Weekend notebook: Ferrari on the podium in the Asian Le Mans Series

In the final round of the Asian Le Mans Series, Ferrari secured a podium finish in Abu Dhabi, with the Kessel Racing 296 GT3 concluding the championship in fourth place.

The third round of the GT Winter Series in Valencia delivered high-adrenaline action, with 17 Ferrari cars competing in the classes dedicated to single-marque series cars.

Asian Le Mans Series. The two 4-hour races contested at the Yas Marina Circuit in the United Arab Emirates brought the series to a close. The best result for Ferrari came from the number 74 Kessel Racing car, which finished fourth in the standings thanks to a third and fourth place over the weekend, achieved by Ben Tuck, Dustin Scott Blattner, and Dennis Marshall, already having claimed a podium in Dubai and fifth in the drivers’ standings.

The number 57 Car Guy entry saw its hopes in the standings fade prematurely in the first race, which was marked by multiple incidents. One of these forced Takeshi Kimura to retire, racing alongside Casper Stevenson and Prancing Horse official driver Daniel Serra. However, the three drivers bounced back with an excellent sixth-place finish in Race-2, securing seventh place in the final standings.

AF Corse also claimed a sixth-place finish in Race-1, with the number 82 Ferrari driven by Charles-Henry Samani, Conrad Laursen, and Nico Varrone, but were forced to retire in the second race.

The number 28 entry from the Piacenza-based team featured Ferrari’s second official driver, Davide Rigon, who alongside Massimiliano Wiser and Manuel Franco finished in ninth and fourteenth place. Meanwhile, the third AF Corse car, the number 51, entrusted to Cédric Sbirrazzuoli, Custodio Toledo, and Riccardo Agostini, finished further back.

Tenth and eleventh place for the first of the two Dragon Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 cars, the number 88 driven by the Italian trio of Nicola Marinangeli, Marco Pulcini, and Giacomo Altoè. Further down the order, the number 8 entry of Todd Coleman, Blorcan Hanafin, and Saaron Tellitz finished both races behind, as did the number 23 Absolute Racing car with Carl Wattana Bennett, Gregory Bennett and Chris Van der Drift.

GT Winter Series.The third round of the series, the first held on Spanish soil, delivered an action-packed race weekend at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, where Ferrari 296 Challenge and 488 Challenge cars competed in the classes dedicated to single-marque cars.

In Cup 1, there were three different winners: in the first race, victory went to Eric Cheung and Daniele Di Amato in the number 198 AF Corse 296 Challenge, ahead of James Owen and Alois Meir in the number 26 Engstler Motorsport entry, with John Dhillon and Matt Griffin taking third at the steering wheel of the Piacenza-based team’s number 151 car. Dhillon and Griffin then went on to claim the top step of the podium in the 55-minute endurance race, finishing just 0.641 seconds ahead of Cristiano Maciel and Rui Aguas in the number 50 AF Corse car, with Anders Bidsturp third in the number 29 DC Motorsport entry.

Bidsturp dropped one step on the podium from Race-2, where he had finished second, just 0.824 seconds behind the number 150 Santogal – Araujo Competição entry. Third place went to Rafael Duran and Sean Hudspeth in the number 127 AF Corse Ferrari.

In Cup 5, Jacob Bidstrup dominated both Race-1 and Race-2 at the wheel of the number 40 DC Motorsport Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo. In the endurance race, however, victory went to Darren Howell and Sean Doyle in the number 5 AF Corse 488 Challenge, following their two second-place finishes in the other two races. Giuseppe Casillo and Stefano Gai, in the number 117 AF Corse 488 Challenge Evo, ended the weekend with two third places and a second-place finish in the longer race.

The next round, the fourth of the series, is scheduled to take place in two weeks at Aragon, also in Spain.