Malthe Jakobsen was quickest in Free Practice 2 at the Sepang International Circuit this afternoon, as a thunderstorm interrupted proceedings ahead of the Asian Le Mans Series season opener.
A rain shower immediately after Free Practice 1 washed away the rubber laid down at the 5.543-kilometre venue, but the track was dry by the time the second of the day’s 90-minute sessions began. This wouldn’t last, however, with a downpour in the opening half hour once again drenching the circuit.
It was at the start, therefore, that the fastest times were set, headed by Jakobsen’s 1:55.667 aboard the #4 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA 07 – Gibson.
The Dane displaced his Algarve Pro Racing teammate John Falb from the top of the timesheets, with Falb setting a 1:56.199 to wind up second overall and best of the Bronze-ranked runners.
Marino Sato was third fastest for LMP2 newcomer Ponos Racing and its #45 ORECA, ahead of DKR Engineering’s Alexander Mattschull and Cetilar Racing’s Roberto Lacorte.
Reigning ELMS champion Paul Lanchere was fastest in LMP3, aboard CLX Motorsport’s #17 Ligier JS P325 – Toyota.
Lanchere went 0.192 seconds quicker than the #8 Team Virage Ligier of Romain Vosniak, with the sole Duqueine D09, the #85 R-ace GP entry, third in the hands of Fabian Michal.
Forestier Racing by VPS’ Nick Adcock was fourth in the #29 Ligier, with 23Events Racing’s Ibrahim Badawy competing the top five aboard the #71 JS P325.
And in GT, GetSpeed finished 1-2 with its pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs.
Shigekazu Wakisaka was fastest in the #9 entry with a 2:08.014, with Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi 0.380 seconds behind in the QMMF-branded #37 AMG GT3 EVO.
The best of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, JMR’s #66 entry, was third in the hands of Yasser Shahin, ahead of the #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Giacomo Petrobelli and #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of ‘Bankcy’.
All 47 cars took to the circuit, including the #43 Inter Europol Competition LMP2 which missed the majority of Free Practice 1 with an alternator issue.
In a stark contrast to the clean earlier session, FP2 was interrupted by no fewer than four Red Flags.
First, Benjamin Sousa went off at the Turn 7/8 double right-hander aboard the #22 Proton Competition ORECA inside the opening 15 minutes, a moment which signalled the end of the fast lap times.
Just before the halfway mark, United Autosport’s Philip Fayer went off at the same place as Sousa aboard the #6 ORECA.
Then on the resumption after this pause, multiple cars ran into difficulties on their out laps, necessitating another stoppage. These included the #94 High Class Racing Ligier LMP3 of Callum Voisin, who picked up a five-minute stop-and-go penalty for causing a collision with the #56 Aston Martin.
The fourth Red Flag came inside the final 25 minutes, with Isaac Barashi running into trouble at Turn 12 aboard the #23 23Events Racing Ligier. Once the session resumed, running was relatively clean to the end, although due to the conditions lap times were some 15 seconds off the dry pace.
The next track time at Sepang will be Qualifying for the opening two races of the 2025/26 Asian Le Mans Series. Qualifying begins at 9:15 MST tomorrow, ahead of the first four-hour race at 13:00 MST.
Qualifying and both races can be viewed live on the Asian Le Mans Series YouTube channel.
Images courtesy of Asian Le Mans Series
