UPDATE: Manthey’s #10 Porsche has had its class win in GT taken away after the stewards opted to drop the car to second in the classification post-race. According to the decision, the penalty has been dealt because “Car 10 (Hartog) forced Car 9 (Schiller) off track at Turn 15 on the final lap of Race 1”.
After reviewing video evidence, the document explains that: “Entering Turn 15, Car 9 can be seen to brake late and deep into the corner. Car 10 following closely looked to brake earlier and able to get to the apex kerb with his left side of the car.
“Car 9 had at this point started to rotate his car and accelerate towards the exit leaving enough room for Car 10, who was now level with him on his left side. Car 10 who was using the kerb seemed to over rotate and subsequently get some oversteer which caused him to slide and make contact with car 10.
“Further contacts were made whilst the cars exited the corner with the end result in Car 10 being forced wide by Car 9 and losing a position.”
As a result, GetSpeed’s #9 Mercedes AMG GT3 looks set to inherit the victory in GT pending the final result.
Cetilar Racing scored victory in the 2025/26 Asian Le Mans Series season opener at the Sepang International Circuit this afternoon, after Antonio Fuoco overcame a five-second penalty in the final hour.
A pair of Safety Car periods, separated by under one minute of green flag running, set up a 41-minute run to the checkered flag, from which Fuoco restarted in the lead aboard the #47 ORECA 07 – Gibson he shares with Roberto Lacorte and Charles Milesi.
The Italian outfit had vaulted to the front at the penultimate round of pit stops after being able to pit during a Virtual Safety Car, moments after its closest rivals had stopped under green flag conditions. The 2024 Le Mans winner, however, had the five seconds hanging over him due to an earlier Full Course Yellow speeding infringement from Lacorte.
On the restart, CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s Malthe Jakobsen initially held on to Fuoco’s tail aboard the #4 ORECA, but as the stint went on, the lead margin started to grow.
The critical five-second threshold was crossed with 18 minutes to go, with Fuoco able to comfortably resume in the lead after the whole LMP2 field pitted for a splash of fuel in the closing minutes, despite serving the penalty.
Fuoco crossed the line 2.730 seconds ahead of Algarve Pro Racing’s Tom Dillmann, who overcut Jakobsen in the final pit sequence.
Cetilar’s celebrations were briefly put on pause, however, after another five seconds were added to the #47 ORECA post-race. This added time, presumably done in error due to how late the team served its penalty, was later reversed, meaning all three drivers could again enjoy their maiden Asian Le Mans Series triumphs.
“The pace was mega through the race,” Milesi told Asian Le Mans Series TV.
“It was a bit tricky at the end to manage the penalty, to know exactly whether there was going to be a Full Course Yellow or not, and it was difficult to read what the others were going to do for strategy. In the end, we were able to cross the line P1, even with the penalty.”
With second for the #25 ORECA of Dillmann, Michael Jensen and Enzo Trulli, and third for Jakobsen, George Kurtz, and Louis Delétraz, Algarve Pro’s title defence is off to a strong start despite missing out on the top step of the podium.
Nielsen Racing’s 64 ORECA finished fourth, ahead of the pair of United Autosports entries.
The Anglo-American outfit looked to be in control of the race throughout the middle stints, after making the correct call on tyres when a brief rain shower hit at the end of the opening hour. By staying on slicks and installing their Pro drivers, United surged to the front, with Ben Hanley building up a lead of 23 seconds in the #6 ORECA.
Hanley’s Bronze-rated co-driver Philip Fayer, however, had exited the car one lap short of meeting his minimum drive time, and therefore had to be installed back into the car for a single tour before Paul Di Resta climbed aboard, which dropped them down to seventh.
Vector Sport RLR, Proton Competition’s #88 entry, ARC Bratislava and DKR Engineering completed the top 10, ahead of the #49 High Class Racing ORECA, which fell back from fourth during the final hour.
It was a disappointing outing for Inter Europol Competition, after Georgios Kolovos led the opening stint. Kolovos passed the #5 United ORECA of pole-sitter Giorgio Roda on the restart from an opening lap Safety Car, and pulled away, but a slow first pit stop, which involved a, with hindsight, incorrect switch to wet tyres, dropped the #43 ORECA down the order to an eventual 13th place finish.
RD Limited’s #30 ORECA was initially crossed the line sixth, but has since been demoted to the bottom of the timing screens, and listed as not classified.
In LMP3, Inter Europol Competition claimed the first win of the Asian Le Mans Series’ Gen3 era, with its #13 Ligier JS P325 – Toyota crewed by Alex Bukhantsov, Jimmy Chou and Henry Olarte.
The Polish team moved into the lead at the end of the third hour, due to a long stop for CLX Motorsport’s #17 Ligier, which had controlled the majority of the race up until that point.
The late Safety Cars also brought the #94 High Class Racing Ligier into contention, with a hard-charging Callum Voisin first passing CLX’s Alexander Jacoby, before closing to within 0.218 seconds of Olarte by the checkered flag.
The LMP3 fight, unfortunately, was heavily disrupted on the opening lap by a multi-car incident at Turn 2, which brought out the first of three Safety Cars. Terrence Woodward’s #71 23Events Racing Ligier was forced into retirement with damage, whilst the #29 Forestier Racing by VPS Ligier and #85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09 both made visits to the garage before resuming.
The #1 Team Virage Ligier spent over three hours in the garage repairing a damaged radiator, but returned for the final stint to offer LMP3 debutant Ajith Kumar some additional track time.
And in GT, Manthey pulled off a shock victory, after an excellent strategic play in the final stint by the defending champion.
Whilst most of the GT runners served their final pit stop in the form of a splash in the final few minutes, the German outfit elected to pit its pair of Porsche 911 GT3 Rs (992), which had been on an uncharacteristic off day, one lap after the final restart to gain clean air.
This meant that when GetSpeed’s Fabian Schiller emerged from the pits in the #9 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO with two laps to go, Loek Hartog was right on his tail.
Hartog made a lunge up the inside of Schiller at the final corner, and contact was made, but the end result was victory for the #10 Porsche of Hartog, Antares Au and Klaus Bachler by 1.072 seconds.
The #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Giacomo Petrobelli, Kobe Pauwels and Jonny Adam completed the podium, less than a second further behind, with the #92 Manthey Porsche finishing fourth.
GetSpeed appeared to be in control of GT for the majority of the race, after making the correct call on tyres when the rain came. Its #9 entry of Schiller, Shigekazu Wakisaka and Anthony Bartone moved to the front in the penultimate hour, when Bartone passed the sister QMMF-backed AMG, and looked on course for victory until Manthey’s late blinder.
The #37 QMMF entry fell out of contention at the beginning of the final hour, due to an incident on the restart of a Safety Car caused by 23Events Racing’s Isaac Barashi getting stranded in the gravel.
The #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Alessio Rovera and QMMF’s Lucas Auer, who ran second and third in GT at the time, both sustained front-end damage, with the debris requiring an instant return to Safety Car conditions. The Ferrari retired on the spot, with the Mercedes-AMG falling to 19th after pitting for repairs.
The pole-sitting #66 JMR Corvette Z06 GT3.R was a victim of the opening lap LMP3 incident, with Yasser Shahin falling to the back of the field after contact with a prototype. A drive-through penalty for track limit offences, and a broken door, eventually dropped the home outfit off the lead lap and prevented a comeback.
All in all it was a feisty end to a close GT battle, with the traditional wait for the stewards’ decisions still outstanding at the time of writing that could potentially affect any or all of the top three cars.
The opening weekend of the 2025/26 Asian Le Mans Series continues tomorrow with another four-hour race at the Sepang International Circuit, which again starts at 13:00 MST.
Images courtesy of Asian Le Mans Series
