Proton Competition took a double pole position for Races Three and Four of the 2024/25 Asian Le Mans Series when Georgio Roda went quickest in the team’s #22 ORCEA that he shares with Vladislav Lomko and Tom Dillman. Roda lapped in 1:47.569 and 1:48.049 respectively to secure front row starts in both contests.
Joining the #22 Proton Competition entry on the front row will be the #50 AF Corse entry in which Jeremy Clarke put in a 1:48.154 on his third lap. Completing the top three qualifiers in the LMP2 category was the #91 Pure Racing entry driven by Aliaksander Malykhin.
The LMP3 class saw pole position for Race One go to the #49 High Class Racing Ligier driven by Thomas Keifer who lapped in 1:54.906 with the #26 Breton Racing Ligier piloted by Jens Reno Moeller in second with a 1:55.930. The #7 Graff Racing entry qualified in third.
In the GT3 class, double pole position for Races Two and Three went to the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in which Dustin Scott Blattner lapped in 1:58.891 and 1:58.960. Starting alongside the #74 car for Race One will be the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO in which Rinat Salikhov put in a 1:59.04. The top three for Race One was completed by the #28 AF Corse Ferrari with a 1:59.257 in the hands of Massimilano Wiser.
Qualifying got underway for the GT3 grid with a spin at Turn 1 for the #79 Tsunami RT Porsche 911 GT3 R with Johannes Zelger on board.
Takeshi Kimura in the #57 Car Guy Ferrari 296 GT3 set the first flying lap time but times quickly tumbled as the track was cleared of sand. With six minutes remaining in the 15-minute session, the #87 Origine Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R was quickest with a 1:59.337 in the hands of Bo Yuan.
As the session entered its final four minutes, times were dropping and Reema Juffali went quickest with a 1:59.300 in the ##19 Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 but this was quickly topped by the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari driven by Dustin Scott Blattner.
Lap times for both the quickest and the second quickest laps were important as it was the latter that would set the grid position for Race Two on Sunday.
The session was red flagged with 36 seconds remaining after Charles-Henri Samani in the #82 AF Corse Ferrari made contact with the barrier, causing significant damage to the rear of the black-and-white liveried 296 GT3.
The session would not restart, giving pole positions for Race One and Race Two to the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari.
Ten LMP2 and seven LMP3 entries took the track for the start of their qualifying session. Malthe Jakobsen was behind the wheel of the #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA due to a delay in arriving at the circuit from testing for Peugeot in Europe.
Naveen Rao set the first quick time with a 1:52.740 in the #24 Nielsen Racing entry followed by Jeremy Clarke in the #50 AF Corse entry with a 1:48.154. Clarke spun briefly on the exit of Turn 1 on the following lap.
Georgio Roda was next to get to the top of the timing screens with a 1:47.569 in the #22 Proton Competition entry.
With less than five minutes remaining, the #49 High Class Racing Ligier driven by Thomas Kiefer was on provision pole in the LMP3 class.
As the chequered flag fell. the #22 Proton Competition entry held on to pole position for Race One followed by the #50 AF Corse car.
Georgio Roda was delighted to have secured pole for both races.
“I’m really happy to get for Race One and Race Two for today and tomorrow,” he said. “It was tough. Today the wind direction was completely different from yesterday and there is a lot of sand on the track. I thought the track would have been slower but actually it was quite fast. The car was mega today. I made a mistake with a track limit but the next lap was the fastest lap. I was happy to do the double pole position.
“We had some big issues with the test days so we did not run the whole test day on Thursday but I’m happy for the guys because they have done an amazing job to get us out for Free Practice and also qualifying and I’m looking forward to the race today.”
Race One gets underway at 2.04pm local time on Saturday February the 8th.
