Asian Le Mans Series Championship-leading LMP2 team 99 Racing will replace ex F1 racer Nikita Mazepin with Filipe Albuquerque for the final double header weekend at Yas Marina alongside Ahmad Al Harthy and Louis Deletraz in the #99 Oreca 07 Gibson.
Mazepin informed the team on Wednesday evening that he was unwell and unable to continue. Albuquerque was already on-site in Abu Dhabi on driver coaching duties with a supporting single seater series.
The weekend will see the Portuguese multiple LMP2 Champion make his first race starts both in the Asian Le Mans Series and at Yas Marina, though he did test at the circuit in his Audi LMP1 days.
Albuquerque though has had to workshop one issue, as he told DSC: “I don’t have my racing kit with me as I wasn’t expecting to race at all. Luckily both Ahmad and Louis are pretty much the same size as me so we will all use the same seat and I have borrowed bits of kit from both of them, I’ll be wearing Louis’s spare race suit and helmet!”
99 Racing lead the Championship by 20 points after scoring two wins, one apiece in Malaysia and at Dubai, with 52 points still up for grabs across two qualifying sessions and two four hour races in Abu Dhabi on Saturday and Sunday to decide the Championship and the destination of the automatic invitation to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans
