Algarve Pro Scores 1-2 in Abu Dhabi Opener

Algarve Pro Racing trio Malthe Jakobsen, Valerio Rinicella and Michael Jensen moved to the brink of the Asian Le Mans Series by scoring their third victory in five races in the opening leg of the 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi season finale.

The No. 25 Oreca 07 Gibson led a one-two for APR amid a dramatic finish to a race that was extended by 30 minutes after a long early red-flag period.

The lead changed hands on the 94th and final lap of the race as Peugeot Hypercar driver Jakobsen powered by the sister No. 20 APR machine of Alex Quinn, who attempted a bold fuel-saving strategy in a bid to score a surprise victory.

But Quinn was forced to lap multiple seconds a lap off the pace to extend his final stint, and in the end he was powerless to keep Jakobsen at bay, finally finishing 5.410 seconds behind in the car he shares with Kriton Lendoudis and Olli Caldwell.

The final place on the podium went to the pole-sitting No. 22 Proton Competition Oreca of Tom Dillmann, Vlad Lomko and Giorgio Roda, a further 3.8 seconds behind.

Proton had commanded most of the race and looked set to avenge its defeat in last weekend’s Dubai round, when Tom Dillmann was hit by a GT car in the closing stages.

Drama once again struck during Dillmann’s stint, the Frenchman this time taking the wheel for the middle portion of the race and enjoying a lead of some 40 seconds before earning a drive-through penalty for contact with the No. 83 AF Corse car.

Lomko, who took over from Dillmann for the run to the flag, served the penalty with 19 minutes to go, before coming in a handful of laps later for a splash.

Proton’s No. 11 car of Jonas Ried, Mathias Beche and Alexander Mattschull was fourth on the road ahead of the Nielsen Racing car shared by Nicky Catsburg, Matt Bell and Naveen Rao, but a post-race penalty for Beche failing to meet his minimum drive time by nine seconds reversed their positions.

Pure Rxcing had looked in contention for a first LMP2 win heading into the final hour, having executed an unorthodox strategy from the back of the grid, with Julien Andlauer taking the start and quickly moving up the order against the Bronze-rated drivers.

Alex Malykhin handled the middle part of the race before making way for Harry King, who made what appeared to be the car’s final scheduled fuel stop with just over 40 minutes to go and looked good to make it to the end of the race, helped by two late full-course yellows to allow marshals to retrieve debris.

But just after the final FCY, King pitted to hand back to Malykhin to allow the Belorussian to complete his minimum drive time, leaving the car seventh at the flag.

RD Limited’s No. 30 crew of James Allen, Fred Poordad and Tristan Vautier, who had been APR’s nearest title rivals heading into the race, finished a lap down in eighth as a result of Poordad picking up a puncture towards the end of his stint.

That ended the Romain Dumas-led team’s realistic title hopes, with the trio now trailing the race-winning APR crew by 24 points heading into Sunday’s finale, with the No. 20 trio now up to second in the standings, 16 points down.

RLR MSport Wins in LMP3; Manthey Dominant in GT

For the second race in a row, victory in the LMP3 class went to the No. 15 RLR MSport Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Nick Adcock, Chris Short and Ian Aguilera.

A well-timed full-course yellow that came just as the team was performing its second regulation 1:40 pit stop helped the British squad to get the better of Bretton Racing trio Theodor Jensen, Griffin Peebles and Jens Reno Moeller.

Peebles had passed Adcock for the lead not long before the decisive FCY, but when the Australian teenager pitted to hand over the No. 26 to Jensen, Aguilera inherited a 15-second advantage he was able to manage to the flag.

Completing the podium, more than a minute behind the leader, was the No. 7 Graff Racing car of James Winslow, Danial Frost and Alex Bukhantsov.

The championship-leading Ultimate car was fifth after becoming involved in an incident that also claimed the GT championship-leading Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.

Louis Stern spun as he lunged to pass the High Class Racing car of Mark Patterson at the final corner, and in doing so he drove right into the path of Rinat Salikhov, who had not long passed Ryan Hardwick’s Manthey Porsche to lead.

Salikhov was eliminated on the spot, and the safety car was called to clear the debris, but the Ultimate car was able to continue after a trip to the pits to repair the damage, scoring ten valuable points for fifth despite finishing 11 laps down.

It means that Ultimate driver Matteo Quintarelli, the only driver to have started every race this season in the No. 35 car, goes into Sunday’s decider with a five-point deficit to Bretton duo Jensen and Moeller, with Adcock and Aguilera 10 points back.

Manthey finally came away with a 1-2 finish in the GT ranks, with Hardwick and his teammates in the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz, beating the No. 10 car of Klaus Bachler, Joel Sturm and Antares Au by 0.977 seconds.

It was an accident in a crowded GT field that caused the early red flag, as the No. 46 QMMF by Herberth Porsche was left with significant damage after a coming-together with the No. 79 Tsunami RT Porsche, also leaving the barriers damaged.

Once the pole-sitting Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was removed from contention, the battle for victory looked to be between the No. 92 Manthey Porsche and another Mercedes-AMG, the No. 2 Climax Racing car.

Zhou Bihuang passed Hardwick early on for the lead, and the car also led in the hands of Elias Seppanen before Manthey’s No. 92 machine jumped back ahead with a faster pit stop at the final round of driver changes.

Ralf Aron continued to pressure his opposite number in the Manthey car, Lietz, until he was forced to pit with 11 minutes to go to hand back to Zhou.

That cleared the way for the No. 16 Winward car of Maro Engel, Viktor Shaytar and Sergey Stolyarov to complete the podium.

The No. 89 EBM Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Jamie Day, Gabriel Rindone and Mattia Drudi was on course for a top-three finish until a late drive-through penalty for a collision with the No. 16 Mercedes-AMG, dropping the trio down to fifth at the finish behind the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

Hardwick, Pera and Lietz take a nine-point lead into the final round of the championship ahead of Bachler, Sturm and Au as well as Winward duo Salikhov and Gabriel Piana, who share the No. 81 car with Luca Stolz.

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi