René Binder, Yifei Ye and Ferdinand Habsburg sharing G-Drive Racing's #25 Aurus 01-Gibson have won Race 1 of the 4 Hours of Dubai, opening round of the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series. They beat JOTA's #28 ORECA 07-Gibson entrusted to Sean Gelael and former Formula 1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne. The gap between these two LMP2 prototypes was one lap. Phoenix Racing's #5 ORECA 07-Gibson rounded out the podium.
The Era Motorsport team's #18 ORECA 07-Gibson won the LMP2 Am class thanks to Andreas Laskaratos, Kyle Tilley and Dwight Meriman.
The win in LMP3 went to United Autosports' #23 Ligier JS P320-Nissan with Rory Penttinen, Wayne Boyd and Manuel Maldonado holding the lead through the checkered flag. The battle for second and third places proved fierce between Nielsen Racing's #9 Ligier JS P320-Nissan and United Autosports' #3 Ligier, and it was a tough outing for ARC Bratislava's Ginetta G61-LT-P3 and Duqueine's M30-D08-Nissan, both experiencing mechanical setbacks.
The #99 Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by Precote Herberth Motorsport and driven by Ralf Bohn, Alfred Renauer and Robert Renauer won the GT class after a solid race. The #7 McLaren 720S GT3 of Inception Racing with Optimum and the #34 BMW M6 GT3 entered by Walkenhorst Motorsport completed the podium. GPX Racing's #40 Porsche 911 GT3 R incurred a penalty and fell to fourth place.
The top step on the GT Am podium was reached by Rinaldi Racing's #66 Ferrari 488 GT3.
Click for Race 1 full classification.
The start for Race 2 of the 4 Hours of Dubai, second round of the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series, will be given tomorrow at 12:45 local time.