The race at Sepang saw some very different winners and losers, resulting in just one of the four championships, and thus auto Le Mans entries, being settled.
The LMP2 Am Championship is already in the hands of the #52 Rick Ware Racing effort. Cody Ware will be confirmed as drivers champion if he starts the final round at Buriram next weekend with the Team Championship now secure after a second-place finish in Shanghai and back-to-back wins at The Bend and Sepang.
With the RLR Sport team unable to continue in Sepang after the fire damage suffered by their ORECA 05 at The Bend, and Miro Konopka pulling out of the final two rounds due to unforeseen family commitments, the #52 just needed to finish in Malaysia to secure the title.
Despite late problems (one of a huge proportion of the runners here to suffer a failure in the lighted number panel), they did just that, grabbing the win back when the sister #25 Ligier JS P2 Nissan retired late in the race, after gearbox problems. That non-classification though was only as a result of the repaired car living the garage just moments too late, the cars arriving at pit exit as the light went red as the winning car crossed the finish line!
In LMP2 the result at Sepang leaves three efforts still in title contention: The #26 Aurus 01 Gibson from G-Drive Racing by Algarve Pro tops the points table. 65 points gives them a comfortable, but by no means insurmountable, 9 point cushion, the team feeling lucky to have finished after serious damage resulted from contact midway through the race from the #8 Norma, Stewart Cox telling DSC last night that the damage to the left side of the car saw kinked exhausts and compromised brake cooling that could have ended the effort at any time.
As things turned out the team profited from the misfortunes of others, in particular the woes that befell both Inter Europol Ligier. Both of the JS P217s headed the Aurus for much of the race, without that a podium had looked highly unlikely.
Also playing well for the #26 crew was the late penalty that saw the race win taken from the #36 Eurasia Ligier. The team was handed a time penalty for ignoring the Race Director’s order to pit to repair the car which had no rear lights working for a significant period at the end of the race.
That meant the points tally for the #36, until then running second in the championship order, was reduced by seven, the difference between the win and second place where the Ligier was eventually classified. With a win, the points difference would have been just three, with second the #36 trails the #26 by 10, and drops to third in the points standings.
That’s because the win for the #45 Thunderhead Carlin Dallara puts the British team between the other pair, with the trio having scored all nine podium finishes in the championship so far. Two wins for the #26 and now one for #45 leaves then nine points apart, and a trio of second places for the #36 sees the Eurasia car a point behind the Dallara.
The final result sees a first-ever sportscar win for Carlin, only the second-ever LMP2 win for the Dallara chassis (the other being from SMP Racing at Paul Ricard’s ELMS round in 2017). Its a first LMP2 win too for both Jack Manchester and for Ben Barnicoat, and a first Gibson-era LMP2 win for Harry Tincknell. He now joins a very exclusive club of drivers who have won in both modern iterations of the LMP2 car and the LMP2-derived DPi!
LMP3 still has four cars at least mathematically in the hunt, two of which can count the horrific weather conditions yesterday as almost divine intervention to their Championship hopes.
The first of that pair was the #12 ACE1 Villorba Corse effort, lucky to make the start after an engine failure in Qualifying. Race morning saw the team having to change the engine, the exchange was not nearly complete as race time approached, the 100-minute delay for weather proving just enough to get the car out, albeit starting from pit lane a lap down.
From there on in the team attacked with gusto, Alessandro Bressan proving to be as quick as usual and new signing Andreas Laskaratos showing real form in the middle part of the race too. Contact from the #18 Inter Europol Ligier cost the car a place in the battle for a podium slot at the end of the race, but 5th keeps the team in the title hunt, but only just! 22 points back with 26 still available.
Three points ahead in the standings, and up to third after their first win in the Asian Le Mans Series, are the #9 Graff Racing crew, a convincing, controlled win as all around them seemed to falter, saw them leap up the order. Their title shot is still somewhat mathematical, but as we saw yesterday endurance racing plays has surprises in store.
Second in the standings were the championship leaders coming into round three, and they are counting themselves very lucky to still be second, and just three points off the lead. The #2 Nielsen Racing crew of Colin Noble and Tony Wells took their first Asian Le Mans Series win last time out and arrived in Malaysia on top of the points.
Pre-race though the team was in real trouble, a cracked bell housing looked set to prevent the team from taking the start. “We can’t heat it up in the garage to make the change and it doesn’t look good that we can make the start,” said Colin Noble Snr.
Moments after the DSC Editor left the Nielsen garage though, the team swung into action, a team member had spotted a local repair shop en route to the circuit and he was dispatched with the replacement parts to do what he could to find the necessary kit.
The workshop did indeed have an oxy-acetylene kit and with the required heat, the repair/ replacement was made, without at that point though any hope that the #2 would make the start. The 100-minute delay though made all of the difference and the car would join the fray a lap down together with the similarly delayed #12.
Thereafter it was a maximum attack run the proved to be almost faultless, the sole wrinkle a mistake at the penultimate pit-stop that saw the car released a second earlier than the required minimum.
That would cost the team dearly as the run to the front had seen Colin Noble storm back in his final stint to move into podium contention, up into fourth position and right on the tail of Nigel Moore having closed in on the #13 Inter Europol Ligier by some 15 seconds in the stint.
The penalty for the short stop though saw a 1 second stop and hold, and dropped the #2 out of podium contention, fourth place though kept the team in real contention, three points off the championship lead. It’s game on for the finale!
The new Championship leaders are the regular benchmark in LMP3, Inter Europol’s #13 Ligier with Martin Hippe and Nigel Moore, but they too had a worrisome start to the race after losing three laps to water intrusion into the Ligier’s ECU. Thereafter though they too pushed hard and climbed the order as others faltered, Nigel Moore’s last stint push grabbing the podium result, the late-race Nielsen penalty (see above) ensuring he could run a little more conservatively to the flag.
In the GT class, which has lost all three BMW entries due to current travel restrictions from China, all six remaining entries are still in with a chance of the title – a 19 point spread between them.
That’s because of an extraordinarily topsy turvy season so far that has seen six different teams with podium finishes, and a seventh with a pair of fourth places.
Sixth in the standings is the #75 T2 Motorsport Ferrari squad, the Indonesian entry 19 points off the lead after a solid, but not yet spectacular season, they are the only remaining team not yet to have scored a podium finish, but that looks within their reach in Buriram.
Fifth at present having taken a championship hit with their late-race retirement from a podium slot yesterday with gearbox issues is the #77 D’Station Aston Martin. The car pogoed up and down the top three, this another effort hampered by non-functioning number light panel, but eventually stopping on track with no drive.
They will arrive in Thailand 16 points off the lead and looking to see what Tom Gamble can bring to the party!
Consistency has been the key to keeping the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari in the hunt. The sole European-entered car in the Championship sits fourth, just 7 points off the leader, after a further place at Shanghai was followed by a pair of third-place finishes at The bend and Sepang. This is a dark horse for the title with the mercurial Daniel Serra wheeled out next weekend to sub for Alessandro Pier Guidi.
Equal second in the points, but third on countback, is the #27 HubAutoCorsa Ferrari squad, a sixth-place finish at Shanghai a significant blip, followed by a pair of second-place efforts puts them just three points from the points leaders. Much will depend on Tim Slade’s efforts as he steps in to replace Davide Rigon in Buriram. The late-race stop and 30-second hold for a Full-Course Yellow speed infringement cost them dearly, without that they would have taken the win, and the championship lead.
Also on 46 points are the previous Championship leaders. But Sepang was not kind to Car Guy’s title defending efforts. Mikkel Jensen will add a significant fillip to their efforts at the season finale, the only good news last night for the #7 squad were points clawed back as a result of the Aston Martin’s demise.
But new leaders of the pack are the #88 Team JLOC Lamborghini squad, winners in Malaysia after the late-race penalty for the #27 HubAuto Ferrari and moves three points clear of the nearest rivals.
Their pace throughout was competitive if not stellar, but that might be enough of the season finale turns into a race of attrition, that would then leave only one question. Just what car would the Japanese Lamborghini Owners Club team choose to race at the Le Mans 24 Hours with no Lambo available to them?
Pics copyright and courtesy Asian Le Mans Series/ Peter May/ Andrew Lofthouse
