The 4 Hours of Dubai, Race 1 of the Asian Lemans Series saw a clear domination of Nielsen Racing. CD Sport sounded the Marseillaise in LMP3 with a double of the Ligier JS P320. Inception Racing opens its counter in GT with the McLaren 720S GT3.
Being the only LMP2 which is not entered in Am, Nielsen Racing has on paper the most homogeneous crew of the 2022 season. The Oreca 07 of the British team did not experience the slightest dispute in this race 1 of vintage 2022.
Rodrigo Sales had a little hiccup, locking the rear wheels going into the final turn at the start of the race just temporarily caused the Oreca 07 to lose leadership, which wasted no time in taking control. David ‘Sven’ Thompson’s side begin their 2022 campaign with success in Dubai thanks to Ben Hanley, Rodrigo Sales and Matt Bell.
Eric Trouillet, David Droux and Sébastien Page brought Oreca 07/Graff Racing back to 2nd place, 4 laps behind the winners of the day (victory in Am). High Class Racing and ARC Bratislava follow in the standings. The stratification was respected with all the LMP2s in front of the LMP3s under the checkered flag.
DKR Engineering was expected for victory in LMP3 but the Duqueine D08 of Laurents Hörr, Sebastian Alvarez and Mathieu De Barbuat stopped at the edge of the track 20 minutes from the finish (electronic problem). Too bad for the Luxembourg team which had until then dominated the race and even the whole meeting. The misfortune of some being the happiness of others, CD Sport offered a very nice double.
The French team had remained fairly discreet since the start of the meeting, but the crews of the two Ligier JS P320s came out of the woods at the end of the race. Edouard Cauhaupé, Michael Jensen and Nick Adcock won ahead of the sister car, that of Steven Palette, Christophe Cresp and Antoine Doquin. CD Sport hit the mark on this first round of the year. The last step of the podium goes to another Ligier, that of G-Drive Racing which in the last minute took the lead over the Duqueine D08/Rinaldi Racing which had to settle for 4th place. Note a very good Xavier Lloveras at G-Drive Racing.
The other LMP3s suffered to finish very far in the standings: While DKR Engineering caused the 2nd and last Full Course Yellow, the first was the result of a problem with the Ginetta G61/Konrad Motorsport which also stopped at the edge of the track. Inter Europol Competition and Koiranen Kemppi Motorsport had problems.
In GT, we could expect a hotly contested race given the very small gaps in qualifying. The McLaren 720S GT3/Inception Racing of Ben Barnicoat, Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy quickly took over the competition to cut the checkered flag with a good ten lead over the Ferrari 488 GT3/Rinaldi Racing of Davide Rigon, David Perel and Rino Mastronardi.
Third place was decided on the wire between Vincent Abril’s Ferrari/AF Corse and Joe Osborne’s McLaren/Optimum. The Monegasque managed to keep his 3rd place in forceps against the Briton. The #91 Herberth Motorsport/Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R and #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport/BMW M4 GT3 complete the top 6. For its McLaren 720S GT3 debut, Garage 59 took the checkered flag in 7th place for the #88. The highest ranked Mercedes-AMG GT3 is that of Haupt Racing Team, 9th in GT.
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