Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver Yifei Ye put in a strong performance on his maiden race weekend with Porsche at the Dubai Autodrome in the Asian Le Mans Series (Asian LMS). Driving the Herberth Motorsport #33 Porsche 911 GT3 R alongside Antares Au and Klaus Bachler, Ye impressed with his speed, but results didn’t go the team’s way, finishing 12th on Saturday and being forced to retire on Sunday.

Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver Yifei Ye put in a strong performance on his maiden race weekend with Porsche at the Dubai Autodrome in the Asian Le Mans Series (Asian LMS). Driving the Herberth Motorsport #33 Porsche 911 GT3 R alongside Antares Au and Klaus Bachler, Ye impressed with his speed, but results didn’t go the team’s way, finishing 12th on Saturday and being forced to retire on Sunday.

On just his second time driving the Porsche, Ye was able to enjoy plenty of track time at the 5.39 km circuit, allowing him to further refine his understanding of the car for maximum performance. On his Porsche race debut on Saturday, Ye completed a solid stint, consistently recording strong lap times.

The 21-year-old started the race on Sunday, making up several places in the opening laps. In the first hour, Ye managed to improve from 12th on the grid to second, before handing the car over to Hong Kong-based racer Au. Austrian Porsche Driver Bachler took the wheel for the final stint, before a mechanical issue ended the #33 Porsche’s race with an hour to go.

The #91 Herberth Motorsport car was the best Porsche performer in both races, finishing eighth in class in Race 1, while they crossed the line sixth in Race 2.

The final two rounds of the Asian LMS take place next weekend on the 19th and 20th of February at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Yifei Ye, #33 Porsche 911 GT3 R: “It’s been a great learning process for me, I’ve had plenty of track time and learned a lot from my teammates. In the end it’s bittersweet, the Balance of Performance (BoP) wasn’t kind to us so we knew it was going to be a hard weekend. On Saturday we had an eventful day and in Race 2 the strategy was perfect. I took the start and kept it clean in the opening laps, working my way up to P2 by the end of my stint. We were in a good position for a long time and the pitstops went well, but we had an issue on the car and had to retire an hour from the end. We had the potential to fight at the front and overall it was great for me to have time in the car and familiarise myself with the Porsche 911 GT3 R on a track I know well. We still have a very strong driver line-up and hopefully we can perform better in Abu Dhabi next weekend.”

Antares Au, #33 Porsche 911 GT3 R: “It’s been a long time since I last raced, but it’s a car I love driving and I quickly got used to it again. Racing alongside Klaus and Yifei is a very positive experience for me, we work well together as a team and we deserved more. We improved across the weekend but some things didn’t go our way, which was frustrating. We need to move on and focus on Abu Dhabi, it’s a new layout, which should be an interesting challenge and one I look forward to. We will reset and hopefully we can bounce back at Yas Marina next weekend.”

Klaus Bachler, #33 Porsche 911 GT3 R: “We worked well together as a team and gave everything this weekend, but certain things didn’t fall for us. Normally Dubai is a good track for Porsche but this year we struggled a bit with the BoP. Despite this, we did our best and got the maximum out of the car. In Race 1 we finished P12, but we knew what we had to change to fight further up the field. Yifei got us off to a great start and we were in a strong position, so it’s a shame we had an issue on the car while I was driving. Now we have to turn our attention to Abu Dhabi, it’s one of my favourite tracks and has an interesting new layout. Hopefully we will be more competitive there and can fight for podiums.”

Alexandre Gibot, Managing Director Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Ltd.: “Overall, this was a very positive weekend for Yifei. He came into the series with very limited track time in the Porsche 911 GT3 R, but he quickly got used to the car and showed the strong pace we were expecting. It was also great to see Antares racing again, he’s not competed for some time so it’s great for him to be back on track. The results were unfortunate, but the team can take positives from the weekend, especially after Yifei’s excellent opening stint in Race 2. We wish all the best to every Porsche entry competing in Abu Dhabi in a few days' time.”