Welcome back to Dubai and the Dubai Autodrome. Get ready, for round two, ladies and gentlemen, as we race again at Dubai in the Asian Le Mans Series. Reflecting back on yesterday's contest, it was not a typically exciting sports car race. It was very clinical and processional. Will today's race be different? Will there be more action out on track? We are about to find out. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. It was such a great day of racing yesterday, and now, we are set for race two. We had lots of drama yesterday. Today will be no different. Again, we have 16 turns with a bumpy turn one, into a complex of turns one through six. Turn seven is the lowest point. Turn nine is banked, up the gradient to ten, and into 12, a key overtaking spot. 14 is tricky and traffic is condensed. Turn 16 is where many drivers have been pinged for track limits.
The cars are ready to go. Two or three cars are at the back of the grid. Next weekend we go to Abu Dhabi, not on Saturday and Sunday, but on Friday and Saturday. So, stay tuned for that. One big difference today is more sun and less fog. The ambient temperature is not too different. But the solar energy will affect what is going on with the Michelin tires for this 36 car grid, this record grid for the Asian Le Mans Series. Seven LMP2, ten LMP3, and 19 GT cars starting this motor race. Three cars in trouble for track limits didn't register a qualifying time whatsoever.
There was trouble for an LMP3 car yesterday for Algarve Pro. They'd had an engine change yesterday and ended up with an oil leak yesterday as well, as the cars are rolling off. It is a slick track with all the sand and so the oil would've made it even greasier. Franco Colapinto and Rui De Andrade start from pole overall. Duncan Tappy and Andrew Bentley are on LMP3 pole. GT pole goes to the second Precote Herberth Porsche #93 of Klaus Bachler, Antares Au, and Steffen Gorig. So we shall see what is going to happen. Some driver orders have swapped. Axcil Jeffries will start the Porsche for Gulf Racing. Also check out the #88 Garage 59 Aston Martin with Maxime Martin at the controls. There was a Full Course Yellow yesterday.
If we don't see one today, today's race could be much more competitive than what we saw yesterday. The safety car pulls off. Franco Colapinto controls the field. We're about to race. Red lights out, and we're away! Colapinto leads into turn one and Sean Gelael holds his spot. The #18 Era Motorsport car is moving up right now and the LMP3 cars begin to form into a line as well. Stay clean early. Don't make any silly mistakes throwing the car off the road. Check that. John Falb is starting the G-Drive car, not Franco Colapinto. Falb leads his team mate a G-Drive, Rene Binder.
Binder wants by Falb early, look. The team is pushing for a title but they also will shape their driver lineup for the European Le Mans Series season, a championship yours truly also hopes to bring you. We shall see about that. Build the rhythm. That's key. Axcil Jeffries and Maxime Martin are scrapping in GT3 right now, in the GT class. Maxime Martin, Steffen Gorig, and the McLaren 720S, is next. Ben Barnicoat, Brendon Iribe, and Ollie Milroy. Arjun Maini is fifth. Steffen Gorig is ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the Ferrari #54. That is the AF Corse car, one of them.
Fisichella sharing with Francesco Castellaci and Thomas Flohr. The #57 Kessel CarGuy Ferrari cuts the corner. Takeshi Kimura at the wheel of it. Marvin Kirchofer is in there and so is Liam Talbot. Aston Martin vs. Ferrari or so it appears. Jeepers! There's a touch and the Herberth Porsche is off the road having been tagged by the Oman Racing Aston Martin. Left rear trouble for the Porsche there, look. Ahmad Al-Harthy of Oman at the controls of the Aston Martin at the moment. John Falb leads Rene Binder for the overall lead of the motor race. Simon Trummer is next followed by Sean Gelael and Arjun Maini.
After yesterday, team managers have said, "we cannot afford fireworks and a DNF. Cool it. Take it easy." One automatic entry for LMP2, four automatic entries for GT, for the 24 Hours of Le Mans coming up in June. Phoenix Racing, have been around for years and years. They've run sports cars and also DTM. They are stepping forward into prototype racing now, looking at the new LMDh category we've talked about along with Hypercar. In 2023, LMDh will be in full force in FIA WEC and also IMSA. Lots of drivers, teams, and manufacturers are moving the puzzle pieces right now.
Poor old Dwight Merriman has been driving 'round on square tires for a bit. Malthe Jakubsen has gone to the lead of LMP3 and now, Rene Binder has also moved by John Falb. This race has started off as a definite cracker here. Some good battling at this particular moment. Giancarlo Fisichella and Maxime Martin are scrapping in GT. Aston Martin vs. Ferrari as in turn nine there's a car off the road. Not sure who it was. Could not see in the picture. Ah. That's the Walkenhorst BMW #34 in a spot of bother, Chandler Hull, Nicky Catsburg, and Jon Miller. Malthe Jakubsen is moving up into the LMP2 grid, trying to challenge. A young talent from Denmark, home of many great drivers in endurance racing, especially the legends like Jan Magnussen and Tom Kristensen.
We have a Full Course Yellow as the Era Motorsports car heads to pit lane. The Walkenhorst BMW is still in strife as it is pit stop time for Kyle Tilley and Era Motorsports. The #18's brakes are in a little trouble. Someone has shattered a polystyrene bollard. Era Motorsports won LMP2 at the Rolex 24 a few weeks back and we talked about that yesterday. HubAuto in the lane with their Mercedes AMG GT3. We had one Full Course Yellow in all of yesterday's race. The incident we've seen, has just been a bloke running off the road and collecting those polystyrene signs, splattering that all over the road like packing peanuts in a box.
Axcil Jeffries has pitted and the Walkenhorst BMW has not made it back to the pit lane yet. This is a development series for ACO rules racing and of course the objectives are to move into the European Le Mans Series and up to the FIA World Endurance Championship as well. Everyone is now warming and cleaning their tires. Weaving from side to side helps, but acceleration and braking under green, that's how you put heat into your tires so they're not stone cold. Now, we're back to green. Binder leads Falb still at the sharp end. Traffic ahead. Simon Trummer and Sean Gelael are back there and then the rest including the LMP3 leaders.
Rene Binder leads as the Kessel Ferrari balks Falb, look. Sean Gelael is closing up hand over fist and Simon Trummer actually makes his move. #25 balked in turn nine and Simon Trummer says "I'll have some of that" and moves ahead. Trummer gets a bite of the cherry and thankfully gets rid of the pit. Once one car smells blood, they all do. The sharks are chasing the minnows. That's for sure. Satoshi Hoshino runs sixth. Hoshino in the #77 D'Station Aston Martin sharing with Tomonobu Fujii and Tom Gamble. Arjun Maini is moving in on Sean Gelael. Maini in the #64 Racing Team India car as one of the Phoenix Racing cars, the #4 LMP3 car, is under investigation for overtaking under yellow flags.
Leo Weiss and Jan-Erik Slooten were supposed to share with Vincent Kolb in an all German lineup. But poor old Vincent Kolb has a sore back and so he cannot race. Malthe Jakobsen leads in LMP3 in the #15 RLR M-Sport Ligier Nissan. Jakobsen sharing with Bashar Mandini and Max Hanratty. Arjun Maini wants to get through traffic and see where he shakes out. Sean Gelael, meanwhile has a gap to Simon Trummer as Rene Binder continues in the lead of this motor race. Maxime Martin leads GT in the Garage 59 Aston Martin, car #88. Wow. The action is hot and heavy and we aren't even a half an hour into this motor race yet.
Arjun Maini pulling away from Simon Trummer. In the meatime, Sean Gelael is locked in on chasing the #26 G-Drive entry. The lap times are in the 1:51 range for the LMP2 boys at the moment. Rory Pentinen had a great race at United Autosport in LMP3 yesterday. Oh no! A four car shunt in one of the sweepers. Pheonix Racing #4 is stopped, recycling the power. There were a few other cars that skittered off the road. Sean Gelael was already off and made contact with a couple of LMP3 cars. That was a huge mix up. Turns three, four, and five, and into six, funnels down into one particular point. The Phoenix car spun down the road. Sean Gelael might be stopped down there. Jota Sport didn't want this mess.
He's under power but barely. Could it be game over? He's stuck in gear so he can't pull away. There are local waved double yellows at that turn. Will we go Full Course Yellow or not? He has to find a safe spot to put the car. What will Race Director Edoardo Freitas decide? Ah yes. Full Course Yellow now. Full Course Yellow. Pit stop time for G-Drive. Jan Erik Slooten has stopped and he cannot re-fire the car's motor. Rne Binder still leads as the top five cars in the race are in the lane for service. They are all within their window at least for fuel and maybe tires. Hard to say. No driver changes. Still too early. Laurents Horr brings the #63 DKR Engineering Duqueine Nissan. This is the only Duqueine M30-D08 chassi in the field, and two tires are being changed by the team was indecisive about which tires to put where for a moment.
Poor old Phoenix Racing are out of the race. Game over. We have had two Full Course Yellow's in 35 minutes which has really shuffled the deck here as the #18 Era Motorsports LMP2 car is back in the lane. They've had a fraught race thus far with a couple brake lockups. Maybe the tires are trashed. It's hard to tell as the cars file 'round behind the safety car. The HubAuto Mercedes AMG GT3 is in the lane for fuel and tires. That's the #01 entry of Marcos Gomes from Brazil, Raffaele Marciello from Italy, and Australian Liam Talbot. Rodrigo Sales was out of position in LMP3 and was briefly stopped to the outside. In replay, it is hard to tell, but the stopped car was on the outside, but the #4 and #28 cars were also off the road and Sean Gelael was way off the racing line.
The Jota car is in 20th place, on it's outlap. Aston Martin #89 in the lane, for Garage 59. Marvin Kirchofer at the wheel of it. Game over for #4, as it is hauled in on the flatbed. The clutch is toasted. Jan-Erik Slooten, Vincent Kolb, and Leo Weiss, are out. The #34 Walkenhorst BMW is also retired from the motor race. Rene Binder leads the motor race by quite the margin with just over 40 minutes on the board. Great to see Nicki Thiim and his dad, the living legend, Kurt Thiim, working on the car for the Phoenix Racing Oreca LMP2 team. Next weekend, Kelvin van der Linde, the South African, will be in that car, when we head to Abu Dhabi.
We are back to green flag racing, 45 minutes in. Rene Binder in the lead, ahead of Arjun Maini by 4.3 seconds. The young Indian driver will have to keep up. Both G-Drive and Team India have their cars prepared by Algarve Pro Racing. Clearly, we've seen damage to one of the cars that was involved in the earlier incident. Arjun Maini is tryung hard to catch up to Rene Binder. 20 laps now completed. A long way to go yet. For the first time we catch a glimpse of the #11 car, in trouble for Neale Muston. Muston in the Eurointernational Ligier with the Gibson motor, is slow. He is in king size trouble here, look, blocking the entrance to the pit lane.
The team can't assist him until he's gone across the pit entry line. He's a dead duck there. No question. A sitting duck. Meatime, the #18 Era LMP2 car is trying hard to move by the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, Oswaldo Negri Jr., and Francesco Piovanetti. Leo Weiss said he was hit from behind and lost his left rear tire and now his and the tema's race is over. That accident distracted Sean Gelael. Jan Erik Slooten got tagged from the rear by a GT car, clearly. That was a huge lunge as we see a battle of two Ferrari's in yellow and green. It looks like CarGuy leading Rinaldi. Sean Gelael sets fastest lap of the motor race so far at 1:47.840.
Axcil Jeffries races ahead of the #27 Kessel Racing Ferrari. Tim Kohmann of Germany sharing with Italian's Giorgio Roda and Francesco Zolo. Malthe Jakobsen is running very well in the #15 RLR M-Sport car in LMP3. He is leading in class. Max Hanratty and Bashar Mandini will drive later on. Ahmad Al-Harthy chasing the ARC Bratislava LMP3 Ginetta. Miro Konopka sharing with Tom Cloet and Charlie Robertson. Ahmad Al-Harthy in the Aston Martin is dealing with some understeer. Sean Gelael moves past Malthe Jakubsen. Meantime, the D'Station Aston Martin is in the lane for a scheduled pit stop just before we complete the first hour. Satoshi Hoshino has been driving and will hand over to Tomonobu Fujii or Tom Gamble.
It looks like Tom Gamble will be next into the car. Hopefully their setup on the car is better than it was yesterday. Sean Gelael and Arjun Maini are sorting their way through LMP3 cars. Come Ledgoar in the lane for Kessel Racing by Car Guy, a team that ran at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last September, in their bright yellow paint scheme. They ran with AF Corse last year and are with Kessel Racing for 2021. G-Drive are still in a comfortable lead but the ebb and flow as there between Rene Binder and Arjun Maini. Now, Rene Binder is the slowest of their three drivers. Ferdinand Habsburg, yesterday, was running very cleanly, very conservatively. Just drive the car and keep your nose clean.
The driver in the fight yesterday was Yiffei Ye fighting with Stoffel Vandoorne, the former Formula 1 driver. The #63 DKR car was caught speeding in the pit lane. Sean Gelael has recovered to eighth place. We are watching Axcil Jefferies in the #40 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3R right now. Jeffries is ten some odd seconds ahead of one of the Garage 59 Aston Martin's, that's Valentin Haase-Clot. The Frenchman sharing with Maxime Martin from Belgium and Alexander West from Sweden. Rory Pentinen is pushing hard and is warned for track limits. In LMP3 it is a battle of the Scandinavian's, Dane vs. Finn. Tom Gamble in the D'Station Aston Martin is being monstered by Mikkel Jensen. In the lead though, Arjun Maini is really moving in on Rene Binder right now.
Rene Binder is running very well right now. We see another drive through penalty for Formula Racing, car #60. That Ferrari being shared by Nicklas Nielsen of Denmark, countryman Johnny Laursen, and Alessio Rovera from Italy. Jota team manager, of car #28, has been called to visit with Race Control. Into sixth overall now is Sean Gelael, hoping to move past Malthe Jakobsen and he is in the lane now to hand over the #15 RLR M-Sport entry to one of his teammates. Whoops! Dwight Merriman has spun the ERA Motorsports car and is now back on track. Era Motorsports of course are set for the IMSA WeatherTech Championship, as well as the European Le Mans Series.
Ferrari #66 is leading GT Am. Patrick Kujala driving. Kujala sharing the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari with Christian Hook and Manuel Lauck. Kujala will be back in the GT World Challenge Europe series for SRO this year as well, formerly the Blancpain Endurance Series. Arjun Maini may be into the lead or he is getting close to being there. Rene Binder is still indicated as the leader, but Arjun Maini, he has to be the leader now, taking chunks of time out of the lead as he's catching up. He's steaming right along nicely, thank you very much. Two hours and 40 minutes on the board, the standard length of time of a sprint race in IMSA. Malthe Jakobsen is happy with his stint although he had a warm and long stint, that was yet enjoyable. Malthe Jakobsen is a star of the future.
He is cool, calm, and collected, indeed. Now, have DKR just come out of nowhere and moved to the lead in LMP3? Apparently so! Wow! DKR had a horrid time yesterday. #63 being shared by Laurents Horr of Germany and also Belgian driver Jean Glorieux. Arjun Maini in the lane now from the race lead. Does Rene Binder have an issue we don't know about? Maybe not. Maini has been quick and now, he will be handing the car over to Naveen Rao. He is from India but is now an American citizen. Rao is a champion in IMSA Prototype Challenge with LMP3 cars. Rene Binder is back to the lead of the motor race.
In GT, long stints are developing. Axcil Jeffries has run 30 laps. Ollie Milroy in the McLaren has run 29 laps. Car #51, the AF Corse Ferrari is in the lane with Alessandro Pier Guidi, and it looks like Oswaldo Negri Jr. is ending his stint in that car. Hard to see what is going on as the Eurosport stream is intermittent right now. Ah. Technical difficulties are now over. We are watching the Rene Binder driven G-Drive car right now, ahead of Naveen Rao. OK. Tech difficulties are still with us. Hang on here, ladies and gentlemen. Two and a half hours to go. Jan Erik Slooten was confused about who hit him. We will have to find out from the stewards what happened and we may not find out until later this week.
Ferdinand Habsburg is now in the #26 G-Drive car and Yiffei Ye will finish the motor race. Sean Gelael took a stop/go penalty and so he is now back on the track. Stoffel Vandoorne made a regular pit stop. Correction. Vandoorne will serve the penalty. Tom Blomqvist will join the team in Abu Dhabi in the next races. Ferdinand Habsburg is moving away from Naveen Rao. Next up we have Rui Andrade now driving the #25 G-Drive car and then the #5 Phoenix Racing Oreca in the hands of Matthias Kaiser, the Lichtenstein driver.
Achieve a lap time and a fuel target and make sure you are in agreement with your race engineer. Mattias Kaiser is reeling in Naveen Rao in LMP2. We are watching Bashar Mandini in LMP3 right now. The #28 HubAuto Mercedes has spun in turn nine, Liam Talbot at the controls. Axcil Jeffries continues to lead the GT class. A three wide battle for GT honors among the Ferrari's. Patrick Kujala in the sandwich with Oswaldo Negri Jr. and with Alessio Rovera. Trouble in paradise for Liam Talbot. He has to take a penalty for speeding in the pit lane and just came in to have a punctured tire taken care of. Giorgio Roda is running well, and his father, Gianluca Roda was a longtime driver himself. Now Giorgio has taken up the racing mantle.
We're also watching the #2 United Autosports Ligier Nissan LMP3 car of Robert Wheldon. Wheldon sharing with fellow Englishmen Ian Loggie and Andy Meyrick. Rui Andrade meanwhile is pushing very hard indeed. Ahmad Al Harthy is moving in on both Alessio Rovera and Patrick Kujala. Drive through penalty for Liam Talbot for speeding in the lane. He will have to take that penalty. Alain Ferte has taken over from Axcil Jeffries after a pit stop for the #40 GPX Porsche 911 GT3R. Ferte will serve his drive time for a full stint and then hand the car over for the end of the motor race to Julien Andlauer. Trouble in paradise as well for the Era Motorsports #18 car. It will be getting a ten second penalty for forcing a car off the road.
Valentin Haase Clot is in the pit lane and now, the #55 Ferrari leads GT. This is the Rinaldi Racing car of David Perel, Rino Mastronardi, and Davide Rigon. Matthias Kaiser is going to be chasing Ferdinand Habsburg. Habsburg leads by 39 seconds. #25 is one to watch. Making his way past the GT cars is Matthias Kaiser. Anthony Wells, meantime, is running fifth in LMP3. We've seen a few driver changes in GT. Alexander West, Tom Canning, and more. Oliver Hancock in the lane for TF Sport, the #95 car started by John Hartshorne, and now, Oliver Hancock is into the car. Ben Keating drove the car in the IMSA series and he will run for Aston Martin in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
TF Sport is going to be very busy between Asian Le Mans, European Le Mans, and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Laurents Hoerr is running really well and of course he ran in LMP3 with Muehlner Motorsports at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in LMP3 for IMSA a couple weekends ago. We are very close to halfway. Very close. Meanwhile, Charlie Eastwood was actually the driver into the TF Sport car taking over for Ollie Hancock. Ahmad Al Harthy brings the Oman Racing with TF Aston Martin to the lane sharing with Tom Canning and Jonny Adam.
#25 and #26 are the Aurus cars, a Russian limo company that is the name, rebadged of an Oreca. Now, G-Drive has been pinged with penalties because the fueler did not have a helmet on for safety. The sole remaining #35 Walkenhorst Motorsports BMW is in the lane. Sami matti Trogen, Jorg Breuer, and Henry Walkenhorst. Two Germans and a Finnish driver. Clear to go, mate. Clear to go. Down and away. Meantime, there is a battle for position between Brendon Iribe and Robert Renauer in GT. We are now into the second half of this motor race here in Dubai early on this Sunday morning. Glad to have you with us here on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog. Teams are on different pit strategies but also different strategies of putting your bullet driver, your quick bloke, into the car. Rene Binder and Ferdinand Habsburg are running on the pace, bang on the money at the moment.
Rory Penttinen is in the lane for service and a new driver will take over. Rui Andrade at 1:46.889 has new fast lap while Ferdinand Habsburg works traffic, pushing hard. Manuel Maldonado or Wayne Boyd will take over the #23 entry. Yiffei Ye will finish this race for #26, but these chaps have done the basics well and are now in the pound seats. Aston Martin #88 in a battle and here comes the #5 car and the #25 into the lane for pit stops. It will be a race in the lane. Phoenix Racing has pro ana amateur pit crew members. Duncan Tappy in the #3 LMP3 Ligier, actually has Jim McGuire at the controls. Jim McGuire, Duncan Tappy, and Andrew Bentley.
Rui Andrade, the Angolan driver is in the #25 car. He is moving past Patrick Kujala, actually, Christian Hook, in the #66 Ferrari GT car for Rinaldi Racing. Matthias Kaiser is running well for Phoenix Racing. Ferdinand Habsburg is on his out lap right now. Side by side stuff for Ferrari's #51 and #54. #51 with Oswaldo Negri Jr. has a penalty in his future while Thomas Flohr has the #54 car with his Vista Jet's private airplane company emblazoned on the car. Mikkel Jensen has moved the #57 Car Guy Ferrari into a good spot, sharing with Come Ledogar and Takeshi Kimura, the Am driver.
Laurents Hoerr is racing with Rob Wheldona dn others in LMP3.
#28 in the laner, Stoffel Vandoorne at the wheel of it, in the Jota car with a spare Era tail on the car. Trouble for Stoffel Vandoorne. It will be a spell in the garage for these boys. The nose section is awry on one of the prototypes as Rob Wheldon in the #2 United Autosports LMP3 Ligier Nissan is in the pit lane. The #44 Ginetta is off the road in turns four and five, Charlie Robertson at the controls. Some contact for the #64 car has made the dive planes on the nose go catawampus. A close exchange as well, look between the LMP2 car and one of the Ferrari's. Yikes! The Ginetta is moving again, so we may stay under green.
The fans of the Yorkshire, England, Ginetta team will be happy. Well, the cars are built in England anyway. Marvin Kirchofer makes a pass on one of the Ferrari's, the Car Guy car it appears. A good battle as Antares Au is scrapping with Chris Hook and Tomonobu Fujii is back there as well. In LMP3, we still see Bashar Mandini leading in the #15 RLR MSport car. Ferdinand Habsburg has stamped his authority on this particular stint, reeling off the laps. Mattias Kaiser is catching Rui Andrade. Matt Bell and Colin Noble both are running well for Nielsen Racing. Noble sharing with Anthony Wells, and Bell with Rodrigo Sales.
Alain Ferte is well ahead of Rino Mastronardi and Marvin Kirchofer. This is the scrum in the GT class. Ferte, if he can come into the lane with a lead of any kind, they will be perfect on pace to the end. Brendon Iribe is struggling as the weather isn't warm enough for the particular car he is driving and could have a better race at Abu Dhabi. Come Ledogar, meantime, is moving in on Alain Ferte. Ferte will surely let him go because Ledogar is not racing Ferte. Mastronardi and Kirchofer are both chasing Alain Ferte. This is, once again, the scrap going on for GT honors.
It has been amazing for the organizers of the Asian Le Mans Series to pull this schedule and this grid together during these times of the pandemic. Car #66 will be dinged by the stewards for constant abuse of track limits. The gap is closing between Ferte, Mastronardi, and Kirchofer. Alain Ferte is 62 years old and he has driven sports cars for many, many years even though he is classified as a Bronze driver. He is very, very quick even with his true veteran status. Stoffel Vandoorne is back on track and running purple sectors. He's angry. He wants to push hard and get his lost ground back.
Robert Wheldon is running really well in LMP3. G-Drive team manager to see Race Control. Oh dear. What could that be about? It is close to the end of the third hour and we will be into crunch time before you know it. The team boss is going with foreboding to see Race Director Edoardo Freitas. All of the LMP3 contenders have pitted twice and they will head in for their third stops in 15 minutes or so. Lorents Hoerr will have to wait for his pit stop in that length of time. Pit stop time for the #51 Ferrari. Oswaldo Negri Jr. out of the car and Alessandro Pier Guidi will take over for the final stint. He is a very competitive driver who takes no prisoners. One of the best sports car drivers in the world right now and a champion with James Calado in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2017.
Marcos Gomes and company have not had the best race for the #01 HubAuto Racing Mercedes. That team is from Taiwan. An Aston Martin in a Ferrari sandwich in GT. #55 and #89 in a battle and Marvin Kirchofer goes to second but he goes too deep on the brakes into the corner. Rino Mastronardi yields to the German. Will Alain Ferte hand over the #40 GPX Porsche to Julien Andlauer on this lap? We will see. Laurents Horr has brought the #63 DKR Engineering Duqueine M30 D08 Nissan into the pit lane, and that team and car are having a far better race today than they did yesterday.
Into the pit lane, the #01 Mercedes AMG GT3. Raffaele Marciello will get into the car, the rapid Italian Mercedes factory GT driver. Franco Colapinto and Rui Andrade have both run very well in the #25 G-Drive Racing Aurus today. Stuart Cox, their team boss, is very passionate about racing. He was not impressed about the team's performance yesterday and was giving the team an ear bashing about improving in the motor race today. Ferdinand Habsburg pits the #26 G-Drive car, and Yifei Ye will take over the car from Ferdinand Habsburg. Meanwhile, Alexander West brings the second Garage 59 Aston Martin to pit lane for service. Colin Noble and Matt Bell are running well in LMP3. Aston Martin will have a penalty and hopefully get through it and take their medicine, and try to recover.
Meanwhile, the #99 Porsche of Ralf Bohn is moving ahead in GT, but with Ben Barnicoat coming in the McLaren. A level drivers are now getting into the cars. Ralf Bohn is the Am driver for Precote Herberth Porsche. We await a pit stop for Alain Ferte. He has not hit the lane yet. Ferdinand Habsburg, Franco Colapinto, Nicki Thiim, Narain Karthikeyan. What a group of drivers. All of them are very accomplished at different levels. GT drivers and also ex Formula 1 drivers in the case of drivers like Karthikeyan and Vandoorne.
One hour left on the board. Franco Colapinto sets the fastest third sector time in the race so far. Nikki Thiim is also really applying the blowtorch at the moment. LMP3 leaders are making their final pit stops and the same is true for the top runner in GT. We have Julien Andlauer at GPX Porsche and Mike Benham in the #89 Aston Martin for Garage 59, and also, Jonny Adam in the #97 Oman Racing Aston Martin who will get into that car fairly soon. Come Ledogar in the Ferrari also needs to pit. He is in the Kessel Racing by CarGuy Ferrari. Davide Rigon is in the #55 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari who has completed all their pit stops. Rigon will take the car home in the last 54 minutes.
Rob Wheldon pits the #2 United Autosports Ligier in LMP3 with Andy Meyrick taking that car to the flag. Tomonobu Fujii will take the D'Station Aston Martin to the finish. Yiffei Ye leads Franco Colapinto at the top of the ship while the CD Sport LMP3 car goes off the road and back on. Adam Eteki in the #33 CD Sport Ligier is chasing down Bashar Mandini. The gap is moving around between Nicki Thiim and Franco Colapinto. The fine desert sand here in Dubau makes the track very slippery under these slick tires.
Jonny Adam is into the lane for service. The #57 Ferrar of Come Ledogar will have to pit and Julien Andlauer who leads Davide Rigon, will take the race lead back in GT. It isn't a fair fight right now between Porsche and Ferrari. Yifei Ye continues to lead. Franco Colapinto sets new fast lap at 1:46.473. Franco Colapinto has pulled out a second on Nikki Thiim. Colapinto lost oil yesterday during the race and the team put 20 liters of oil in it. He is having a much better race today. Many Asian teams nearly made it here, like Absolute Racing and Eurasia, hopes were to have them here.
Eurasia raced at Daytona in the Rolex 24. They could not make it into these races because of the pandemic and the travel restrictions. Davide Rigon still leads GT. Ralf Bohn is moving up steadily in the Herberth Porsche, solidly in a podium place, but he is being chased down by Ben Barnicoat, Jonny Adam, Raffaele Marciello, and Maxime Martin. A battle for position too between Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Eastwood. We can see a battle between LMP's and GT3's. Franco Colapinto will be in a mad rush to get by the LMP3 cars, trying to go for it.
In the next few years, many of these drivers might just be able to race in the new LMDh category. Oh dear! Trouble for one of the Nielsen cars with a punctured tire. Left front tire puncture as Formula Racing with Alessio Rovera is in the lane in Ferrari #60. It is Colin Noble with the tire truble and actually it is worse. It is a suspension failure, an upright, on that car, from slamming over the curbs. Lorents Hoerr is going to pit soon. Charlie Eastwood and Tomonobu Fujii are scrapping for position, an internecine battle in the Aston Martin camp. Laurents Horr has brought the DKR car into the pits. Narain Karthikeyan also makes a pit stop.
Julien Andlauer, in GT, has the pace over the Ferrari as Aston Martin moves up with Maxime Martin in the #88 Garage 59 Aston Martin. Raffaele Marciello is gaining as well for a podium place. Nicki Thiim is pushing and so is Franco Colapinto! Colapinto has not been able to get away from Nicki Thiim. Colapinto has not yet had the pressure from an experienced LMP2 pilot. Jean Glorieux will take the #63 DKR Engineering car home in LMP3. Maxime Martin and company for Garage 59 Aston Martin will bring that automobile home in the last 25 minutes of the motor race. Simon Trummer brings the #5 Phoenix Racing Oreca into the lane for the final time.
Oh. Trummer stalls it, but then moves away from the pit box. Yifei Ye now leads Franco Colapinto. Colapinto in pit lane for the final time. Fuel only. A stop and go penalty for not respecting minimum pit stop time for the #15 RLR M Sport Ligier LMP3 car. A number of stop and go penalties being doled out before this race ends. Just over 20 minutes left in the race. Ben Barnicoat is trying to close up on the #01 HubAuto Meecedes as Ferdinand Habsburg pits for the final time, doing the basics well. No stress. No worries.
Points placings and also Le Mans invitations are at stake for the championship. Ralf Bohn has been running well today for the Precote Herberth Porsche team. There could be a Balance of Performance adjustment in the days leading up to the races in Abu Dhabi next weekend. Bohn is having some issues with cornering right now, so hopefully he can keep it together. We have the Porsche, the Ferrari, the Mercedes and the McLaren all in the fight in GT. Nicki Thiim remains third. Phoenix Racing want to be in LMP2 and LMP3 instead of DTM that they used to do, now that the single driver sprint GT3 formula has been adopted for that championship.
Nicki Thiim has a new contract for the factory Aston Martin team for 2021. What will happen globally with GT cars, especially GT3? GTE Pro and Am are still going to be around for a while longer. GT3 cars have ABS brakes and are friendly to Pro Am drivers, as well as Pro drivers. The gap between the HubAuto Mercedes and the Precote Herberth Porsche is about six seconds in GT. Ben Barnicoat cannot make inroads on the Mercedes ahead. Matt Bell can still catch Andy Meyrick in LMP3. DKR have had a much better race today than they did yesterday.
Sean Gelael and the Jota Sport team have just not had the race they've wanted today. Meantime, Julien Andlauer and GPX have really nailed it today and so they can win another race today in GT competition. They had a bad race yesterday, but today, they've delivered. Wayne Boyd and United Autosport have done very, very well in LMP3 today. Yifei Ye leads Franco Colapinto by 50 seconds. Franco Colapinto has broken Nicki Thiim's will and should be the second place finisher in this motor race today as we get very close to the end with less than two minutes to go. A lock of the brakes by Colapinto but he stays on the road.
Yifei Ye will have two laps left to run. Rene Binder laid the groundwork for this and their competition has been unlucky or has been in incidents. Ferdinand Habsburg managed the gap very well even though he drove quicker. 124 laps completed in today's race. This is the first time the newly tuned LMP2 cars have raced in the Asian Le Mans Series. A second win for G-Drive Racing is imminent. They have won both races here in Dubai! Brilliant execution, and a fantastic result!
Overall/LMP2: #26 Binder/Habsburg/Ye G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson
LMP3: #23 Boyd/Maldonado/Pentinnen United Autosports Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT: #40 Andlauer/Ferte/Jefferies GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3R
Now, there was a car that was going slowly at the end of the motor race as one of the LMP3 cars slowed on the final lap of the race. What happened to DKR Engineering and the #63 car? Did he gp off the road? He dropped from second to fourth in class. Wow. Amazing stuff. That was an extraordinary positional drop. We will update that for you before the racing action starts at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi next weekend. That's the next set of races in the championship. We will see you in Abu Dhabi. Such a mystery about DKR Engineering.
A good race today in Dubai. Again, we look forward to your company in Abu Dhabi on Friday February 20th and Saturday February 21st. It should be a fun couple of races to report on. See you on Friday, everybody, for all the action. So long from Dubai. Take care.
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