Roda Tops First Practice for Dubai 4H

Giorgio Roda put Proton Competition on top of the times for the opening practice session for this weekend’s third round of the Asian Le Mans Series at Dubai Autodrome.

In a 90-minute Friday afternoon session devoid of interruptions, Roda produced the fastest time of 1:49.386 in the No. 22 Oreca 07 Gibson to go 0.386 seconds faster than nearest rival Will Stevens in the No. 24 Nielsen Racing car.

Stevens is standing in for Ferdinand Habsburg in Dubai with the latter unable to attend due to Alpine FIA World Endurance Championship testing commitments.

Fresh from last weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, third-fastest was Colin Braun in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR car that won the second race of the opening round at Sepang back in December, followed by another member of the Daytona-to-Dubai contingent, Alessio Rovera in the No. 83 AF Corse entry.

Cool Racing, one of two new additions to the Asian Le Mans Series field in LMP2 alongside a second entry from Nielsen, ended up fifth courtesy of Lorenzo Fluxa’s best lap aboard the No. 47 machine.

In LMP3, Fabien Lavergne set the pace in the No. 2 CD Sport Ligier JS P320 Nissan with a best effort of 1:54.605.

That was nearly a full second up on James Winslow, who was second-fastest in the No. 17 Cool Racing car.

Factory Ferrari driver Davide Rigon, part of Risi Competizione’s winning GTD Pro effort in Daytona, was the driver to beat in the GT class, posting a 1:58.931 best at the wheel of AF Corse’s No. 21 Ferrari 296 GT3.

Anthony Liu was only 0.085 seconds shy of the top time in the No. 7 AlManar Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, while Tomonobu Fujii completed the top three in the No. 777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Practice for the Dubai 4 Hours continues on Saturday with a second session starting at 10:10 a. m. local time (1:10 a. m. ET).

Results: Free Practice 1