Quinn Tops First Practice at Sepang for Nielsen

Nielsen Racing driver Alex Quinn set the fastest time in the opening official practice session of the new Asian Le Mans Series season at Sepang on Friday.

Quinn, who was also fastest in Thursday testing at the Malaysian circuit, set a best time of 1:53.362 early on in the 90-minute session aboard the No. 64 Oreca 07 Gibson he shares with Cem Bolukbasi and Kriton Lendoudis.

That was enough for the newly-minted Peugeot Hypercar development driver to top the timesheets by a commanding 1.829 seconds from the No. 3 DKR Engineering Oreca of Mathias Beche.

Ex-Peugeot driver Mikkel Jensen was third-fastest in the No. 5 United Autosports car, ahead of Lorenzo Fluxa in the best of the Proton Orecas, the No. 88 car.

Alpine WEC driver Charles Milesi completed the top five in the No. 47 Cetilar Racing car, followed by Jonas Ried in the second of the Proton LMP2 entries.

Inter Europol Competition’s No. 16 Oreca did not complete a representative time, doing only two in and out laps in the hands of Georgios Kolovos.

Matteo Quintarelli led the LMP3 division for 23Events Racing aboard the No. 23 Ligier JS P325-Toyota with an early benchmark of 2:03.409, 0.295 seconds clear of Luciano Murano in the No. 29 Forestier Racing by VPS Ligier.

23Events made it two cars in the top three with Matus Ryba going third-fastest in the No. 71 car.

In the GT ranks, Kobe Pauwels set the top time of 2:07.395 driving the No. 56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Chris Lulham was second-fastest in the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, just 0.171 seconds slower than Pauwels, while the top three in class was completed by Porsche works driver Laurin Heinrich in the No. 87 Origine Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Second practice at Sepang is slated for 4 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).