CrowdStrike Racing by APR had a difficult first race littered with a series of early incidents. But Sunday was a new day for George Kurtz, Colin Braun, and Malthe Jakobsen: They bounced back and drove the #4 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca 07 to the win in Race 2 of the Asian Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Sepang weekend.
Sunday’s race was more orderly throughout, and the severe weather which struck the circuit yesterday in Race 1 didn’t return.
Kurtz had a much better opening stint while the #90 TF Sport Oreca of Michael Dinan assumed the early lead. Dinan would hand off to Salih Yoluc but Nikita Mazepin in the #99 99 Racing Oreca took the lead following a Safety Car intervention to retrieve the damaged #66 Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Andrey Mukovoz, and debris from the damaged #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Francois Heriau.
Braun took over from Kurtz and fought his way from fourth to second, and then took the lead after a slow stop from the 99 Racing team. With 48 minutes remaining, Braun rushed to the pits as Josh Burdon in the #65 Viper Niza Racing Ligier JS P320 crashed out on the frontstretch. He got in just before the Safety Car came out for the second time, changing drivers to Jakobsen.
The Danish phenom got to the lead with that strategy and got to the end without needing another pit stop. Jakobsen took the chequered flag first, to give Algarve Pro Racing yet another Asian Le Mans Series win and the first for CrowdStrike Racing.
A grandstand finish settled the battle for second place, where Louis Deletraz overhauled Julien Andlauer to give the 99 Racing Oreca of Deletraz, Mazepin, and Ahmad Al Harthy the position over the #22 Proton Competition Oreca of Andlauer, Rene Binder, and Giorgio Roda.
Deletraz held off Andlauer by just 0.415 seconds over the line. It was a crucial position that maintained 99 Racing’s place at the top of the LMP2 Championship table after two races.
The #83 AF Corse Oreca (Francois Perrodo/Alessio Rovera/Mathieu Vaxiviere) finished fourth, followed by the #3 DKR Engineering Oreca (Alexander Mattschull/Laurents Horr/Tom Dillmann) which took fifth from the #30 Team Duquiene Oreca (John Falb/Carl Wattana Bennett/Oliver Rasmussen) after a late overtake from Horr around Rasmussen.
Proton’s #55 Oreca (PJ Hyett/Paul-Loup Chatin/Harry Tincknell) lost out on a podium and dropped to seventh late after coming into the pits during the last Safety Car after all the other LMP2 rivals had pitted, a decision that looked to have been a miscommunication and is understood by DSC to have been just that! A lap down in eighth was the #90 TF Sport Oreca of Yoluc, Dinan, and Charlie Eastwood.
All three classes produced three different winners. The #2 CD Sport Ligier of Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock, and Fabien Lavergne took a commanding victory in LMP3.
Lavergne took the lead a few minutes into his first stint behind the wheel and was instrumental in guiding the team to victory.
They were a lap ahead of the second-placed #26 Bretton Racing Ligier (Daniel Skocdopole/Julien Gerba/Mihnea Stefan), who got the position after a costly drive-through penalty for an unsafe pit release dropped the #17 COOL Racing Ligier (Alexander Bukhantsov/James Winslow/Danial Frost) to third.
CD Sport takes the LMP3 Championship lead after finishing second in Race 1 yesterday and then winning today’s race.
In contrast to Saturday’s Audi podium sweep, the GT class on Sunday saw four different manufacturers in the top four.
They were led by the winning #91 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm, and Klaus Bachler, which ran a clean race near the front all day and held off the #42 Sainteloc Racing Audi of Race 1 winners Alban Varutti, Gilles Magnus, and Christopher Haase.
Sainteloc’s lead car had another strong race on pace but likely lost out on an easy victory due to an ill-timed drive-through penalty for a safety car procedure violation. Despite this, Haase made a late push to chase Bachler and retake the lead in the final minutes.
But Bachler held his nerve and held on by 0.947 seconds to give Pure Rxcing the win, the first in the Asian Le Mans Series for the newest 911 GT3 R.
Rounding out the GT podium was the #27 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 (Mark Radcliffe/Rob Bell/Ollie Millroy) in third, while the #7 Al Manar Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Martin Konrad/Al Faisal al Zubair/Fabian Schiller) finished fourth. The #69 Optimum Motorsport McLaren (James Cottingham/Sam de Haan/Tom Gamble) put both team cars in the top five.
Gamble held off the #88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes (Prince Jefri Ibrahim/Broc Feeney/Luca Stolz) and #33 Herberth Motorsport Porsche (Antares Au/Tim Heinemann/Matteo Cairoli) at the end, who finished sixth and seventh respectively. The pole-sitting #37 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes (Anthony Liu/Jayden Ojeda/Jules Gounon) finished in eighth place, some reward after the heartache of Race 1 – both for Craft-Bamboo and for Herberth.
The #95 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 (John Hartshorne/Ben Tuck/Jonathan Adam) and #93 Team Project 1 BMW M4 GT3 (Darren Leung/Christian Bogle/Dan Harper) completed GT’s top ten.
Sainteloc Racing’s #42 Audi maintains its lead in the GT Championship standings.
Many competitors will now return home to celebrate the winter holidays with their families and loved ones. The Asian Le Mans Series will return on 2-4 February 2024 for the 4 Hours of Dubai at Dubai Autodrome, followed by the double-header finale, the 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi, at Yas Marina Circuit on 9-11 February.
