Giorgio Roda carried on his pole-setting form from the 2024 European Le Mans Series this morning in Sepang with a double pole position in his #22 Proton Competition Oreca ahead of the double-header 4-hour races on Saturday and Sunday to kick off the 2024/ 2025 Asian Le Mans Series.
His fastest two laps, a 1:53.197 and 1:53.382 (the second fastest times in the 15-minute session will set the grid for Sunday’s race 2) were enough to see off a spirited challenge from LMP2 rookies Jeremy Clarke (#50 AF Corse) and Alex Malykhin (#91 Pure Rxcing). The pair will start second and third for race one and in the opposite order on Sunday.
Alexander Mattschull completes the second row for both arcs with his two best laps of the session in the second, #11 Proton Competition car with Francois Perrodo fifth in the session. In LMP3, late call-up Stephane Lemeret, on his LMP3 debut, set another double pole, his best lap in the #35 Ultimate Ligier JS P325 a 2:20.088, almost four tenths up on reigning ELMS LMP3 Champion Nick Adcock in the #15 RLR MSport car.
Jens Reno Moller (#26 Bretton Racing) and Alexander Bukhantsov (#7 Graff Racing) completed the second row for the class with all four cars at the head of the class finishing the session with their second fastest laps repeating the grid order for Race 2.
The 25-car-deep GT class was the only one to see different pole sitters for the two races, the #9 GetSpeed Mercedes AMG of Steve Jans producing a 2:05.092 fending off a charge from Max Wiser in the #28 AF Corse Ferrari by 35 thousandths.
The Italian double Asian LMS Champion though would return the favour of the second fastest times, a 2:05.253 enough to see Jans fall short by 64 thousandths to set the pole for race 2.
Row two will welcome the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Dustin Blattner for both races alongside Rinat Salkihov in the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Sepang stand-in Yudai Uchida did a fine job for the #57 Car Guy squad with fifth place on the grid for both races.
Saturday’s race starts at 2 pm local time with coverage live and free on the Series YouTube channel.
