Crowdstrike by APR take AsLMS Dubai race 1 victory, in a race headlined by LMP3 drama
- Aaron Carroll
- 1 minute ago
- 11 min read
George Kurtz, Malthe Jakobsen and Louis Deletraz have made it two wins from two in 2026 for Crowdstike Racing by APR after their success in Daytona last weekend. The trio won out in a final dash to the flag after a SC with half an hour to go.
In LMP3 the No.13 InterEurpol car of Chun Ting Chou, Henry Cubides and Alex Bukhantsov just held on to the lead after fending off the No.29 Forestier car for most of the final stint. The two had a tight battle on the final lap, and Morano thought he had it. But he came together with the InterEuropol LMP2 and lost the position again, having to settle for second.
The No.74 Kessel Ferrari of Dustin Blattner, Chris Lulham and Dennis Marschall led the way in the final stint, to take the win in a tightly contested GT class.
Results
LMP2 - Top 5
1st No.04 Crowdstrike by APR
2nd No.47 Cetilar Racing
3rd No.30 RD Limited
4th No.20 APR
5th No.70 Vector Sport RLR
LMP3 - Top 5
1st No.13 InterEuropol
2nd No.29 Forestier Racing
3rd No.71 23Events Racing
4th No.8 Team Virage
5th No.17 CLX Motorsport
GT - Top 5
1st No.74 Kessel Racing Ferrari
2nd No.66 JMR Corvette
3rd No.10 Manthey Porsche
4th No.28 Team WRT BMW
5th No.21 AF Corse Ferrari
As it happened
The No.5 United Autosports car, qualified and started by Giorgio Roda, would lead the field away from pole position on the green light. The No.17 CLX Motorsports car took pole in LMP3, while a pair of GetSpeed Mercedes locked out the LMGT3 front row - No.37 ahead of No.9.
After two formation laps, the field got away for four hours of racing. It was all safe through turn 1 for both prototype classes, but there was a hit in the GTs. The No.69 BMW ran wide and into the side of the No.87 Porsche. The BMW came away from the incident with front-left damage. It was pulled into the garage, pretty much race over for the WRT entry.
The No.59 Ferrari was also in the pits. The biggest mover on lap 1 was Ben Hanley in the No.6 United Autosports car, which pitted at the end of lap 1. That was more of a strategic move from United, after starting from the back of the grid. Hanley, the pro driver started, so they pit and installed the bronze Phil Fayer to continue on in the first stint.
The No.26 LMP3 got a 1 minute penalty for a breach of the start procedure.
In terms of race order, all three pole sitters held their leads. At the front in LMP2, the No.20 Algarve Pro Racing (APR) entry took second away from the No.49 High-Class entry which was in third. The No.04 Crowdstrike entry finished out the first breakaway group at the front.
In GTs, the two leading Mercedes swapped places. Steve Jans getting by Abdulla Ali Al-Khelafi to put the No.9 into the lead. Dustin Blattner was also apart of that lead battle in third place in the No.74 Kessel Racing Ferrari.
The No.64 Nielsen Racing LMP2 of Kriton Lentoudis had a spin 15 minutes into the contest. He was helped around by the No.45 Ponos Racing entry of Yorikatsu Tsujiko. The Greek driver got the car spun back around though and kept on his way. The No.45 got a drive through for the incident.
As the leaders caught GT traffic for the first time, a gap formed between second and third. This left the No.49 and No.04 to battle it out on their own for the final podium spot early on. There was also a tight battle between the two Ferraris in GT, the No.15 and No.21 fighting over ninth and tenth in class as the LMP2s tried to sift their way through.
Half an hour into the race another battle broke out in LMP2. The No.3 DKR car was defending seventh position from the No.25 APR and the No.47 Cetilar car. Michael Jensen was able to get by, and quickly began to pull away as he did so. The No.47 soon found a way by too.
Meanwhile a thrilling four way battle for fourth was going on in GT. The No.11 Corvette, No.28 BMW, No.87 Porsche and No.56 Aston Martin were all involved. They almost went four wide down the pit straight for a moment. While the other three fought, the TF Sport Corvette found a moment to break away slightly from the pack.
The trio re-caught the No.11 though, and no time was wasted by the BMW and the Porsche in getting by. The No.28 BMW and No.87 Porsche continued fighting hard, the Porsche finally finding a gap to get by after many laps of trying.
Just over 40 minutes in, the first of the LMP2s came into the pits for their scheduled stops. The leading No.5 was one of the first into the box, while almost everyone else came in on the following lap.
The No.49 High Class car came out in front after only taking fuel in the pits. Roda in the No.5 came out in second, but would be chasing Jens Reno Moller down with a fresh set of Michelin rubber.
The No.50 Ferrari found itself facing the wrong way off the track at Turn 7. Gregory Bennett looping it around on his own in between LMP2 traffic.
The No.1 Team Virage car of Ajith Kumar had his own spin too, as did Fayer in the No.6 United LMP2. Fayer had another spin, this time much faster than his first. He was stuck off the road in the first sector, seemingly with a deflated tyre.
Fayer got out of the car, and the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was called to recover the stricken United Autosports.
The pit lane remained open, so a flurry of LMP3 and GT pit stops got underway, trying to take advantage of the slowed pace. Quite a few LMP2s pitted too, including the No.49 High Class car which was in the lead of the race.
The No.56 GT, No.44 LMP2 and the No.87 GT all got handed drive through penalties for track limits. They'd all have to be very careful, as we were only just over an hour into the race.
The pits closed when the full Safety Car (SC) was called. So the order would fully take shape after the stops, and the wave-bys would occur.
The No.5 was back to the lead of the race, ahead of the No.20 and No.49. They had all pit twice. The No.17 CLX car held the lead in LMP3, meanwhile the No.87 Porsche led GT, but was due to serve the penalty so the No.11 Corvette would inherit first place.
All of the top 5 LMP2s had taken a driver change in their second stops, so it was Gregiore Saucy who led them to green with just over two and a half hours remaining. Malthe Jakobsen in the No.04 Crowdstrike send one to the outside of the No.49 car, moving his car up to third. He continued his run too, getting by the No.20 into turn 1 on the next time of asking.
The No.20 continued to fall down the order, Matthias Kaiser seemingly struggling to get up to speed. He lost positions to the No.49 and the sister No.25.
There was a four wide moment at turn 15 with three GTs and an LMP2 trying to clear the traffic, but everyone managed to come out unscathed.
The newly installed pro drivers were immediately on the pace, setting purple sectors from the word go.
Jakobsen would prove the quickest of the lot though. He quickly caught up the Saucy in a battle for the lead with two hours and 20 minutes to go. The two were sifting through a massive gaggle of LMP3 and GT traffic, really showing off their racing skills in a scintillating battle.
The two went either side of a GT into turn 15, Jakobsen trying to launch it around the outside of Saucy, but he couldn't quite find the speed on the outside. Both were taking big risks through traffic just to find an extra couple of tenths on each other.
The No.49 and No.25 weren't too far behind either, as they sliced through the same group of traffic.
The No.23 23 Events Racing LMP3 was spun around by the No.87 Porsche GT, but Louis Stern was able to keep the car going.
Over the next few laps, the leading pair pulled out a four second gap on third and fourth. The two pairings were still fighting it out, but both the No.25 and No.04 struggled to find a gap past.
There was a lead battle in GT too, the No.11 Corvette was defending from the No.9 Mercedes. Both Blake McDonald and Steve Jans had been in their respective cars since the start of the race. The No.37 of Ali Al-Khelafi joined the battle soon, he too had been in since the start.
Back at the front Enzo Trulli in the No.25 finally found a gap down the inside of Gustavo Menzes for third place.
There was a move just after the halfway mark in GT too. Jans got by McDonald to put his GetSpeed Mercedes back into the lead of the race.
The second SC of the race came just a lap later though, McDonald found himself in the wall on the back straight. With heavy rear damage, he limped the car back to the garage, taking TF Sport out of any realistic contention for the win.
The pits closed, but the No.25, No.49, No.20 and No.3 LMP2s all snuck into the pits just before the SC was called, benefitting from a cheap pit stop. That stop would end up really benefitting those cars, as the No.4 and the No.5 were forced to enter a closed pit lane for emergency service.
This meant that they could only take a splash of fuel, and would be forced to come back into the pits again once the race went green for full service.
That meant the No.47 Cetilar car - that had won both races in Sepang - led the way from the No.25 and the No.49. The No.13 InterEuropol led LMP3 heading to the restart, while the No.66 Corvette of Yasser Shahin led GT after that class too had some emergency service trouble for the previous leaders.
The pits opened under the SC, and there was a massive flurry of action for the crews on pit lane. Unsurprisingly, there were some tight releases, with pit traffic management being key.
A handful of cars didn't pit, so the order on the restart in LMP2 was, No.88, No.30 and No.22. The No's 5 and 4 were down in 11th and 12th, while the No.49 and No.25 were seventh and eighth. The No.29 Forestier LMP3 took the lead in that class, while the No.66 held the GT lead.
It was a very long SC, as McDonald had leaked fluid all the way down the back straight. The martialling team worked as fast as they could to dry up the liquid, which was mostly concentrated on the racing line.
The No.88 and No.22 Proton cars as well at the No.25 APR pit just before the end of the SC. This was in an attempt to countback the pit stops, to avoid needing a splash of fuel right at the end of the race. Those three cycled to the back, but were in the best strategy position if the rest of the race was fully green.
After over 40 minutes of SC running, we got going again. The No.30 and No.45 led the order on the timing page, but they had traffic ahead of them in the SC queue.
The No.64 Nielsen car of Alex Quinn pulled off an amazing move right from the get-go into turn 1, steaming around the outside of both the No.4 and No.5 cars to move into fifth place. Quinn made quick work of the gap to the No.47 Cetilar car of Antonio Fuoco too, getting past and gapping the Italian in the matter of a lap.
Cars fanned out across different parts of the track for the entirety of the restart lap, with all three classes being mixed in together.
James Allen in the leading No.30 car had found clean air though, pulling out an eight second gap in just a handful of laps after the SC. Quinn was still making progress through though, getting past Vlad Lomko in the No.70 car for third and immediately catching the back of the No.45 for second.
Quinn got past Kei Cozzolino very quickly, and got after Allen for the lead. At this stage the gap had been extended out to a massive 20 seconds. Allen pitted though, so Quinn took over the lead of the race just before the one hour to go mark.
With the stops, the No.47 and No.4 moved into second and third. So Fuoco and Louis Deletraz took to fighting on the circuit, going back and forth for the best part of half a lap before Deletraz eventually made the move stick. The No.47 began to fall a bit further, dropping behind the No.20 APR a handful of laps later.
There was a battle for the lead in LMP3, the No.29 Forestier car holding on ahead of the No.13 InterEuropol.
The No.23 LMP3 had a spin in sector one, getting a hit from the No.9 Mercedes as the No.04 LMP2 tried to get by. Julien Gerbi tried to limp it back, but eventually had to pull off at turn 10. A VSC was called with just over 40 minutes remaining to deal with the stricken Ligier LMP3.
Pretty much everyone came into the pits under this VSC, they would have no issues making it to the flag on a full tank with this amount of time left.
So the order for the restart was the No.64 in the lead, ahead of the No.20, No.04, No.25 and No.3. In LMP3 it was the No.29 and No.13 looking like the contenders, while the No.66 and No.74 were at the front in GT.
The SC came into the pits with just over 20 minutes to go, so it was a straight shootout until the chequered flag in all classes.
Quinn got a good restart, and so did Deletraz from third. He brought the No.04 past the No.20 APR car for second. Fuoco in the No.47 got by the No.3 for fifth at the end of the back straight, as did the No.30.
Deletraz quickly eliminated the gap to Quinn. The Swissman was squeezed all the way to the pit wall on the next lap, but he found the gap and got the move done down the inside into turn 1. Deletraz flew away from Quinn with his fresh tyres, setting purple sector after purple sector.
Behind him, second, third, fourth and fifth were all in a line fighting over positions. Fuoco looked to be the quickest, getting into third and already looking for a move on Quinn for second place. The No.20 and No.30 were also fighting for the podium positions.
Fuoco went into second place with a move down the inside at the end of the back straight. Quinn's older tyres were proving to be a big disadvantage. He was struggling to fight against the No.30 and No.20. Despite some good defensive driving, he simply didn't have the grip to keep up.
Back in LMP3 the No.13 was still trying to find a way by the No.29. In GT Dennis Marschall was beginning to create a gap for the lead in the class. The No.13 took the lead in LMP3, but it got very aggressive on the final lap.
The No.29 got the position at the final corner of the penultimate lap, but the No.13 got it back by the time they hit turn 1. But Cubides overcooked it and had to take to the escape road, having to give it back to the No.29.
The No.29 had a moment with the InterEuropol LMP2 and lost the lead again towards the end of the final lap, giving the win to the No.13.
In LMP2, Deletraz hung on to give the win to the No.4 team, and Marschall came across the line first place in GT.
The Asian Le Mans Series returns tomorrow, for race two in Dubai.
