Roda Delivers Double Pole for United in Dubai

Photo: Asian Le Mans Series

Giorgio Roda has taken pole for both races in this weekend’s Asian Le Mans Series rounds in Dubai.

The Bronze-rated Italian driver set an overall fastest time of 1:47.996 in the No. 5 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson that he shares with Gregoire Saucy and Mikkel Jensen.

Roda previously took pole for the opening round of the championship at Sepang in his first outing with the team. His second fastest time, a 1:48.283, was enough to take pole for race two on Sunday.

Jens Moller in the No. 49 High Class Racing car was over half a second slower than Roda in the 15-minute LMP2 qualifying session. High Class will start second in race one and third in race two.

The No. 20 Algarve Pro Racing LMP2 of John Falb will start third in race one and second in race two, as Falb’s second fastest time was 0.272 seconds quicker than Moller’s.

The No. 88 Proton Competition entry will complete the second row, with Horst Felbermayr Jr qualifying fourth for both races.

Championship leaders Cetilar Racing qualified fifth for race one and seventh for race two with Roberto Lacorte at the wheel of the No. 47 entry.

Double Class Poles for CLX Motorsport, GetSpeed

Paul Lanchere took the LMP3 pole for both races in Dubai with the No. 17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 Toyota that he shares with Kevin Rabin and Alexander Jacoby. The Frenchman, who claimed a double pole and a race two win at the last round in Sepang, set a best time of 1:56.438.

Roman Vozniak was 0.363 seconds behind in the No. 8 Team Virage. The car will line up second in both races, with the No. 94 High Class Racing entry taking third place for both races with Tim Whale driving.

In the GT category it was a double front row lockout for the Mercedes AMG GT3 Evos of GetSpeed.

The QMMF by GetSpeed branded No. 37 entry of Abdullah Ali Al-Khelafi took pole for both races with a fastest overall time of 1:59.595.

Ali Al-Khelafi – who shares his No. 37 car with Lucas Auer and Ghanim Salah Al-Maadheed – was 0.176 seconds faster than teammate Steve Jans in the sister GetSpeed No. 9 which will start second in both races.

The No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Dustin Blattner will line up third for both races.

Race one of this weekend’s Dubai double-header is scheduled to start at 2:10 p.m. local time (5:10 a.m. ET).

Results: Qualifying

Finlay Ringer

Finlay Ringer is a freelance motorsport journalist covering the 24H Series for Sportscar365. He is also a journalism student at City St George's, University of London, and has contributed to publications such as The Race and Autocar.