What a difference a day made for the #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 team at the final race weekend of the Asian Le Mans Series from Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi.
Having made the relative short trip up the coastline from the Dubai Autodrome that hosted rounds three and four of the 2025-26 season, the sole Aston Martin Racing crew were already out of the GT Class championship contention despite their opening race P3 podium at the opening race in Sepang in December.
Having suffered from the penalties arrived at through the constant breach of track limits in Dubai, it was presumably hoped that the lesson would have been learned before the Giacomo Petrobelli, Jonny Adam and Kobe Pauwels driven car arrived at Yas Marina.
Things were certainly looking up for the #56 crew as Petrobelli delivered a pair of P3 Qualifying positions as the Vantage GT3 looked more comfortable around the 5.2km circuit – made the easier after another inter-race Balance of Performance change for the Aston.
Race one of Saturday would however, go down as one of those ones to forget (and quickly) after the Italian was pinged not just one or twice, but three times for track limits – each of which was rewarded with a drive through penalty for the car. That was further compounded by a pit stop infringement by the team (car not being earthed at refuelling) which saw a further five seconds added to their next stop.
With Petrobelli having driven a double stint with Adam and Pauwels seeing out the remainder of the four-hour race between them, the best that they could up with was another disappointing P8 finish in class.
Sunday’s final race of the season was, however, something completely different as Petrobelli again took the start and quickly found himself in the class lead before the end of the opening lap only to lose it before the lap’s end with a front puncture.
Rebalancing the car with fuel whilst that was being changed, it looked like another long haul around the race clock at the back of the field. A nasty looking accident between an LMP2 and a GT car at the forty-minute mark would see an immediate red flag with concerns for the drivers, an extensive debris filed and damage to the barriers. Thankfully, both drivers were able to walk away unaided, but the circuit would require attention that would wipe out another seventy minutes of the race clock.
Getting back to racing just before the halfway mark and as the light began to fade, Petrobelli would still have to see out the balance of his minimum driver time before handing over to Adam for the middle stint where the Scotsman plugged away at the order to deliver Pauwels with what was a better placed than most P4 position – mainly thanks to their differing strategy that had kicked off on the opening lap after their puncture.
This year’s winner of the AMR Drivers Academy saw Pauwels take on a very mature driver as he made steady progress up to third but with the two cars in front still needing to complete their third and final driver changes. Our hearts were in our mouths towards the end of the #56 car pitted with only seven minutes remaining but (whilst the lead two cars pitted for driver changes), the Aston was only there to reset the maximum drive time to allow the Belgian to go to the end.
Taking the class win by nearly nine seconds saw the Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn team sandwich the more disappointing races of the mid-season with two worthy visits to the podium for efforts. Moving onto to the ‘normal’ 2026 season, we still await just where the Blackthorn AMR team will be this year but with that already rapidly approaching – that won’t be too long to wait!
Photo credits – Team / social media