Algarve Pro Racing took their fourth win of the 2024/25 Asian Le Mans Series and the third with the #25 car when Malthe Jakobsen took the chequered flag brought the car he shared with Michael Jensen and Valerio Rinicella 5.4109 seconds ahead of Alex Quinn in the sister #20 car after the British attempted a brave fuel-saving run to the line.
Completing the podium positions in the LMP2 class was the #22 Proton Competition entry driven by Vladislav Lomko who crossed the line just under four seconds behind Quinn.
The win for the #25 Algarve Pro entry means that Jakobsen, Jensen and Rinicella go into the final race of the season with a 16-point advantage over their teammates with the #30 RD Linted crew of Tristan Vautier, Fred Poordad and James Allen relegated to third on 73 points.
In the LMP3 class, victory went to the #15 RLR M Sport Ligier driven by Nick Adcock, Ian Aguilera and Chris Short with the #26 Bretton Racing entry piloted by Jens Moeller, Griffin Peebles and Theo Jensen 17.378 seconds back. The #7 Graff Racing entry completed the podium finishers. Moeller and Jensen lead the LMP£ class drivers standings on 85 points, five ahead of Matteo Quintarelli and 10 ahead of RLR’s Ian Aguilera and Nick Adcock.
A highly competitive GT grid saw a Porsche 1 – 2 when Richard Lietz brought the #92 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R home for the class win less than a second ahead of the #10 Manthey Porsche driven by Antares Au, Klaus Bachler and Joel Sturm. The #16 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Maro Engel, Viktor Shaytar and Sergey Stolyarov finished in third. The #92 trio of Lietz, Pera and Hardwick now lead the GT drivers standings on 70 points, nine points ahead of Winward Racing’s Gabriele Piana and Rinat Salikhov and the #10 driver line-up of Au, Bachler and Sturm.
Pole-sitter Giorgio Roda, at the wheel of the #22 Proton Competition ORECA, led the field away for the opening race of the Abu Dhabi double-header – the final weekend of the 2024/25 Asian Le Mans Series. The #91 Pure Rxcing entry driven by Julien Andlauer was starting from the back of the overall grid due to an incident during qualifying.
The grid git away safely with Jereky Clarke in the #50 AF Corse entry looking to pass Roda. However , contact at Turn for the #79 and #46 GT cars and the race was quickly red-flagged, debris across the circuit meant that the race was needed to be neutralised to allow for clearance and barrier repairs.
The field was stopped on the start-finish straight as the debris was cleared and the incident investigated. After a lengthy stoppage, for which an additional 30 minutes was added to the race length, drivers got back into their cars and racing got underway behind the safety car with green flag running resumed after two laps. Fred Poordad in the #30 RD Limited car returned to the pit lane for fresh tyres.
There was contact between the #35 Ultimate Ligier LMP3 entry and #49 High Class Racing cars resulting in damage for the #49 car. Further contact resulted in the safety car being called on again to allow for safe recovery of debris.
When racing resumed, Julien Andlauer, who had started from the back of the grid was moving up the field and was third before the halfway point. Andlauer then passed Jeremy Clarke in the #50 AF Corse car and Georgio Roda in the #22 Proton Competition entry to take the lead.
A full course yellow was called after contact between the #57 Car Guy Ferrari and the #98 EBM Aston Martin, the #98 Aston Martin being served with a drive through penalty for the incident.
Andlauer handed over the #91 car to Aliaksandr Malykhin but the bronze-rated driver was unable to hold the position against quicker pilots. With the lead held by Mathie Vaxiviere in the #83 AF Corse car, Tom Dillman in the #22 Proton Competition entry was pushing hard in second and contact between the two saw the ’83 spinning.
Malthe Jakobsen in the #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA was looking to close the gap to Lomko in the #22 car. However a penalty for the #22 car for the incident with the Vaxiviere in the #83 car saw the lead change.
The final 20 minutes saw fuel strategies and drive times play a significant part in the final result with Harry King having to bring the #91 Pure Rxcing ORECA in for a driver change and then in the final ten minutes the #22 and #25 cars had to stop for fuel, promoting Quinn in the #20 car to the lead.
Knowing that his fuel was marginal, Quinn backed off and was easily passed by Jakobsen in the #25 car but held on to make Race 5 a 1 – 2 for the Portuguese-based team.
With all the titles still up for grabs, Race 6 should be a fitting final for one of the most exciting multi-class series in the world.
The final race of the 2024/25 Asian Le Mans Series gets underway at 4.30pm local time (12.30pm UK) at Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi.
