99 Racing secures a second victory in three races!

After the first two races of the 2024 Asian Le Mans Series at Sepang, 13 ORECA 07s gathered at the Dubai Autodrome for a 4-hour race before the two final confrontations scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi.

As usual in the Asian Le Mans Series, the battle for victory was intense until the last relay! Following a magnificent duel between Louis Delétraz in the #99 ORECA 07 of 99 Racing and Julien Andlauer in the #22 of Proton Competition in the final moments of the race, it was ultimately the #99 that crossed the finish line first, with only a 3.499-second lead over its closest pursuer.

This victory was made possible by the excellent relays of Louis Delétraz, Nikita Mazepin, and Ahmad Al Harthy, further solidifying 99 Racing’s lead in the championship with this second success in three races.

At 6.520 seconds behind the leader, young Malthe Jakobsen managed to place the Crowdstrike Racing by APR’s ORECA 07 #4, which he shared with George Kurtz and Colin Braun, in third place.

On the other hand, DKR Engineering’s ORECA 07, the 2023 champion team entrusted to Tom Dillmann, Laurents Hoerr, and Alexander Matschull, finished fourth after an intense battle with their rivals.

The #90 of TF Sport, which had been at the forefront for a long time, was delayed by a penalty imposed on Salih Yoluc for not respecting track limits and a off-track excursion by Michael Dinan. Nevertheless, it completed the final top 5 ahead of the #25 of Algarve Pro Racing.

The #55 of Proton Competition, starting in pole position thanks to PJ Hyett’s brilliant performance the day before, finished in seventh place.

The #83 of AF Corse, the #24 of Nielsen Racing, and the #44 of ARC Bratislava secured a top 10 finish ahead of the #34 of Nielsen Racing, which closed the gap.

The race was particularly eventful for two teams! Cool Racing’s ORECA 07 #47 was forced to retire within the first few seconds after an incident in the first turn involving multiple cars, leading to a neutralization.

Another unlucky team of the weekend was Duqueine Team’s ORECA 07 #30, which, after being at the forefront of the race for a while, lost all hope of victory just over an hour from the finish.

After a very short break, the LMP2s return to Abu Dhabi for the final round of the Asian Le Mans Series, featuring two races.