4 Hours of Dubai Race 2 Highlights and Results

The #4 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca-Gibson took a second victory in Dubai with a thrilling 4-hour encounter that saw all three classes won by less than two seconds at the Dubai Autodrome.

Louis Deletraz took the checkered flag for the second time in two days 1.6 seconds ahead of his Algarve Pro Racing teammate Tom Dillmann in the #25 Oreca, with Antonio Fuoco in the #47 Cetilar Racing taking another podium for the Italian team. However, a post-race technical infringement by Cetilar Racing (Stewards Decision #85) resulted in a 10-second penalty being added to the race time for the #47 Oreca, dropping them to 4^th and promoting the #20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca to third and a clean sweep of the podium for APR.

The LMP3 category was won by the #71 23Events Racing Ligier, with Matus Ryba taking the class lead only to lose it again when the car stopped with 15 minutes left. Ryba recycled the power and got going again and was able to once again pass the #17 CLX Motorsport of Alexander Jacoby and then the #29 Forestier Racing by VPS of Luciano Morano on the penultimate lap. The three-car train took the checkered flag all covered by 1.9 seconds.

After a DNF in race 1, it was all smiles in the Team WRT garage when Dan Harper crossed the line in the #69 BMW M4 to secure victory in race 2, finishing ahead of Laurin Heinrich in the #87 Origine Motorsport Porsche 911, the two cars split by just 0.881 seconds at the end of four hours of racing.

Almost A Clean Start to Race 2 in Dubai

Forty-five cars took the start in Dubai for the second 4-hour race of the weekend, with the LMP3 winning #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier back in the garage with a suspension issue that the mechanics were working hard to fix.

While 44 cars got through T1 and T2 cleanly, the #21 AF Corse Ferrari of Simon Mann spun out into the wall at T3 all on its own. The American was struggling to get the car going and, with the car in an unsafe position, the Race Director declared a Safety Car period just as the Ferrari started moving. The Safety Car was on track for just four minutes before the race went green again.

At the restart the pole sitting #5 United Autosports Oreca of Giorgio Roda slowed into the first corner, allowing the #49 High Class Racing of Jens Reno Moller to take the lead. Roda managed to slowly get the car back to the pits and into effective retirement with a gearbox issue.

The #64 Nielsen Racing Oreca of Kriton Lentoudis also came into the pits with a puncture, which the team quickly replacing the wheel and the Greek driver rejoined.

Paul Lanchere was leading LMP3 in the #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier from Tim Whale in the #94 High Class Racing Ligier.

The #37 QMMF by Getspeed Mercedes-AMG of Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi was leading the GT category but the Qatari drivers luck ran out at T14 when overtaking the #1 Team Virage Ligier driven by Ajith Kumar, the Indian losing control under breaking an colliding hard with the Mercedes, which spun off into the run off area. Al Khelaifi was unable to get the car going so a Virtual Safety Car was declared to recover the stranded Mercedes-AMG.

The VSC and the following Safety Car period last 20 minutes, with the race resuming. The #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier, with Alex Buhkantsov aboard, joined the race 8 laps down, the team looking to gather as many championship points as possible.

At the restart the #20 APR Oreca of John Falb overtook the #49 High Class Racing Oreca of Jens Moller to take the lead at T10. The LMP3 lead had also changed, with the #85 R-ace GP Duqueine of Shahan Sarkissian getting ahead of Paul Lanchere in the #17 CLX Ligier.

The GT field was led by Bo Yuan in the #87 Origine Motorsport Porsche, just ahead of Tom Van Rompuy in the #34 Racing Team Turkey Corvette, the #69 Team WRT BMW of Tony McIntosh and the #11 TF Sport Corvette of Blake McDonald, the four cars split by just 2.1 seconds. The battle for the GT lead went on for several laps.

The #51 AF Corse Ferrari and the #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin collided at T15, with the Aston Martin spinning and was collected by the #26 Bretton Racing Ligier, spilling debris on the side of the track. With debris also at T4, a Full Course Yellow was declared to allow the marshals to clear it up, which only took four minutes.

Paul Lanchere had managed to regain the lead in LMP3 and had pulled out a four second gap to Shahan Sarkissian, who was being challenged by Tim Whale in the #49 High Class Racing.

John Falb was holding off the challenge of Jens Moller for the overall lead, with Georgios Kolovos in the #43 Inter Europol Competition closing up behind the Dane.

Another Safety Car was declared after 90-minutes of racing when Louis Stern in the #23 23Events Racing Ligier spun off the track at T4 on his own, with the car spearing hard into the barriers. Stern emerged from the car unaided but the car and the barrier was badly damaged.

At the green flag 20 -minutes later, and after the pitstops that took place during the SC period, the #25 Algarve Pro Racing of Enzo Trulli was leading but Malthe Jakobsen in the #4 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca was in his wheel tracks, and the Dane took the lead at the restart. It was an Algarve Pro Racing 1-2-3 with Mathias Kaiser in the #20 APR in third ahead of Charles Milesi in the #47 Cetilar Racing Oreca.

However, Milesi and Kaiser dropped back a place when the #30 RD Limited of James Allen passed both of them at T16 while they were passing backmarkers.

Kevin Rabin in the #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier was leading LMP3 but under pressure from Lena Bühler in the #85 R-ace GP Duqueine, with Buhler pushing her way past Rabin at T14. Rabin responded and the two cars were side by side until Bühler finally made the move stick at T1.

However, Lena Bühler’s great work was swiftly undone when the car slowed with a puncture halfway round the lap and had to return to the pits for a replacement. This put Kevin Rabin back into the lead ahead of the #71 23 Events Racing Ligier of Ibrahim Badawy and the #29 Forestier Racing by VPS Ligier of Lucas Fecury.

The GT lead was held by Bo Yuan in the #87 Porsche, with Tony McIntosh passing Blake McDonald for second at T1. The Chinese driver was three seconds ahead of the two chasing Americans.

The #30 RD Limited Oreca had to make an early pitstop after James Allen picked up a puncture. The Australian came in to hand over to Tristan Vautier.

After the last set of pitstops the #20 APR Oreca was leading with Sami Meguetounif needed to complete his last pitstop and had built up a 58 second lead before heading in to take on fuel. This put the French driver in second spot behind the #30 RD Oreca, but, because of the earlier puncture, Vautier would need to stop for a splash of fuel before the end of the race. Louis Deletraz was third in the #4 Crowdstrike Racing Oreca, with Tom Dillmann in the #25 APR and Antonio Fuoco in the #47 Cetilar.

Deletraz overtook Meguetounif at T10 to take second, with Dillmann also moving ahead of his teammate for third at T1 on the next lap.

In LMP3 the #71 23Events Racing Ligier, #w with Matus Ryba behind the wheel, moved ahead of both the #17 CLX and the #29 Forestier Ligier in quick succession to sweep into the lead.

Ryba moved away from the chasing pair and looked on course to take the win. However, with just 15-minutes left, the #71 Ligier suddenly slowed and stopped at T11, with Ryba trying to restart the car. He managed to do so on the second attempt but had been passed by his two rivals. Alexander Jacoby in the #17 CLX and Luciano Morano were battling hard for the win, which allowed Matus Ryba to close the gap quickly and on the penultimate lap passed both cars again to take the LMP3 win.

In GT Dan Harper in the #69 BMW was holding off a determined challenge by Daytona 24 overall winner Laurin Heinrich in the #87 Porsche but was able to use every trick he knew to keep the German driver behind. The two cars battled all the way to the checkered flag and were just 0.8 seconds apart when they crossed the line for the final time. The #10 Manthey Porsche of Loek Hartog took the flag 21 seconds further up the road.

At the front the battle for the overall win raged with Deletraz getting ahead of Vautier to take the lead in the final 10-minutes, with Dillmann also getting ahead for second place. Tristan Vautier tried to get to the flag without pitting but with two minutes left his fuel was exhausted and he came in. The #20 APR and #47 Cetilar were fighting for the final podium position, with Fuoco overtaking at T12 to take the position from Meguetounif. However, the positions were reversed after a post-race penalty for a technical infringement (Stewards Decision #85) and the #47 Oreca was given a 10-second penalty.

Deletraz and Dillmann were leading the way with just over a second splitting the two, but Deletraz was able to hold on and took the win for the second time in two days. With the #20 APR Oreca being promoted to third, Algarve Pro Racing took a clean sweep of the podium for the first time.

CLICK HERE for the result from the 4 Hours of Dubai Race 2

Quotes

4 Hours of Dubai Race 2 Winners #4 Crowdstrike drivers Louis Deletraz, George Kurtz and Malthe Jacobsen. Image Supplied

George Kurtz – #4 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca 07-Gibson: “We started a little bit behind where we wanted to, but we made progress, and obviously we just kept our head. The team had a fantastic car for us all weekend. I can’t give enough credit to Crowdstrike by APR and Malthe and Louis were just exceptional, amazing passes, just great traffic management, great management of the race, and we couldn’t be prouder getting a double win here.”

“Louis is a total weapon; the passes were insane. It just goes to show you the level of all the drivers, and in particular, Malthe and Louis. We’ve got a fantastic team with a great car, and we look forward to Abu Dhabi.”

Malthe Jakobsen – #4 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca 07-Gibson: “It was very, very messy, a bit similar to what we had yesterday. It was great to carry over the car after George, thanks to him moving the car a little bit forward on the grid, but there was a few cars to overtake. I think the most difficult thing was managing the tires. I had to carrying over George’s tires initially, but getting a new set, knowing that Louis would have to carry them over to make sure we had a new set of tires for the last stint. So it was difficult to manage the situation with how much you were able to push. But also looking in your mirror seeing the pressure coming from behind from Enzo Trulli, who drove very well as well. Then I handed over to car to Louis, and he had to finish the job.

Louis Deletraz – #4 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca 07-Gibson: “It was an awesome race. We were fast the whole weekend. I took the car over from Malthe in great shape. I think here, you know, it’s all about tire management. George started it and moved forward. We’re having less deg than the others. Then Malthe gave me great tires. He moved to the front, I moved to the front, and in the end, we were in good shape. So just fighting like this with all the top drivers, it was really a lot of fun and to end up on top is great. The execution was perfect and we cannot do it without all the all the guys and girls of the team.”

Terrence Woodward – #71 23Events Racing Ligier JS P325-Toyota: “It’s nice to be on the top step. 23Events did a fantastic job with the car preparation and the race management. Then the drivers did have did a fantastic job as well. I’ve got to mention Matus for that final drive, he had to do it twice and did really, really well.

“It’s the first time I’ve been to Dubai, so I think in yesterday’s race, I was really still learning the track and then just started to get my head around it a little bit more. I think I just found a little bit of pace and gave us a good start today.”

Ibrahim Badawy – #71 23Events Racing Ligier JS P325-Toyota: “I had a long stint. We had the cooling vest but I plugged it in and it didn’t work, so it was hot. Anyway, I kept my head down and I improved a lot lap by lap. We were able to push more and I was able to overtake other cars and move up. I have to thank my teammates, and especially Matus for the last stint, it was incredible.”

Matus Ryba – #71 23Events Racing Ligier JS P325-Toyota: “I was going well but during braking in corner 10, I had an electrical issue. I had to completely restart the car two times and shift through all the gears. I lost around 20 seconds; it was very tough.

“Apart from that the car was good. The development of the car throughout the two races and this weekend was very good. You could see it in the pace; we were two and a half seconds or three seconds faster than the top two guys. It was mega so thank you to the team.”

Anthony McIntosh – #69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3: “ I guess for me, it was bitter-sweet weekend. Just coming off of so many great podiums with WRT we had a second, a second and a first, and then just, you know, the issue in yesterday’s race, that was 100% my fault. However, the team rallied around me, and they picked me up when I was down, and I got #thing but great things to say. I mean, that’s the difference between having a good team and the number one team, and so they definitely supported me.”

“The GT grid here is almost in some ways more competitive than WEC. This really is the shortest amount of time that you could spend in the season to get a ticket to Le Mans. So, anyone who’s anyone, anyone who has a shot, they just come out of the woodwork, and it’s # hold barred for six races, and you have to go hard because you just have # choice.”

Parker Thompson – #69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3: “My stint was great – easy peasy. WRT gave us a fantastic car, so I just passed a few people and drove around.

“Dealing with the traffic wasn’t easy the LMP3s at the end of the stint were a little tricky. They you never quite know where you’re at with the cycles. It 10 minutes before the final stint happened. The GT field was going through the back of the P3 field, so that was tricky. We just had to keep our head and make sure that we had four corners on a BMW left for our man, Dan.

“But all in all, fantastic race. We I had some fun chasing down the Origine Porsche, which was good, got within striking distance, and then WRT did what WRT does, and we beat them at the Pitstop and got Dan, the man out front, and the rest was history.”

Dan Harper – #69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3: “I was giving it everything, the whole stint to try keeping behind. I knew, similar, to be honest, like my last stint in Daytona, where I knew if he got right on my bumper, that he would most likely get me just due to better brake performance, things like that. But our car has its own strengths, and I made sure to utilise those to keep the gap where it was.

“The guys gave us a great car. As soon as Tony got out and said, I’m going to love the car in the last end, it filled me with confidence. And yeah, great to bring the car home. P1 and our first win as a team.”