Salih Yoluc was the star of qualifying in Malaysia this morning. The Turkish driver won the pole on behalf of TF Sport for both races of the 4 Hours of Sepang double-header weekend, which kicks off the 2023-24 Asian Le Mans Series.
The qualifying format in the Asian Le Mans Series remains unchanged from last winter: One qualifying session each for the GT and prototype classes (LMP2 and LMP3), with the fastest time setting the grid for Race 1 today, and the second-best time setting the grid for Race 2 tomorrow. In addition, each team’s qualifying runs would be trusted exclusively to their Bronze-rated drivers.
And Yoluc, who has developed rapidly into one of the best clubman-level racers in the world, put his stamp on qualifying in minutes aboard the #90 TF Sport Oreca 07. He was the only driver to break the one-minute 54-second barrier, backing up his best lap of 1:53.653 with another great lap of 1:53.874. These times will put Yoluc, Michael Dinan, and Charlie Eastwood on the pole for both races – and they weren’t far off the best outright time of the weekend, a 1:53.543 set in private testing by professional racer Tom Dillmann!
Sharing the front row with TF Sport for both races will be the #30 Duquiene Team Oreca. John Falb’s best lap of 1:54.064 was good enough for second place in qualifying, reinforced by a strong second-best time of 1:54.233.
Falb actually set an identical lap time to the #22 Proton Competition Oreca of Giorgio Roda in third, but Falb set his time first, giving the American driver and French team priority.
Ahmad Al Harthy was fourth-fastest in the 99 Racing Oreca, followed by Alexander Matschull, in fifth place for reigning LMP2 class champion team DKR Engineering.
In sixth place was PJ Hyett aboard the #55 Proton Competition car, edging out his American countryman George Kurtz who was seventh-fastest in the CrowdStrike Racing by APR #4. Francois Perrodo was much further off than expected, only eighth-fastest and over a second and a half back of the pole in the AF Corse #83.
For Race 2 tomorrow, the second row will have the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca and #22 Proton Competition Oreca in third and fourth respectively, followed by 99 Racing and CrowdStrike/APR on the third row.
Iceland’s Audunn Gudmundsson was the man to beat in LMP3. Like Yoluc, he won the class pole position for both races aboard the #20 High Class Racing Ligier JS P320 which he’ll share with Anders Fjordbach and Seth Lucas.
Gudmundsson’s best lap was 2:00.430, only two-tenths behind the best lap of the weekend so far, set by CD Sport’s Fabien Lavergne. His second-best lap was a 2:00.756.
Alexander Bukhantsov was second-fastest for COOL Racing in the #17; followed by Julien Gerbi in the #26 Bretton Racing car.
The only drama in Prototype qualifying was a quarter-spin for Viper Niza Racing’s Douglas Khoo as he exited the pit lane. The local hero of the Malaysian crowd was able to gather himself up again and complete the rest of the 15-minute session without any further incidents.
PROTOTYPE QUALIFYING – RACE 1 >>
PROTOTYPE QUALIFYING – RACE 2 >>
The same couldn’t be said during GT qualifying, where tricky turn 12 caught out multiple competitors and turned their 15-minute session a frantic six-minute sprint to set the grid order. In these circumstances, Alban Varutti put the #42 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 on the pole for today’s race, to the delight of co-drivers Gilles Magnus and Christopher Haase.
He improved after the chequered flag to a best lap time of 2:03.998, enough to knock Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Anthony Liu off the provisional pole for Race 1.
Liu’s time of 2:04.373 would have to be good enough for second place today – but with a strong second-best lap of 2:04.538, Liu and the #37 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG GT3 – with co-drivers Jayden Ojeda and Jules Gounon – will start on the pole in Race 2 tomorrow.
Disrupting the sessions were a pair of red flags caused by spins: First, Charles-Henri Samani went off in the #82 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, and shortly after the session went back to green, Heiko Neumann went off in the #75 Team Motopark Mercedes. Neither car was able to set a time and will start from the rear of the grid in both races this weekend.
Behind Varutti and Liu, the two GetSpeed Mercedes qualified third and fourth, with Steve Jans in the Bartone Bros-coloured #9 ahead of Martin Konrad in the Al Manar Racing #7. Bihuang Zhou was fifth in the #43 Sainteloc Audi. Porsches finished sixth and seventh with the #33 Herberth Motorsport 911 GT3 R of Antares Au ahead of the #91 of Pure Rxcing’s Alex Malykhin.
Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahim finished eighth in the #88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes, with the #66 Attempto Racing Audio of Andrey Mukovoz and the #27 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 of Mark Radcliffe rounding out the top ten from qualifying.
For Race 2, it’s Craft-Bamboo Racing on the pole, with the #7 Al Manar/GetSpeed Mercedes in second and the #42 Sainteloc Audi in third, followed by the #9 GetSpeed Mercedes and #33 Herberth Porsche in fourth and fifth.
Despite the two red flags, only two of the remaining 21 cars failed to set a second competitive lap time – a slow lap from the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino, and no second lap for the #84 EBM Porsche of Adrian Henri D’Silva.
