AF Corse win first ever Hypercar race in AsLMS, as APR and Petrolife Mercedes win in LMP2 and GT3 after incident filled Race 1
The No.90 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Nicklas Nielsen, Yifei Ye and Luis Perez Companc took a dominant victory is a very wet and heavily incident filled season opener for the Asian Le Mans Series. They won ahead of the No.47 Cetilar Racing car in the two-car class.
LMP2 was won by Algarve Pro Racing's (APR's) No.25 entry of Michael Jensen, Enzo Trulli and Malthe Jakobsen ahead of the No.37 CLX and No.24 Nielsen entries.
In GT3, it was the No.62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes which won out, driven by Maxime Martin, Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi and Julian Hanses, in a class where Mercedes locked out the top four positions.
As it happened
It was a wet and cold start for the first of the weekend's Asian Le Mans Series (AsLMS) races, with an extra formation lap given to allow the cars to gather a bit more tyre temperature in these very tricky conditions.
In the two-car Hypercar class, Luis Perez-Companc got the jump on Roberto Lacorte in as the No.90 Ferrari got ahead of the No.47 on lap one. Giorgio Roda in the No.22 United Autosports LMP2 led away from pole in class, and even overtook Lacorte at one stage on the opening lap.
Behind, it was absolute carnage. Most of the LMP2s made it through okay, but there were spinners everywhere in GT3. The No.34 Inter Europol P2 was one with damage early on, a damaged front end forcing Antoine Comeau into the pits.
The conditions also forced a few into the pits on the opening laps as they worsened, with a few runners attempting to start on slicks, but they simply could not get any temperature into the tyres.
Steve Jans in the No.9 GetSpeed Mercedes led away in the GT class, opening a small gap to Charles Dawson in the No.46 2Seas Merc behind. Dawson had a coming together with Rinat Salikhov in the No.87 Winward Racing Mercedes, dropping Dawson down the order.
The wind wasn't helping drivers either, Jens Reno Moller in the No.20 Algarve Pro Racing (APR) LMP2 and Dustin Blattner in the No.58 McLaren both had spins on their own in the final sector.
Meanwhile Darren Leung found himself with a self-dismantling No.33 Mercedes, after having hit the rear of Max Mortiz in the No.91 Porsche, spinning him around. The left-hand side headlight was broken, and more bodywork coming away as Leung continued. The team eventually brought him in for repairs, but there was too much, and they had to retired.
Rafa Duran in the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari jumped up the GT order to second, briefly taking the lead from Jans too, but went wide at the penultimate corner, losing the lead.
The No.45 Ponos Racing Ferrari of Yorikatsu Tsujiko also found himself facing the front way, as did Lance Bergstein in the No.63 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Temerario. The race was proving to be a battle of survival early on.
Antti Rammo in the No.30 Duqiene Engineering car was second in LMP2, but had a spin at turn 11, rejoining, but losing second to Georgios Kolovos in the No.11 Proton entry. Rammo came back onto the track right on the tail of the Greek driver ahead, both of whom were 20 seconds behind Roda in the lead.
Lacorte in the No.47 Ferrari had a spin in the final sector, the second placed overall car having some trouble as the first half an hour passed.
Jans and Duran were still nose to tail for the lead in GT3, with Stephane Tribaudini in the No.7 Petrolife Racing Mercedes catching them as the overall leader went by for the first time. Tribaudini got past Duran as the Ferrari went wide, and soon got onto Jans.
The two switched back and forth through the final sector, but Tribaudini was able to find the grip into the penulatimate corner and get around Jans for the lead in GT3, with three hours and 10 minutes remaining.
Duran got by Jans too, who fell back into the clutches of Hubert Haupt in the No.65 Ford and Salikhov in the No.87 in a battle for third place.
At the same time, Kolovos had an off, having to take to the escape road on the outside of the final corner. But by that stage he had created a gap to Rammo behind, and was able to hold on to second position.
The various incidents, and worsening conditions created a lot of debris on the track. So just before the conclusion of the first hour, race control called a Full-Course Yellow (FCY) to recover the debris.
Within the first hour, almost all of the cars in the field had some sort of incident, barring the three class leaders. It was very clear that this was more a race of attrition, rather than outright pace.
It was a fairly short FCY, and as soon as we went green, Duran found himself facing the wrong way from second in GT3. Jans, Salikhov, Haupt and Giacomo Petrobelli in the No.70 Blackthorn Aston Martin all went by the Ferrari.
Rammo was able to take advantage of the FCY restart too, getting a run on Kolovos for second place and putting his No.30 Duqiene up a place.
Ahead, Roda pit from the lead of the race, and was able to come back out in the lead of the race, but it was a suspiciously short stop from United Autosports. It turned out that Roda was actually too quick for the strategy. He missed his minimum driver time by 18 seconds, but was about to run out of fuel, so had to come in for a splash, before returning for a driver change on the next lap.
Everyone else in all three classes also pit over the course of the next couple of laps. In Hypercar and LMP2, the minimum bronze driver time was an hour, so this was perfectly timed for everyone in that class to come in.
Petrobelli in the No.70 Aston Martin had a big off with two hours and 40 minutes remaining. He lost the car on the kerb coming onto the Mistral straight, spinning off hard into the barriers and out of the race. Thankfully he got out of the car, and was okay.
A few cars took the ensuing Virtual Safety Car (VSC) to pit, including the No.47 Cetilar Racing 499P from second, making the call to go off strategy to try and get an edge on the No.90.
Most of those who pit were GT3s, who had to meet three minimum time pit stops during the race. They all took the opportunity to do so under the yellows.
So the No.90 of Ye Yifei would lead them back to green, with the No.47 in second overall, but with the entire field of LMP2s ahead of him in the queue. Nicolas Lacorte would have a lot of work to do to get through them all.
In LMP2, Adrien Closmenil took the lead in the No.37 CLX car, after they didn't take tyres in their pit stop. Then came Sting Ray Robb in the No.22 United car, ahead of Malthe Jakobsen in the No.25 APR.
In GT3, the bronze driver time elapsed as the pits opened, still under SC. Peter Dempsey emerged back out in the lead in the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari, with Max Hesse second in the No.69 WRT BMW and Kiern Jewiss in the No.46 2Seas car in third place.
Jakobsen wasted no time on the restart, getting arund the outside of Robb for second place at turn 3, and quickly got into the slipstream of Closmenil for the lead. Behind, Robb also lost out to Laurin Heinrich in the No.4 Crowdstrike by APR car.
Jakobsen took the lead from Closmenil on fresher tyres, to get into the lead and start building a gap over the rest. Heinrich was next to try and get by, but was caught out by Victor Martins in the No.11 Proton behind.
Martins and Heinrich battled for the entire length of the Mistral and more, with Lacorte in the Ferrari Hypercar involved too. The 499P was quicker in a straight line, but the LMP2s had an advantage in the corners.
He eventually got ahead and pulled a gap, but it allowed both Martins and Heinrich by Closmenil, into second and third place. That second placed car was handed a 10 second time penalty for not following race directors instructions earlier in the race.
That didn't stop Martins from pushing on though, getting into the lead ahead of Jakobsen, who soon also lost out to Heinrich in the fight for second place.
In GT, Dempsey lost out and fell to third place, with Hesse leading from Jewiss as we crossed over the halfway mark. Hesse was struck down though, by a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pits.
A while later though his pace improved, gettubg back into the lead of the race in a three car battle with Jewiss in the No.46 and Valentin Hasse-Clot in the No.68 Car Blanche Aston Martin. Jewiss was putting big pressure on Dempsey, but the Irishman was holding on very well under pressure.
Mattia Drudi quickly became a problem for both though, coming through the pack in the No.27 Heart of Racing car. He got by Hasse-Clot and made quick work of Jewiss to get into second place.
Dempsey went wide in the final sector, giving Drudi enough of a gap to get through as the leaders tried to put a lap on the No.54 Porsche. Jewiss took advantage of the Porsche, getting past Dempsey too.
The No.47 Cetilar Ferrari Hypercar was given a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with the No.43 InterEuropol LMP2, dampening the chances they had for an overall victory. They also got a further 10 seconds added to their next pit stop, for not following race directors instructions.
The LMP2 field came in soon later for another round of pit stops, with Enzo Trulli emerging back out in the lead in the No.25 APR car. He was able to open a gap over Louis Deletraz in the No.4, and Charles Milesi in the No.11.
After the final GT3 pit stops, Zachaire Robichon in the No.27 Aston Martin came out just in front of Parker Thompson in the No.69 BMW. They fought for the best part of a lap, but Robichon had nothing to stop Thompson going up the inside on the Mistral.
In LMP2, Mikkel Jensen was going well in the No.2 United Autosports car, getting up to second place with 45 minutes remaining, trying to close the five second gap to Trulli in the lead.
Behind them, in the fight four fourth place. The No.66 and No.11 Proton cars collided. Charles Milesi in the No.11 found himself getting hit in the rear corner by Alpine Hypercar teammate Ferdinand Habsburg, who misjudged his braking. Both cars spun off the track, with the No.66 having to come in for repairs.
With under 40 minutes remaining, the conditions continued to get much worse, as visibility along with it. With 36 minutes left to go, race control called out the Safety Car to neutralise the race.
With under 20 minutes remaining we were still under SC, and a few cars dove into pit lane. A number of GT3s had to do a drive-through to reset their maximum stint length timers. That included the leading No.69, which dropped all the way down to 10th place.
With 15 minutes to go we went back to green flag racing. The No.90 led away the No.47 in Hypercar, with the No.25 APR leading LMP2. The No.27 Aston Martin took over the lead in GT3, after the BMWs drive-through.
The No.27 didn't last too long in the lead, with Frederick Schandorff in the No.7 getting past into the lead with 11 minutes remaining in the race. At this point, Mercedes held every position in the top seven, except the Aston in second place.
The No.2 United Autosports car had an issue very late on, stopping right beside the pit entry with what looked to be a mechanical issue.
In the end, it was a formation finish from the two blue Ferraris in Hypercar. The No.90 won ahead of the No.47.
In LMP2, Trulli got the No.25 to the end despite some fuel concerns towards the end. The No.37 CLX was second ahead of the No.43 InterEurpol car.
In GT3, the No.7 car had to pit in the dying moments for fuel, giving the win to the No.62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx, a very quiet win for the team, in a Mercedes 1-2-3-4.
The AsLMS grid will go again at the same time tomorrow, for another four hours of racing.
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