APR secure victory as the weather plays a major part in the result in Sepang

Reigning LMP2 Champions Algarve Pro Racing took maximum points in the second race of the 4 Hours of Sepang weekend, with Malthe Jakobsen, Michael Jensen and Valerio Rinicella standing on the top step of the podium after the race was red flagged in the final hour of the race due a thunderstorm that swept through Sepang.

As the weather changed from dry and sunny for the first hour, to a rain shower in hour two and then a full-on storm in the final hour, the choice of tyres was critical but a tricky one to call.  Algarve Pro Racing chose slicks which turned out to be the right choice in the end.

The LMP3 victory went to the no35 Ultimate Ligier for the second time in Sepang with Stephane Lemeret, Bence Valint and Matteo Quintarelli securing a maximum 52 points from the two Malaysian races.

The no81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG was victorious in GT, with Rinat Salikhov, Gabriele Piana and Jules Gounon celebrating on the top step of the podium.

Under blue skies and the thermometer touching 35 degrees, the race got underway with Giorgio Roda leading the pack into Turn 1 in the no22 Proton Competition Oreca, with Jeremy Clarke in the no50 AF Corse Oreca snapping at his heals.

Jens Reno Moller in the no26 Bretton Racing Ligier got ahead of Stephane Lemeret in the Ultimate Ligier at the start, with GT pole sitter Massimiliano Wiser keeping the no28 AF Corse Ferrari ahead of the 25-car field with the no9 Getspeed Mercedes-AMG of Steve Jans keeping in touch.

There was trouble for the GT Race 1 winning Car Guy Ferrari when Yudai Uchida was tapped into a spin by the no96 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, with Anthony McIntosh receiving a driver through penalty as a result.

In LMP3 Stephane Lemeret was putting pressure on Jens Moller, with Alex Bukhantsov in the no7 Graff Racing Ligier joining the battle for the lead.  Lemeret eventually got ahead of his rival, with Bukhantsov also moving up, but it was all for nothing when the Graff Racing Ligier suddenly dropped back with a problem, that put the car in the garage for several laps and out of contention.

Meanwhile at the front the Roda was leading from the charging Clarke with Jonas Ried in the no11 Proton Competition following closely in third.  Roda ran wide allowing Clarke and Ried to get ahead, with the no50 AF Corse and no11 Proton Competition Oreca’s side by side on the exit of T15. However, Ried ran wide allowing Clarke to take the lead.

Yudai Uchida’s race came to an abrupt end when the Car Guy Ferrari missed the braking point at T15 and ran across the track into the no42 Prime Speed Sport Lamborghini, causing extensive damage to the Ferrari.

A Full Course Yellow period was declared to clear the debris left at T15.  At the restart Jeremy Clarke opened up a 5 second gap to Giorgio Roda, with Aliaksandr Malykhin in the no91 Pure Rxcing Oreca in third.  Lemeret had opened up a 9 second lead to Moller in LMP3 and Wiser was 8 seconds ahead of Jans in GT.

After one hour of racing rain was reported on parts of the track and the race director called for a Wet Track.  However, after 10 minutes the teams were told they could switch off their rain lights as the threat of a down pour receded.

Jeremy Clarke had built up a 16 second lead over Giorgio Roda, with the no83 AF Corse now third with Alessio Rovera at the wheel and Job Van Uitert in the DKR Engineering Oreca in fourth and catching the third placed car. Van Uitert took the place but lost it again when he had to serve a drive through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

Harry King was now at the wheel of the no91 Pure Rxcing Oreca and was soon on the move up the order, passing Rovera for 2nd at T15.  After another FCY period to clear debris, King took the lead as Clarke headed to the pits to hand over to Patrick Byrne.  Byrne then had a spin, which dropped the no50 Proton Competition Oreca down the order.

Bence Valint was now at the wheel of the no35 Ultimate Ligier and had built up a massive lead of 84 seconds in LMP3 and the GT lead had also extended with Massimiliano Wiser 22 seconds ahead of the Getspeed Mercedes-AMG, with Rinat Salikhov in the no81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG 13 seconds behind Anthony Bartone in third.

There was a collision between the no19 Blackthorn Aston Martin and the no9 Getspeed Mercedes-AMG, with Getspeed having to serve an extra 10 seconds on the next pitstop.

A Virtual Safety Car was deployed to clear more debris around the track.  With dark clouds gathering some of the cars elected to swap to wets.  The VSC became a full Safety Car and after 22 minutes racing resumed with rain falling around the circuit.

The GT field was treading cautiously with Steve Jans in the no9 Getspeed getting ahead of the leading no28 AF Corse Ferrari.

Jonas Ried’s troubles were not over as there was a collision with the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, which broke the rear suspension, putting the no11 Oreca in the garage for a couple of laps.  Dustin Blattner received a driver through penalty for causing the collision.

Louis Deletraz in the no91 Pure Rxcing Oreca was leading with the no83 AF Corse of Matthieu Vaxiviere chasing hard, with Laurents Horr joining the lead battle in the no3 DKR Engineering.  All three cars were on wets tyres.  However, it soon became apparent that the track was not wet enough for wet tyres, with the slick shod no25 Algarve Pro Racing of Malthe Jakobsen moving up the field passing Deletraz and Vaxiviere and finally Horr to take the lead.  This forced the cars on wets to pit for slicks on the next lap.

A final FCY to clear debris was soon followed by torrential rain, thunder and lightning. After several laps behind the Safety Car the race was red flagged. The race was declared after 20 minutes of the cars sitting on the grid because the storm had knocked out several of the CCTV cameras for race control and also the timing.

Malthe Jakobsen, Michael Jensen and Valerio Rinicella took to the top step of the podium, with race 1 winners Fred Poordad, Tristan Vautier and James Allen finishing second in the no30 RD Limited Oreca and the no20 Algarve Pro Racing trio of Kriton Lentoudis, Ollie Caldwell and Alex Quinn taking the third step of the LMP2 podium.

RD Limited leave Sepang as the championship leaders on 43 points with the no25 Algarve Pro Racing on 37 points.

Stephane Lemeret, Matteo Quintarelli and Bence Valint finished a lap ahead of the rest of the LMP3 field and leave Sepang on 52 points at the head of the LMP3 championship standings.  The no49 High Class Racing duo of Mark Patterson and Anders Fjordbach finished second once again and are second in the championship standings on 36 points. The no15 RLR MSport trio of Nick Adcock, Ian Aguilera and James Dayson took the final podium position.

The no81 Winward Racing trio of Jules Gounon, Rinat Salikhov and Gabriele Piana leave Sepang at the head of the GT standings on 35 points.  The no10 Manthey Porsche 911 of Antares Au, Klaus Bachler and Joel Sturm finished second, with the pole sitting no28 AF Corse Ferrari in third, with Massimiliano Wiser, Manuel Franco and David Rigon heading to Dubai second in the GT standings on 28 points.

Results are HERE