Algarve Pro’s No. 25 Car Scores Back-to-Back Wins

Photo: Asian Le Mans Series

Algarve Pro Racing scored its second Asian Le Mans Series victory in a row as Malthe Jakobsen, Valerio Rinicella and Michael Jensen triumphed in Saturday’s opening race of the 4 Hours of Dubai double-header.

Peugeot Hypercar racer Jakobsen brought home the No. 25 Oreca 07 Gibson for the win, having wrested the advantage from the Pure Rxcing Oreca that had led for much of the four-hour encounter that was red-flagged for an hour.

DKR Engineering’s No. 3 crew of Laurents Hoerr, Job van Uitert and Georgios Kolovos came home second, 11.342 seconds behind, while APR made it two cars on the podium with the No. 20 car of Alex Quinn, Olli Caldwell and Kriton Lendoudis in third.

The race was neutralized by the safety car, and then stopped entirely, following a crash for the No. 8 Dragon Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Todd Coleman at Turn 6, which left the barriers needing a lengthy repair job.

Prior to the hour-long stoppage, Alex Malykhin had led the way aboard the No. 91 Pure Rxcing car, having jumped to second at the start and then moved ahead of poleman Giorgio Roda’s No. 22 Proton Competition machine at the first round of pit stops.

Once the race resumed behind the safety car, the entire LMP2 field pitted to relieve their Bronze-rated drivers, leaving Malykhin’s co-driver Harry King at the head of the order ahead of Mathias Beche in the No. 11 Proton entry.

King proceeded to build a gap of six seconds before a full-course yellow period with just over an hour to go, and while Beche gained the No. 11 crew a temporary advantage by stopping under the caution, the real battle for the lead was between Pure Rxcing and the No. 25 APR car, courtesy of a strong restart from LMP2 rookie Rinicella.

Julien Andlauer inherited the effective lead after taking over the No. 91 car from King, but a spin for the factory Porsche racer left him coming under intense pressure from Jakobsen, who took over the No. 25 machine from Rinicella.

The lead changed hands with 38 minutes on the clock as Jakobsen found a way by Andlauer at the final corner, after which the latter lost further ground when he was penalized for contact with the No. 9 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG.

That promoted Hoerr in the DKR car to second, with Quinn bringing home the No. 20 APR machine for the final spot on the podium ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse and No. 22 Proton entries of Matthieu Vaxiviere and Tom Dillmann respectively.

Malykhin, King and Andlauer had to be content with eighth with Andlauer losing out to Nicky Catsburg’s Nielsen Racing car inside the final ten minutes.

Bretton Triumphs in LMP3; 2Seas Takes Last-Gasp GT Win

Czech squad Bretton Racing scored its first win of the season in LMP3 as Theodor Jensen, Jens Reno Moeller and team newcomer Griffin Peebles took a narrow victory aboard their No. 26 Ligier JS P320.

The battle for the class win came down to a straight fight between the Bretton squad and Ultimate’s No. 35 car that had won both races at Sepang in December, with Jensen charged with fending off Matteo Quintarelli in the closing stages.

In the end, Jensen ground out an eight-second victory over the Ultimate machine that Quintarelli shared with Louis Stern and Leonardo Colavita.

Claiming the final podium spot, a lap behind, was the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Daniel Ali, Tim Creswick and Douwe Dedecker.

Mercedes-AMG squad 2Seas Motorsport scored a surprise win in the GT ranks as the leading Manthey Porsche surrendered the lead with a last-minute pit stop.

Klaus Bachler looked on course to take a straightforward win in the No. 10 Porsche 911 GT3 R he shares with Antares Au and Joel Sturm, only to mysteriously pit with one minute and 45 seconds left on the clock.

That paved the way for the No. 96 2Seas Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Ben Barnicoat, Parker Thompson and Anthony McIntosh to take victory, three seconds ahead of the No. 92 Manthey EMA Porsche of Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Ryan Hardwick.

Third went to the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 that had enjoyed a spell in the lead until Ben Tuck was passed by the Manthey Porsche of Sturm before dropping back after being penalized for abusing track limits.

Dennis Marschall fought his way back up to third in the car he shares with Tuck and Dustin Blattner, passing the No. 87 Origine Motorsport Porsche of Bo Yuan, Leo Ye Hongli and Laurin Heinrich that was destined to finish behind the Ferrari anyway owing to a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision on pit lane.

Bachler, Sturm and Au wound up fifth after their last-minute stop.

The second leg of the 4H Dubai begins Sunday at 2:10 p.m. local time (5:10 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Dubai