GPX Racing take win in 2nd Race of the Asian Le Mans Series
The Porsche customer team GPX Racing has won the second race in the opening weekend of Asian Le Mans Series . In a dramatic second race of the weekend, the No. 40 Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Julien Andalauer, Alain Ferté and Axcil Jefferies came out on top. The trio crossed the finish line first in the GT Class at the the Dubai Autodrome 5.39km circuit and secured the second straight overall victory of the weekend for the 500+hp GT3 vehicle from Weissach.
GPX Racing who finished fourth yesterday after leading almost the entire race, did not miss its chance to win the second race despite the 20 kg more imposed on all three Porsches. The start did not go to plan for both Porsche customer teams, Precote Herberth Motorsport with two cars and GPX with the one started the race from rows one and two on the grid. The number 93 of Steffen Görig, Antares Au and Kla us Bachler was involved in an early incident with number 97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 resulting in the number 93 having to pit with a rear puncture and dropping them to the back of the field, the sister car number 99 piloted by Ralf Bohn, Alfred Renauer and Robert Renauer soon found themselves way down the order in sixtieth place after only 3 laps. The number 40 GPX got the better of the starts for Porsche slotted into second place just behind the number 77 leading Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3.
The Aston Martin lead the way with a twelve seconded advantage between themselves and the second placed GPX Porsche but a drive through penalty was awarded to the Aston Martin team for track infringements promoting the GPX porsche into first place, Herberth Motorsporst number 99 car by now had made up ground and was up into 8th place with the number 93 in thirtieth. After the first cycle of pit stops GPX was still in front with a twenty second lead over 2nd place, the number 93 was up into sixth place with the sister car number 99 now in eighth place. the GPX Porsche continued to lead although second and third place by now had closed the gap to only six seconds before the second round of pit stops started.
Once the cars had all pitted for the second time, the running order had fallen back into place almost the same prior to the stops with GPX leading and the Herberth Porsche number 99 in fifth and the number 93 in tenth place, the number 99 continued to push and at one point was up into third only to lose the position a few laps later while the number 93 was now up into ninth place, GPX went on to take the win with the number 99 crossing the line in 5th place and the number 93 finishing in ninth place.
The 2021 Asian Le Mans Series now head to Abu Dhabi for the second half to the season - Races 3 and 4 will be held next Friday and Saturday on the Yas Marina Circuit!