Algarve Pro Racing’s #25 ORECA 07 Gibson of Michael Jensen, Valerio Rinicella and Malthe Jakobsen claimed a dramatic victory in the second race of the 2024/25 Asian Le Mans Series today in Sepang, after Jakobsen starred with the conditions deteriorating late in the red-flagged four-hour race.
The race started in bright sunshine but would finish early in monsoon-like conditions when a storm hit the Sepang International Circuit towards the end of the third hour.
After Race 1 yesterday was heavily interrupted by incidents in the opening two hours, this race ran mostly green early on. There were only a handful of relatively minor incidents through the first three hours, bringing out full course yellows and a single safety car period.
Then the rain arrived, shaking up the running order in all three classes. Many teams opted to gamble and move to wet tyres quickly during a safety car for debris early in Hour 2. But the first showers were brief, causing a number of cars to make multiple visits to the pit lane as the conditions improved.
That was until wets became entirely necessary when heavy rain, thunder and lightning arrived at the end of hour three. This caused a brief safety car, then a red flag with 50 minutes remaining. The race was then eventually called with 16 minutes still on the clock as the rain wasn’t showing any signs of stopping.
The big winner was Algarve Pro Racing, which emerged seemingly out of nowhere as the weather turned. Malthe Jakobsen, on the right tyres (slicks) at the right time, powered past Louis Deletraz (Pure Rxcing), Matthieu Vaxiviere (AF Corse), Laurents Horr (DKR) and Tom Dillmann (Proton).
He rose from fifth to the lead in a matter of minutes, while those around him struggled with the conditions with an hour and 15 minutes remaining.
Jakobsen then came in for wets at the right time, when almost the entire field dived straight in when the heavy rain finally arrived. Only Tom Dillmann in the #22 pole-sitting Proton ORECA stayed out on slicks, briefly giving him the lead.
However, he stayed out a lap too long and when he did pit, he found himself outside the top three by the time the safety car reappeared and the race was stopped. This handed the lead back to Jakobsen and APR.
“Unfortunately it was a very short stint for me, I would have loved to finish the race on track. But we can be very pleased with the result today, we picked up some valuable points for the championship,” Jakobsen said after the race.
Proton’s decision to pit late saw RD Limited’s Race 1 winning ORECA rise to second after James Allen and Tristan Vautier once again lifted the team into contention, surviving a front-to-rear collision at the final corner with the DKR ORECA early in Hour 3. The team’s fairytale weekend means it leads the standings by six points heading into Round 3.
Adding to Algarve Pro’s success, the #20 ended up making it a double podium for the team after Alex Quinn shone in the poor conditions, climbing to third after Dillmann’s final stop.
The #22 ended up fourth, with the #24 Nielsen Racing ORECA completing the top five.
Further down the order, the #83 and #50 AF Corse ORECAs, plus the #91 Pure Rxcing example, ended up sixth, seventh and eighth respectively after looking certain to finish in the top three during the first half.
The #50 led most of the opening 90 minutes, but lost a lot of time late in Jeremy Clarke’s mammoth first stint and dropped down the order after the second round of stops when Patrick Byrne suffered a spin.
The #91 TF Sport-run Pure Rxcing ORECA and the #83 sister AF Corse car meanwhile, sat 1-2 in the third hour and suffered dearly by switching to wet tyres too early.
Louis Deletraz, following yet another hugely impressive showing from Harry King to propel the team to the lead, was swallowed up along with Matthieu Vaxiviere when the first safety car period ended. Both needed to take an additional stop to go back to slicks before the heavy rain arrived, costing them valuable track position.
In LMP3, Ultimate claimed a weekend sweep by dominating the race with its #35 Ligier driven by Bence Valint, Matteo Quintarelli and Stephane Lemeret.
Lemeret took the lead from Bretton Racing’s Jens Moeller in the first hour and didn’t look back, the French outfit holding the top spot right until the end.
“I had no doubt we could win both races, now we have to do it again,” a bullish Quintarelli said before the podium celebrations.
High Class Racing took second place for the second time in two days, with RLR M Sport completing the podium. Bretton meanwhile, dropped to fourth before the end.
GRAFF Racing looked set to contend for the LMP3 win after Alex Bukhantsov steered the #7 Ligier to second from fourth on the grid. But the car hit trouble in the first hour, the engine cutting out due to a suspected fuel pressure problem, forcing the mechanics to work on the car in the garage. The repairs cost the team 24 laps.
GT, like LMP2, produced a surprise result. None of the cars which finished in the top three yesterday claimed podiums today.
The #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Gabriele Piana, Rinat Salikhov and Jules Gounon took the win and the championship lead, after taking P1 at the final stops before the second safety car.
“It was really tough, but we did a perfect job,” said Salikhov.
Manthey’s brand new #10 Porsche – built up overnight after its original chassis was written off in Race 1 – took second.
The podium was completed by the #28 AF Corse Ferrari, which led early, dropped as low as 11th after a spin, and recovered to a fine third with Manuel Franco in at the end.
The #2 Climax Racing Mercedes stormed to the lead in the third hour before the heavy rain arrived but would end up fourth, ahead of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari which took fifth.
For Kessel Racing’s Car Guy Ferrari – which claimed the 100th victory for the 296 GT3 globally in Race 1 – today’s encounter was a disaster.
The #57 was forced into retirement just nine laps into the race when Yudai Uchida missed his braking point into the final hairpin, hitting the rear-left corner of the #42 Prime Speed Sport Lamborghini hard.
The impact damaged both cars beyond repair, eventually bringing out the first Full Course Yellow in the race to clear up the debris.
The young season now takes a short break before resuming in February with four races in the UAE starting with a pair of four-hour encounters at the Dubai Autodrome on the 8th and 9th.
Images courtesy of the Asian Le Mans Series
