Weekend notebook: 2023 ALMS season ends in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi circuit hosted the finale of the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series with two four-hour races, each featuring four Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020s. With a hat-trick, Tom Fleming starred among the seven Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo entries in the GT Winter Series in Valencia.

Asian Le Mans Series. The double round at Yas Marina, contested just one week after the first two races in Dubai, decided the winners of the 2023 ALMS season. 

In seventh, Stefano Costantini, Simon Mann and Miguel Molina of AF Corse were the best-placed Ferrari GT drivers in the final standings. They scored points in three out of the four races contested. In Abu Dhabi, the Piacenza-based team’s drivers failed to complete Race-1, while they crossed the line seventh in the GT class in the second four-hour event.

In Saturday’s race, Car Guy’s Ferrari with Takeshi Kimura, Frederik Schandorff and Mikkel Jensen came tenth. It was the only Ferrari to make it to the chequered flag. The number 57 then finished the last round in 14th place. 

GT Winter Series. Tom Fleming of FF Corse dominated round four of the GT Winter Series in Valencia, triumphing in all three Cup 1 races open to Ferrari 488 Challenge Evos. 

In the first Sprint event, Fleming beat Team Engstler’s pairing of the world champion and Challenge Europe Coppa Shell 2022 winner Franz Engstler and Alexander Nussbaumer. Christian Herdt-Wipper and Tim Nitschke of Van Ommen - Racing with Ferrari were third. In Race-2, also a Sprint race, Armin Arefpour and Hanno Laskowski of Van Ommen - Racing with Ferrari finished runners-up, while Engstler and Nussbaumer were third. In the last race, an endurance event, teammates James Owen and R. Thompson came in behind Fleming, followed by Engstler and Nussbaumer.

The GT Winter Series season continues on 4 and 5 March at the Navarra circuit in Spain with round five.