Asian Le Mans: Rain Brings an Early End to the 4 Hours of Sepang
A start under blue skies saw the 4 Hours of Sepang begin the 2023/2024 Asian Le Mans season under ideal conditions which sustained until the final hour of Race 1, when the track was declared wet before an incoming storm hit the track with force.
The Jordanian-flagged team stayed strong in tough conditions to take the lead of LMP2, to give Al Harty Ahmad, Nikita Mazepin and Louis Deletraz the team’s first victory in their #99 Oreca 07 – Gibson. Francois Perrodo, Matthieau Vaxiviere and Alessio Rovera finished second in their #83 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson, ahead of #3 DKR Engineering Oreca 07 – Gibson of Alexander Mattschull, Tom Dillman and Laurents Horr.
In LMP3, the #17 COOL Racing Ligier JS P320 moved from third to the lead in the second half of the race and held position, to give James Winslow, Alex Bukhantsov and Danial Frost victory.
Our 2022 LMP3 champions, CD Sport, finished second in the #2 Ligier JS P320 of Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock and Fabien Lavergne. Pole-sitters and new to Asian Le Mans Series, Bretton Racing rounded out the podium positions with Dan Skocdopole, Julien Gerbi and Stefan Mihnea third in the #26 Ligier JS P320.
A tumultuous race for the GT field saw many teams involved in incidents, but one who came out completely unscathed was the #42 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2 of Christopher Haase, Gilles Magnus and Alban Varutti.
After claiming pole position, and a strong start by the Bronze rated driver Varutti,, the French team led from start to finish to take the win in class.
Second place went to the #66 Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2 of Dylan Pereira, Alex Aka and Andrey Mukovoz, ahead of the #43 Saintloc Racing sister car, to give the final podium place to Dennis Marschall, Paul Evrard and Zhou Bihuang, and handing Audi an impressive one/two/three on the GT podium.
The action continues tomorrow with Race 2 from the Sepang International Circuit, starting 14:00 local time.