Oscar Tunjo and Valentino Catalano completed a clean sweep of race wins in the opening round of the Asian Le Mans Cup at Circuit Paul Ricard, as the #75 GMS Team Duqueine D09 – Toyota pair triumph in this morning’s Race 2.
Tunjo climbed from sixth on the grid to second by the end of the first racing lap, behind the pole-sitting #50 23Events Racing Ligier JS P325 – Toyota of Colin Queen.
Queen would then experience a power steering failure in the early stages, which caused his pace to drop dramatically and allowed Tunjo to claim the lead. The Colombian pulled out a lead of almost 30 seconds before the pit stop window, a margin Catalano duly converted into a 4.593-second victory after managing his advantage in the closing laps.
Behind, an entertaining battle for second took place as varying tyre strategies unfolded on a drying track.
The #11 GMS Team Ligier of Sven Barth passed Queen for second before the pit stops, only for an overcut by the #26 Bretton Racing Ligier to enable Emily Cotty to emerge from the pit stop cycle ahead. Cotty was quickly passed by Barth’s co-driver Danny Soufi, before the pair both dropped back as their wet Michelin tyres, which had been on the cars since the start, wore out on a drying track.
This enabled the #50 Ligier, now driven by Giovanni Maschio, to return to the runner-up spot, but a spin at Turn 4 by the Italian dropped him back to fifth to the benefit of the #92 Team Virage Ligier of Max Kammerlander, who had started his stint in seventh.
Kammerlander, however, was caught and passed by the #85 R-ace GP Duqueine of Kyuho Lee with 10 minutes to go, as the Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory Programme member and Luciano Morano completed a Duqueine 1-2.
Third overall went to the LMP3-winning #87 CLX Motorsport of Terrence Woodward and Vic Stevens, after Stevens and teammate Louis Iglesias scythed through the LMP3 Pro field.
Stevens passed the #12 Brutal Fish Campos Racing Ligier of Kevin Rabin for the class lead with 40 minutes to go, and then held at bay the Race 1-winning #86 Ligier of Iglesias to win by 4.332 seconds.
The #92 Ligier completed the LMP3 Pro podium in fifth overall, ahead of the #50 Ligier.
This means that Tunjo/Catalano leave Circuit Paul Ricard with a 17-point lead over Lee/Morano in the LMP3 Pro Drivers’ standings, with Queen/Maschio a further point behind in third. In LMP3, Iglesias and Laurent Wuthrich head Woodward/Stevens by two points, courtesy of Wuthrich’s pair of pole positions.
In GT3, the #91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Ralf Bohn and Alfred Renault scored another comfortable victory, having led since the opening lap of the race.
The pole-sitting #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo was second, ahead of the #73 Herberth Motorsport Porsche.
The inaugural season of the Asian Le Mans Cup will resume at Jerez, Spain on 16th to 17th January 2026.
Image courtesy of Asian Le Mans Series
