Cetilar Racing Overcomes Penalty to Win Sepang Opener

Cetilar Racing overcame a five-second penalty to come away with victory on its return to LMP2 competition in the Asian Le Mans Series season opener at Sepang.

The No. 47 Oreca 07 Gibson shared by Roberto Lacorte, Charlie Milesi and Antonio Fuoco ran out victors by 2.730 seconds at the end of a four-hour race impacted by four safety car periods and a brief rain shower, beating the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca.

There was confusion at the end of the race as the No. 25 car of Tom Dillmann, Enzo Trulli and Michael Jensen was initially named the winner, with Dillmann even driving into the winners’ spot in parc ferme for celebratory photos.

It stemmed from the fact the AF Corse-run Cetilar car had been handed a five-second penalty for a full course yellow infringement, which the team served at its final stop when Fuoco pitted for a late splash of fuel with just under five minutes to go.

It appears that race control made an error by applying the five-second penalty to the No. 47 machine at the end of the race, but this was subsequently corrected.

Fuoco led the field at the final restart with 42 minutes to go, quickly setting about building the five-second gap over the second-placed car of CrowdStrike Racing by APR car of Malthe Jakobsen he would need to keep the victory.

But, an earlier splash than the majority of the competition cost Jakobsen a position in relation to Dillmann, with the Peugeot World Endurance Championship driver going on to finish third in the No. 4 Oreca he shared with George Kurtz and Louis Deletraz.

Nielsen Racing trio Alex Quinn, Kriton Lendoudis and Cem Bolukbasi finished fourth in their No. 64 Oreca, followed by the pole-winning No. 5 United Autosports car of Giorgio Roda, Gregoire Saucy and Mikkel Jensen in fifth.

Roda maintained his lead at the start, with the first safety car coming almost immediately as the No. 71 23Events Racing Ligier LMP3 car spun at Turn 2 and got stuck.

After the restart, Roda lost the advantage to the Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Georgios Kolovos, but the Polish team was undone by staying out on wet tires on a drying track after the rain shower mixed up strategies, falling down the order after the second safety car period, caused by an off for the R-ace GP Duqueine LMP3.

Further delays caused by an unaided spin for Nolan Siegel and then a tap from behind that turned around Nick Cassidy left the car 13th at the finish.

A stray LMP3 car was also to blame for the third safety car period as Isaac Barashi went off into the gravel in the No. 23 23Events Ligier with an hour and 15 minutes to go.

The race restarted with 52 minutes left, but the fourth safety car followed immediately after contact between Lucas Auer’s Mercedes-AMG and Alessio Rovera’s Ferrari put the latter in the wall exiting Turn 14, before they had reached the start/finish.

United Autosports’ No. 6 car was also a contender but lost time with an apparent drive time miscalculation that required the team to put Bronze-rated Phil Fayer back in the car for a single lap between Ben Hanley and Paul di Resta’s stints.

That contributed to the team finishing seventh on the road, promoted to sixth by a post-race penalty for the RD Limited Oreca that had finished just ahead on the road but failed to make it back to parc ferme under its own power.

LMP3, GT Battles Go to Wire as Inter Europol, Manthey Win Classes

The battle for the win in the LMP3 class went right down to the final lap as the No. 13 Inter Europol Ligier JS P325 Toyota hung on to win by just 0.218 seconds.

In the car he shared with Alex Bukhantsov and Chun Ting Chou, Colombian driver Henry Cubides Olarte found himself coming under pressure from a rapidly-closing Callum Voisin aboard the High Class Racing Ligier in the closing stages.

Voisin had passed Alexander Jacoby’s CLX Motorsport Ligier for second with 23 minutes left on the clock, and might have an opportunity to pass Cubides Olarte without a brief full-course yellow period in the dying moments.

The CLX car of Jacoby, Paul Lanchere and Kevin Rabin finished third, having looked in a commanding position early in the race before a five-minute pit stop to repair damage at the left-rear corner of the car set the pole-winning crew back.

Team Virage’s No. 1 Ligier came to grief on the opening lap as Indian film star Ajith Kumar sustained damage in an incident, with the car heading back to the garage and only reappearing again in the final hour on its way to a distant ninth place.

In GT, Manthey used clever pit strategy and a robust final-corner pass to steal victory with its No. 10 Porsche 911 GT3 R from under the noses of GetSpeed.

Following the three-minute penalty given to the sister No. 37 QMMF by GetSpeed entry for Auer’s role in Rovera’s spectacular demise, Fabian Schiller looked to have a clear route to victory in the No. 9 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

However, while most teams elected to stop for a splash at the very end, Manthey brought both the No. 10 car of Loek Hartog as well as the No. 92 car of Riccardo Pera not long after the final restart, allowing both drivers to circulate in clean air.

Hartog had run third behind Schiller and the No. 87 Origine Porsche 911 GT3 R of Leo Ye Hongli, but emerged ahead when Schiller pitted with under five minutes to go.

Schiller fought back, briefly grabbing the lead away heading into the final lap, but Hartog stuck close to the tail of the Mercedes before diving up the inside at the final corner as Schiller ran slightly wide and gaining the advantage.

The result was Hartog grabbed what had appeared to be an unlikely victory for himself, Klaus Bachler and Antares Au by 1.072 seconds from the Mercedes-AMG that Schiller had shared with Anthony Bartone and Shigekazu Wakisaka.

Only 1.765 seconds back at the line was the No. 56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Jonathan Adam, Giacomo Petrobelli and Kobe Pauwels.

Pera, Richard Lietz and Francois Heriau were fourth in the No. 92 Manthey Porsche, while the Origine car of Ye, Bo Yuan and Laurin Heinrich slipped to sixth behind the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Dustin Blattner, Dennis Marschall and Chris Lulham.

The second leg of the 4H Sepang begins Sunday 1 p.m. local time (12 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Sepang