DKR Ginetta LMP3 car is stopped on the road and they've had a fraught race so far. Ye and Vandoorne are pretty equal right now but G-Drive is really pressing on and they have just had the performance today as we get close to the halfway mark. Work to do for Ginetta and ARC Bratislava. The car needs to be fast. Appearances aren't everything in racing. You want the car to be fast. It does not matter if it is an ugly duckling or a swan. Problems for the HubAuto Corse Mercedes. There's a whole gaggle of cars in the lane but we have a Full Course Yellow.
Pit stop time for many. Era Motorsports, United Autosports, Eurointernational, Rinaldi, McLaren, Aston Martin, everyone. The DKR car has just had a massively horrendous motor race today. Hopes are they will have a better race tomorrow. Please join us bright and early tomorrow. There's not much racing tomorrow except for the Daytona 500. So, watch Asian Le Mans Series and then the stock cars later. Ginetta back in the garage, and they are doing a brake change it is believed. GPX Racing is in the lane. Frederic Fatien is the team owner of course.
Bang on halfway as it is pit stop time for Ferdinand Habsburg in for a top up on fuel. BMW #34, with Chandler Hull at the wheel, likely being replaced by Nicky Catsburg. Catsburg is a really cool customer. He's likely having a coffee or something getting a caffeine boost before going out to drive. G-Drive is being run by Algarve Racing, who have won two titles in Asian Le Mans and they are also helping Racing Team India as Roroy Pentinen, the Finlander, is in the lane. Now, he is back on track. Richard Dean and United Autosport have done so well in Europe and the rest of the world. They are based in England, in Yorkshire.
Axcil Jeffries is at the controls of the GPX Porsche in GT. Nielsen Racing and Phoenix Racing have scrapped in LMP3. United Autosports, is in a very strong spot. Leading overall in LMP2, it is Yifei Ye for G-Drive Racing. Into the #23 car replacing Rory Pentinen is Manuel Maldonado, brother of ex-F1 driver Pastor Maldonado. There's a cooling breeze in Dubai right now. The Full Course Yellow's are tough driving slowly as the tires loose temperature and you get all the sand, the clag, the rubbish, on your tires. Don't rush. No need for panic or heroics.
Yifei Ye may now be a lap up on Stoffel Vandoorne. Team manager for Eurointernational called to Race Control. We watch a battle between two Aston Martin's, Tomonobu Fujii and Marvin Kirchhofer. Yifei Ye leads very nearly by a lap. He is improving on pace over Stoffel Vandoorne at the moment. Ye, if he can lap the Jota Sport car, that might seal the deal as far as this motor race. But there's still an hour and 49 minutes to go. Racing Team India are now up to fifth place. Alain Ferte still needs to drive the GPX Porsche. He has the pace, but can he maintain it during a stint? Ferte will have to drive a minimum of 55 minutes. Alessandro Pier Guidi is missing the right side door mirror on his Ferrari.
When you lose a mirror, it is very hard. When you lose a resource, you feel vulnerable and at a disadvantage. The visibility in a GT car is not good, and so, thankfully the rearview camera, radar and so forth, really helps. Arjun Maini is trying hard to move past Duncan Tappy in the #3 United Autosports entry. Vincent Kolb was supposed to drive one of the cars today, but back problems and back pain have kept him out of the car today. Come Ledogar is racing Jonny Adam in GT of course and Adam has won in GTE at Le Mans for Aston Martin as they are in a new era now, with customer cars instead of a factory team.
Come Ledogar will finish the race for Car Guy. Kessel Racing's team manager has been summoned to race control for a discussion with Race Director Edoardo Freitas. It is very warm in these cars at this point in time. Manufacturers are very interested in these smaller championships but with private teams. Drivers like Giancarlo Fisichella, Nicky Catsburg, and Jonny Adam, they all respect each other, but everyone wants to beat everyone else. Winning is everything. Absolutely everything. Axcil Jeffries is now 13th overall in the GPX Porsche which he is leading over the Herberth Precote Porsche of the Renauer brothers.
#26 moves past the Euroinernational car and Ollie Millroy is running in a battle with Marcos Gomes. Mercedes vs. Ferrari I believe that battle is. Manuel Maldonado is Pastor Maldonado's cousin, not his brother. Sorry for that misinformation. Francesco Castallaci at the controls of the #54 AF Corse car, which has also seen drives from Giancarlo Fisichella and Thomas Flohr. Axcil Jeffries still is driving the GPX Porsche. When will Alain Ferte get into the car? Julien Andlauer, the Frenchman, who is a Porsche factory driver, he has already had his stint in the car. GPX are running out of time for getting Monsieur Ferte into the car. G-Drive still leads by 1:42. That gap hasn't moved more than tenths of a second. Manuel Maldonado is over a minute ahead of Leo Weiss in LMP3.
Although the Phoenix Racing LMP2 car has dropped down. Colin Noble is 90 seconds in-arrears of the LMP3 leader. The whole top five in LMP3 is really heating up nicely, thank you. We have an hour and a half left in the race now looking at the clock. Now, what on earth is the strategy for GPX? When do you stick Alain Ferte into that Porsche to do his stint? Leo Weiss, Colin Noble, Michael Jensen, and others are battling hard in LMP3. Klaus Bachler, the German, is running well for Porsche in GT. Colin Noble is trying to pass a GT3 BMW. Michael Jensen and Malthe Jakobsen are also pushing on and poor old Jakobsen is going to be trapped behind the BMW.
Car #11 is penalized for overtaking under yellow flags and there is a penalty as well for Come Ledogar in the #57 CarGuy Ferrari. Colin Noble is battling Manuel Maldonado. Maldonado, we wonder, what will his speed be? Malthe Jakobsen has been scoring podiums in the last year. He has run at Road To Le Mans at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the support race. Another star driver is the Frenchman Adam Eteki who has damage on his automobile. Car #44 is back in the garage, Charlie Robertson and the Ginetta team continue having more misery and woe in today's motor race. This is just an extended test session for these blokes.
Woe is me. My car is not working! Team manager for Jota Sport has been called to the stewards office to see Edoardo Freitas, the Race Director. Drive through penalty for the #11 car. They still must take their penalty. Stoffel Vandoorne is pushing too hard and has been given a final warning on track limits. GT3 cars with ABS are tough to pass, and the LMP3 drivers are aware of this. Adam Eteki's car is smoking. A tire rub on the bodywork or so it appears. Duncan Tappy is chiseling away at trying to get areound Adam Eteki. Eteki is playing hurt. His car is a wounded bird.
His tires are knackered, surely. Oh dear. #54 spins. I wonder if he tagged the Mercedes and just looped it. Duncan Tappy now clears the traffic. The emerging battle is now for fifth spot. Eteki vs. Tappy. Nicky Catsburg is pushing hard. Apologies. We misidentified Duncan Tappy as another driver. The GT drivers are a little bit of a nuisance. We could not see what happened with the Ferrari as the CarGuy car was on the outside but the Mercedes may have tagged him. The jury is out on that little fracas. Yifei Ye continues to lead, continues to dominate this motor race. Sean Gelael has also kept a watching brief. The #28 machine is second. Colin Noble and Malthe Jakobsen continue to scrap in LMP3. Colin Noble and Malthe Jakobsen will continue to race 'til the end and the gap has continued to yo-yo back and forth.
One more pit stop with just an hour and 15 minutes on the board. Yifei Ye uncorks his fastest lap of the motor race and that team and their drivers have kept out of trouble all day so far. Poor old Phoenix Racing have not had the best race. Nikki Thiim is flying. Thiim and Jordan Taylor are the two drivers who really have a presence on social media. He has recently become a father as well and it is great to see him in an LMP2 car. Nikki Thiim's dad, Kurt Thiim had a decorated racing career as well in touring cars and sports cars. Now, the #64 car is in the lane as well. Narain Karthikeyan will take the car to the flag but they will need another fuel stop I believe and they've also had a penalty.
Racing Team India with Algarve Pro are learning what's going on. Naveen Rao raced LMP2 at Sebring in the 12 Hours last November. Wheel to wheel stuff, look, and Colin Noble has been smoked by Malthe Jakobsen! Yikes! Ferdinand Habsburg has the #26 G-Drive car in the lane. Franco Colapinto is in the sister #25 car and he is in the lane as well, having been battling with Nicki Thiim. Ferdinand Habsburg, and Manuel Maldonado are in it. John Corbett is in the pit lane for Eurointernational with a Ligier LMP2 car. They are down to two drivers. Corbett sharing with Neale Muston. No Phil Mulacek in that car. Franco Colapinto is 14 seconds behind Nicki Thiim, and they are catching Sean Gelael with 66 minutes to go.
Ferdinand Habsburg has to play it smart and look after the car. Habsburg has had LMP2 experience in World Endurance and in IMSA. He was going to race at the Rolex 24 but the car failed before he could drive, with the High Class Racing car. Ollie Millroy is well behind Robert Renauer at the moment. Klaus Bachler is well down the field right now, too. GPX in the lane, and Alain Ferte, the 62 year old veteran driver, is into the car for the final hour or so of the motor race. They have 45 seconds in hand over the Precote Herberth Porsche and Robert Renauer will hand over to his brother Alfred. Tire trouble for GPX and getting the tire on the car? Nope. It's OK. We have not seen too many penalties although #28 for Jota will be penalized for constant abuse of track limits.
It won't lose places, but Sean Gelael will be upset by that. Stoffel Vandoorne was warned about track limits as well. The golden hue of sunset settles over the Dubai Autodrome as we are close to the end, and some tight squeezes in traffic! Use your mirrors, mister! Drivers to be fair, are getting tired. The GT lead is 1:48 at the moment. Patrick Kujala gets dinged for not respecting blue flags, aboard the #66 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari. Kujala, from Finland, sharing with German's Christian Hook and Manuel Lauck.
The LMP3 class leading car pits, the #23 United Autosport car comes in for the final stop as the Jota team car has already taken their assigned penalty. Now, the #23 did overshoot the pit box. Don't get flustered. Rory Pentinen at the wheel. Wayne Boyd will take over. You may not be allowed to refuel the car parked in the pit stall at an angle. There could be a penalty there. So, Franco Colapinto is now going to try and run down Nikki Thiim. Colin Noble moves ahead of Bashar Mandini. Rafaelle Marciello has now taken over the lead in GT.
Check that. Robert Renauer is leading over Alain Ferte. But Robert Renauer still needs a pit stop with 50 minutes to go. Nicklas Nielsen also makes a pit stop, aboard one of the other Ferrari's. Could there be a penalty in Nielsen's future? Wayne Boyd, meanwhile, has a comfortable lead in LMP3. Colin Noble is moving ahead of Bashar Mandini. James Dayson, from England, was supposed to drive, but could not do so due to the travel restrictions imposed by the virus pandemic. Whoops! #15 clips the curbs and spins, and now, Duncan Tappy will be able to move right in on Bashar Mandini. Mandini runs wide and off the road.
Robert Renauer pits and will be back on track soon. The LMP2 battle sees Franco Colapinto moving in and fast on Nikki Thiim. Sean Gelael has consolidated the gap to Thiim as well. The gap between Thiim and Colapinto is closing up. 103 laps now complete. Ferdinand Habsburg leads. Fraco Colapinto, an Argentinian driver who is 17 years old, and he is in a lightweight powerful prototype car, and is moving in on an championship winning driver. Wow. Absolutely amazing. The #25 car, though is venting fluid out the back of the car. So, if that fluid dries up, if it is oil, the engine could go bang at G-Drive. Ben Barnicoat and Inception Racing, are running very well. They had a disappointing event at the Dubai 24 Hours for the Creventic championship, oh, a month or so ago.
Alfred Renauer is 39 seconds behind Alain Ferte with 39 minutes left. So, a second a minute might be too much. A drive through penalty for the #89 Garage 59 Aston Martin in the hands of Marvin Kirchofer, for abusing track limits. Franco Colapinto pits and he will be in contention still. Not sure if they took four tires or just two. They are still venting fluid out the back of the automobile. The fuel window is open for LMP2. The #77 D'Station Aston Martin is slow. They are a part of the Japanese Super Taikyu championship as well.
This is the Fujii/Gamble/Hoshino car. The #26 G-Drive car has had a trouble free race today. Sean Gelael leads Nikki Thiim still. Gelael has to stop again. It is all Ligier in LMP3. The Ginetta and Duqueine entries have had troubles today. Alfred Renauer is cutting into Alain Ferte's lead in the GT class, with a Porsche 1-2. GPX over Herberth. Ben Barnicoat and the Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 has run very well. Another driver who has been running well is Nicky Catsburg in the Walkenhorst BMW and also Maxime Martin in the #88 Garage 59 Aston Martin as well. Half hour to go. Normally it is bad news when you are summoned to the stewards, but one of the teams has been praised and asked to have a biscuit and a cup of tea.
Ferdinand Habsburg continues to lead the motor race. Drive through penalty for track limits for one of the cars. Not sure which one it is. Eurointernational are in the lane, with John Corbett. Antonio Ferrari is the team principal, grandson of Enzo Ferrari I believe. Ben Barnicoat in the Inception Racing McLaren has run really well. Clearwater Racing took a championship in Asian Le Mans with the McLaren 650S GT3 but now, they are a defunct team. They are no longer around. Final pit stop now for the #26 G-Drive Aurus. The Ginetta has been pinged again for speeding in the pit lane. HubAuto are in the lane with the Mercedes as well, with Marcos Gomes at the controls.
It's game over for the team. They have had mechanical woes, with 24 minutes to go. Game over. Raffaele Marciello was struggling, and something happened with the light contact with the Ferrari from earlier on in the race. Multiple cars are in trouble for not setting their pit stop times. Oh boy. Jan-Erik Slooten and Andy Meyrick are battling for position in LMP3 in 12th and 13th spot. The skies are darkening as the LMP3 boys are battling with totally knackered tires. This battle is for fourth and the two drivers we've mentioned, are chasing after Bashar Mandini.
Mandini loses spots, and Meyrick is going to try going for it but can't quite get there. Two Ligier's battle each other. Nikki Thiim is being chased down by both Franco Colapinto and Sean Gelael. On average, Nikki Thiim is running quicker than Ben Barnicoat. Getting darker and gloomier here in Dubai, and the track temperature will drop. That's for sure. Alfred Renauer will have to run qualifying laps trying to catch Alain Ferte in the GT class. Franco Colapinto has lost time to Nikki Thiim. Nikki Thiim is going to keep pushing but does not want to throw it away. The wins in this series can go for the championship, and that championship in LMP2, LMP3, and GT3, all of them, will be eligible to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Wayne Boyd leads Colin Noble and Duncan Tappy in LMP3. Ferdinand Habsburg is cruising while Franco Colapinto is sprinting. Colapinto is indeed the fastest automobile on track right now. Push, push, push. Ferdinand Habsburg is taking it easy. Colapinto has been in and out of the pits for that fluid venting trouble we've spoken of. Wayne Boyd and company at United Autosport lead LMP3 and Colin Noble is closing. Alfred Renauer is catching Alain Ferte. Stick to the rhythm. One poor lap will affect the rhythm. Ferte still leads Alfred Renauer. Renauer is pushing hard. Oh no! Alain Ferte gets the car on the curb and spins in turn six!
Goodness me! Will he be able to re-fire the car? Precote Herberth will be happy as they could indeed get the win here. What a shame for GPX! Ben Barnicoat in the McLaren will take the spot from Alain Ferte! Heartbreaking. Now, Ferte is moving again and the McLaren is close by. Ferte might be able to salvage second place in GT. He is behind now by the length of the back straight. They may have put Alain Ferte in the car too late at GPX forcing him to roll the dice. Alfred Renauer is speeding away. Ferte started to lose the rear end and ran over something. There was probably carbon fiber debris somewhere. The race is so close to being over. This is the last lap.
Tomorrow is another race. We shall see how it turns out. It is the final lap of the race. Ferdinand Habsburg will be hearing odd noises in the cockpit. He will hope the car holds together. There will be a drive through penalty for Alain Ferte! He will have a time penalty actually, for abusing track limits as it is the last corner of the last lap. G-Drive wins!
Overall/LMP2: #26 Habsburg/Yifei/Binder G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson
LMP2 Am: #18 Laskaratos/Meriman/Tilley Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson
LMP3: #23 Boyd/Maldonado/Pentinen United Autosport Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT: #99 Bohn/Renauer/Renauer Precote Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R
GT Am: #66 Hook/Kujala/Lauck Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3
So, race one of the weekend is complete. Stay tuned for tomorrow and race two of the championship as the night has come to Dubai. See you tomorrow for more racing action from Dubai.
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