AF Corse Wins Abu Dhabi Finale, APR Seals Title

AF Corse took victory in the Asian Le Mans Series finale in Abu Dhabi, while Algarve Pro Racing came away with a second consecutive LMP2 title by finishing fourth.

Matthieu Vaxiviere, sharing the No. 83 Oreca 07 Gibson with Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera, finished 14.143 seconds ahead of the No. 24 Nielsen Racing entry of Naveen Rao, Matt Bell and Nicky Catsburg to win.

The Frenchman completed the winning pass with under ten minutes to go when he overtook Catsburg at Turn 5, with the Dutchman saving fuel after stretching out his closing stint with the help of a late-race Full Course Yellow to clear debris.

AF Corse had led much of the early running of the race, which was red flagged and then lengthened after an opening lap crash for the No. 42 Prime Speed Sport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 required barrier repairs.

Rovera captured the race lead after the polesitting No. 22 Proton Competition Oreca pitted at the end of Giorgio Roda’s opening stint.

However, after leading past the halfway mark, the Italian came under pressure from RD Limited’s No. 30 Oreca, with the French squad needing a race win to keep its slim title hopes alive.

James Allen, having taken over from Bronze-rated driver Fred Poordad, took the car into contention with a storming stint that saw the Australian pass Job van Uitert, Jonas Ried and Algarve Pro’s Olli Caldwell in short succession to move into the top three.

Shortly thereafter, Caldwell’s No. 20 Oreca slowed, pitted and was pushed into the garage suffering from electrical issues.

That eliminated Caldwell, Kriton Lentoudis and Alex Quinn from championship contention, having entered the finale at Yas Marina Circuit 16 points behind its No. 25 sister car.

Allen, meanwhile, pushed through into second place by passing the No. 24 Nielsen Oreca of Matt Bell through traffic into Turn 5 before pitting to hand over to Tristan Vautier.

Vautier continued to pressure AF Corse for the lead in what quickly developed into a four-car battle as Proton Competition’s Tom Dillmann and the No. 24 Nielsen machine, now with Catsburg at the wheel, closed in.

The No. 30 car was the first to fall, effectively eliminated from the lead fight when Vautier received a ten-second penalty for passing off track at Turn 4.

Nielsen then appeared to gain the upper hand in the lead battle as the final pitstops played out, with Catsburg attempting to stretch his final fuel stint with the aid of a late intervention for debris.

However, it wasn’t enough to prevent Vaxiviere from passing before going on to win, with Nielsen finishing second ahead of the No. 30 RD Limited Oreca of Poordad, Allen and Vautier.

The No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Michael Jensen, Valerio Rinicella and Malthe Jakobsen finished the race in fourth place and grabbed the LMP2 title in the process.

It marked the second consecutive Asian Le Mans Series crown for the Stewart Cox-led squad, having achieved title success last year with the CrowdStrike Racing effort.

Proton Competition’s No. 11 car of Alexander Mattschull, Jonas Ried and Mathias Beche completed the overall top five, with its sister car piloted by Roda, Vlad Lomko and Tom Dillmann sixth after a late fuel stop.

Bretton Racing, Manthey Take LMP3, GT titles

Bretton Racing and Manthey captured the championship titles in LMP3 and GT, respectively, with the latter also taking the class victory.

While the battle for the final class win in LMP3 went the way of High Class Racing, third place for Jens Reno Moeller, Griffin Peebles and Theodor Jensen proved enough for the Czech squad to maintain the narrow points lead with which it entered the finale.

Mark Patterson, Anders Fjordbach and Thomas Kiefer claimed their first win of the campaign with their No. 39 Ligier JS P320 Nissan, halting the win streak for the No. 15 RLR M Sport crew of Nick Adcock, Ian Aguilera and Christian Short.

They finished the race third and completed the class podium, missing out on the title by a mere seven points.

Of note, the Abu Dhabi finale also marked the farewell appearance for the current, Nissan V8-powered generation of LMP3 machinery in ACO-rules competition.

Both the European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup are set to adopt the new specification of LMP3 cars this year, which will be powered by a twin-turbocharged Toyota V6 engine. The Asian Le Mans Series will follow suit for the 2025-26 season as well.

In the GT class, meanwhile, Antares Au, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler completed a championship comeback, sealing the title with a class win.

The No. 10 Porsche 911 GT3 R entered the finale in third place, nine points adrift of the No. 92 sister car.

However, after a run in which a drivethrough penalty for a start infringement was offset by a second-hour safety car, the German squad came out on top to win.

Although Bachler was challenged and passed by the No. 89 Earl Bamber Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi, the No. 10 crew eventually regained the upper hand and maintained the lead even through a late splash for fuel to win.

The gap between Sturm and the No. 89 Aston Martin of Drudi, Jamie Day and Gabriel Rindone was 6.434 seconds at the finish, with the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Dustin Blattner, Ben Tuck and Dennis Marschall rounding out the podium.

Andrew Gilbert, Fran Rueda and Benjamin Goethe finished fourth in the No. 27 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, with the top five completed by the No. 16 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo piloted by Sergey Stolyarov, Victor Shaytar and Maro Engel.

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi