Allen Paces Opening Practice for Abu Dhabi Finale

Photo: Asian Le Mans Series

James Allen put RD Limited to the head of the timesheets in first practice for this weekend’s Asian Le Mans Series practice in Abu Dhabi.

Australian driver Allen steered the No. 30 Oreca 07 Gibson to a best time of 1:41.287 a little over halfway through an incident-free 90 minute session at the Yas Marina circuit on Friday afternoon, 0.529 seconds clear of the opposition.

A late improvement by Harry King in the No. 91 Pure Rxcing Oreca up to second on a 1:41.816, while early pacesetter Tom Dillmann’s best time of 1:41.943 in the early part of the session was enough put the No. 22 Proton Competition Oreca third.

Valerio Rinicella was fourth-fastest in the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing crew that leads the championship heading into this weekend’s pair of four-hour races.

Rinicella and teammates Michael Jensen and Malthe Jakobsen are three points clear of RD Limited trio Allen, Fred Poordad and Tristan Vautier, with an automatic 24 Hours of Le Mans invite on offer for the championship-winning team.

Alex Quinn was fifth in the second of the APR cars, the No. 20 Oreca, with Alessio Rovera going sixth-fastest in the No. 83 AF Corse entry.

Both cars go into the Abu Dhabi weekend still in championship contention, nine and 19 points behind the No. 25 APR crew respectively.

High Class Racing was fastest in the LMP3 class courtesy of a 1:48.575 effort from Anders Fjordbach in the No. 49 Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

That was just under a tenth up on the No. 15 RLR MSport car of Ian Aguilera, while Bretton Racing’s No. 26 machine was third in the hands of Theodor Jensen.

In the GT class, the No. 21 Car Collection Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R was fastest on its return to action, having been ruled out of the previous weekend in Dubai due to a crash in practice.

Alex Fontana set the best time of 1:52.761, outpacing Luca Stolz in the championship-leading No. 81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo by 0.386 seconds.

Laurin Heinrich was third-fastest in the No. 87 Origine Motorsport Porsche, followed by Marvin Kirchhoefer in the No. 77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and Fabian Schiller’s No. 9 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG.

Second practice for the 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi begins at 7:45 p.m. local time (10:45 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1